Film and video productions can vividly depict the impact of censorship on individuals and society. A First Amendment film festival for Banned Books Week will be hosted in the Meeting Room of the Main Library.
Join us for film screenings based on book titles that have been censored.
Email bmartin@gallupnm.gov or call 505-863-1291 for more information.
Film Screenings:
Footloose (2011)
Monday, September 23rd
at 5:30 p.m.
City teenager Ren MacCormack moves to a small town where rock music and dancing have been banned, and his rebellious spirit shakes up the populace.
- Rating: PG-13
- Duration: 1 hr. 53 mins.
- Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music
View trailer HERE
Color Purple (1985)
Tuesday, September 24th
at 5:30 p.m.
A black Southern woman struggles to find her identity after suffering abuse from her father and others over four decades.
- Rating: PG-13
- Duration: 2 hrs. 34 mins.
- Genre: Drama
View trailer HERE
Bless Me Ultima (2012)
Wednesday, September 25th
at 5:30 p.m.
A drama set in New Mexico during WWII centered on the relationship between a young man and an elderly medicine woman who helps him contend with the battle between good and evil that rages in his village.
- Rating: PG-13
- Duration: 1 hr. 46 mins.
- Genre: Biography, Drama, History
View trailer HERE
Precious (2009)
Thursday, September 26th
at 5:30 p.m.
In New York City’s Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.
- Rating: R
- Duration: 1 hr. 50 mins.
- Genre: Drama
View trailer HERE
Importance of celebrating Banned Books Week:
Each year, the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) records hundreds of attempts by individuals and groups to have books removed from libraries shelves and from classrooms. The OIF tracked 347 challenges to library, school and university materials and services. Overall, 483 books were challenged or banned in 2018.
A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials.
Banned Books Week (September 22-28, 2019) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. It brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
Email bmartin@gallupnm.gov or call 505-863-1291 for more information.