Film Screening & Talkback: The ABCs of Book Banning
Join BPL Presents for a screening of The ABCs of Book Banning, followed by a talkback.
In recent years, more than 2,500 books have been removed from school districts around the US, labeled as banned, restricted, or challenged, and made unavailable to millions of students. By no accident, the themes targeted are the usual scapegoats of the American Right—LGBTQ+ issues, Black History, and women’s empowerment—impeding the power of future generations to develop their own thoughts and opinions on critical social issues. By weaving together a lyrical montage of young readers and authors, The ABCs of Book Banning reveals the voices of the impacted parties, and inspires hope for the future through the profound insights of inquisitive youthful minds.
Participants
Amy Mikel is the Director of Customer Experience at Brooklyn Public Library, responsible for implementing exceptional library services in the areas of reference, circulation and collections across 61 branch locations. She oversees the Library’s circulating print, media, eBook and database collections as well as the processes and policies which govern patron account management and materials circulation. Amy is part of the team named Library Journal’s 2023 “Librarians of the Year” for their work on the Books Unbanned anti-censorship campaign.
Trish Adlesic is an Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary producer/director. Trish teamed with Josh Fox and HBO to produce Gasland and Gasland II, which received an Academy Award nomination and won an Emmy. These seminal documentaries expose the environmental devastation and public safety hazards of “fracking." Gasland premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010 and Gasland Part II premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013 to much acclaim. Trish and Josh Fox led a diverse group of stakeholders (elected officials, NGOs, government institutions, and concerned citizens) to use the film to advocate for and then pass the first ban on fracking in America, in Trish’s hometown of Pittsburgh. Trish co-directed with Geeta Gandbhir and co-produced I Am Evidence along with Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU) about the alarming number of untested sexual assault kits in America. It premiered on HBO in April of 2018. I Am Evidence was awarded the prestigious duPont Columbia prize and was a Peabody finalist. The film was awarded a Primetime Emmy Honors award and also received the Silver Gavel award for excellence in journalism from the American Bar Association. I Am Evidence received two Emmy nominations, and won the Emmy Award for best documentary. The wide distribution and screening of I Am Evidence also inspired an unprecedented examination of the experience of sexual assault survivors in the justice system and the testing of decades-long backlogged rape kits. I Am Evidence’s education and social action campaign led to 48 pieces of legislation across the United States.
Her most recent film, A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting, creates a portrait of a community rebuilding and healing in the aftermath of a violent attack. The film sheds light on the collective trauma suffered by a tight-knit group and brings into sharp focus the hate-based rhetoric that surrounds many of the mass shootings today, threatening the fabric of our society. A Tree of Life premiered on HBO in the fall of 2022. The team is set to launch a nationwide education campaign, which aims to spark community and interfaith discourse, and to stop the rise of identity based discrimination and violence in our public squares and online communities. Trish has over 20 years of experience working in narrative filmmaking with such notable directors as Gus Van Sant, Finding Forrester, James L. Brooks, As Good as It Gets, Michael Mann, The Insider, Jim Sheridan, In America, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, and Sidney Lumet, Night Falls on Manhattan. She worked on the hit TV show Law & Order: SVU for 14 seasons.
Justin Richardson, MD, is the coauthor, with Peter Parnell, of the award-winning picture book And Tango Makes Three. Dr. Richardson is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia and Cornell and the coauthor of Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid They’d Ask). Dr. Richardson and his advice have been featured in The New York Times and The Washington Post, on the Today show and NPR’s Morning Edition, and in numerous magazines. Dr. Richardson lectures to parents and teachers on parenting and the sexual development of children.
Lee Rowland has extensive experience as an advocate, litigator, lobbyist, and public speaker fighting for our right to express ourselves. She has been a civil liberties lawyer for almost two decades, working for the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Nevada, the ACLU of New York, and the Brennan Center for Justice. She has served as lead counsel in federal First Amendment cases involving public employee speech rights, the First Amendment rights of community advocates, government regulation of reading materials and the internet, and state secrecy surrounding the lethal injection process. Lee has also taught courses on free expression at New York University School of Law and the Hunter College Human Rights Program. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and Harvard Law School, and a bocce fanatic.
Nazenet Habtezghi is a journalist-turned-filmmaker who crafts compelling and thought provoking nonfiction stories. In 2023, she made her directorial debut with Birthing A Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney (MTV Documentary Films), a short film that explores how Black women were able to maintain control over their bodies and resist forced reproduction during slavery. She also co-directed The ABCs of Book Banning (MTV Documentary Films) with documentary legend Sheila Nevins. The film which was nominated for a 2023 Critics Choice Documentary Award (best short documentary category), is a love letter to reading and education that begs us to consider what gets lost as books continue to be banned across the country. She recently partnered with Imara Jones, journalist and founder of TransLash Media, to direct and produce American Problems, Trans Solutions, (WNET, Chasing The Dream). The docuseries tells the story of three Black trans leaders on the frontlines of change. As a television producer, Nazenet has contributed to numerous highly acclaimed documentaries for HBO, PBS and Netflix. Prior to working in documentary film, she was an editor at Essence Magazine, the premier magazine for African-American women, where she covered a range of topics, from entertainment to social issues. She also launched the publication’s video platform with an interactive web series and executive produced a subsequent TV One special. Based in Brooklyn, she received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma.
Join BPL Presents for a screening of The ABCs of Book Banning, followed by a talkback.
In recent years, more than 2,500 books have been removed from school districts around the US, labeled as banned, restricted, or challenged, and made unavailable to millions of students. By no accident, the themes targeted are the usual scapegoats of the American Right—LGBTQ+ issues, Black History, and women’s empowerment—impeding the power of future generations to develop their own thoughts and opinions on critical social issues. By weaving together a lyrical montage of young readers and authors, The ABCs of Book Banning reveals the voices of the impacted parties, and inspires hope for the future through the profound insights of inquisitive youthful minds.
Participants
Amy Mikel is the Director of Customer Experience at Brooklyn Public Library, responsible for implementing exceptional library services in the areas of reference, circulation and collections across 61 branch locations. She oversees the Library’s circulating print, media, eBook and database collections as well as the processes and policies which govern patron account management and materials circulation. Amy is part of the team named Library Journal’s 2023 “Librarians of the Year” for their work on the Books Unbanned anti-censorship campaign.
Trish Adlesic is an Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary producer/director. Trish teamed with Josh Fox and HBO to produce Gasland and Gasland II, which received an Academy Award nomination and won an Emmy. These seminal documentaries expose the environmental devastation and public safety hazards of “fracking." Gasland premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010 and Gasland Part II premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013 to much acclaim. Trish and Josh Fox led a diverse group of stakeholders (elected officials, NGOs, government institutions, and concerned citizens) to use the film to advocate for and then pass the first ban on fracking in America, in Trish’s hometown of Pittsburgh. Trish co-directed with Geeta Gandbhir and co-produced I Am Evidence along with Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU) about the alarming number of untested sexual assault kits in America. It premiered on HBO in April of 2018. I Am Evidence was awarded the prestigious duPont Columbia prize and was a Peabody finalist. The film was awarded a Primetime Emmy Honors award and also received the Silver Gavel award for excellence in journalism from the American Bar Association. I Am Evidence received two Emmy nominations, and won the Emmy Award for best documentary. The wide distribution and screening of I Am Evidence also inspired an unprecedented examination of the experience of sexual assault survivors in the justice system and the testing of decades-long backlogged rape kits. I Am Evidence’s education and social action campaign led to 48 pieces of legislation across the United States.
Her most recent film, A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting, creates a portrait of a community rebuilding and healing in the aftermath of a violent attack. The film sheds light on the collective trauma suffered by a tight-knit group and brings into sharp focus the hate-based rhetoric that surrounds many of the mass shootings today, threatening the fabric of our society. A Tree of Life premiered on HBO in the fall of 2022. The team is set to launch a nationwide education campaign, which aims to spark community and interfaith discourse, and to stop the rise of identity based discrimination and violence in our public squares and online communities. Trish has over 20 years of experience working in narrative filmmaking with such notable directors as Gus Van Sant, Finding Forrester, James L. Brooks, As Good as It Gets, Michael Mann, The Insider, Jim Sheridan, In America, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, and Sidney Lumet, Night Falls on Manhattan. She worked on the hit TV show Law & Order: SVU for 14 seasons.
Justin Richardson, MD, is the coauthor, with Peter Parnell, of the award-winning picture book And Tango Makes Three. Dr. Richardson is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia and Cornell and the coauthor of Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid They’d Ask). Dr. Richardson and his advice have been featured in The New York Times and The Washington Post, on the Today show and NPR’s Morning Edition, and in numerous magazines. Dr. Richardson lectures to parents and teachers on parenting and the sexual development of children.
Lee Rowland has extensive experience as an advocate, litigator, lobbyist, and public speaker fighting for our right to express ourselves. She has been a civil liberties lawyer for almost two decades, working for the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Nevada, the ACLU of New York, and the Brennan Center for Justice. She has served as lead counsel in federal First Amendment cases involving public employee speech rights, the First Amendment rights of community advocates, government regulation of reading materials and the internet, and state secrecy surrounding the lethal injection process. Lee has also taught courses on free expression at New York University School of Law and the Hunter College Human Rights Program. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and Harvard Law School, and a bocce fanatic.
Nazenet Habtezghi is a journalist-turned-filmmaker who crafts compelling and thought provoking nonfiction stories. In 2023, she made her directorial debut with Birthing A Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney (MTV Documentary Films), a short film that explores how Black women were able to maintain control over their bodies and resist forced reproduction during slavery. She also co-directed The ABCs of Book Banning (MTV Documentary Films) with documentary legend Sheila Nevins. The film which was nominated for a 2023 Critics Choice Documentary Award (best short documentary category), is a love letter to reading and education that begs us to consider what gets lost as books continue to be banned across the country. She recently partnered with Imara Jones, journalist and founder of TransLash Media, to direct and produce American Problems, Trans Solutions, (WNET, Chasing The Dream). The docuseries tells the story of three Black trans leaders on the frontlines of change. As a television producer, Nazenet has contributed to numerous highly acclaimed documentaries for HBO, PBS and Netflix. Prior to working in documentary film, she was an editor at Essence Magazine, the premier magazine for African-American women, where she covered a range of topics, from entertainment to social issues. She also launched the publication’s video platform with an interactive web series and executive produced a subsequent TV One special. Based in Brooklyn, she received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma.
Brooklyn Public Library - Central Library, Dweck Center MM/DD/YYYY 60