Sheila Nevins & Trish Adlesic On the Ongoing Battle for Our Bookshelves in ‘The ABCs of Book Banning’

If you think back to when you were a kid at school, you may not have have been told that you weren’t allowed to read something. I remember being told that certain things were “too mature” for me, but, for the most part, memories of the school library or the occasional book fair were met with excitement and eagerness. In the last few years, the news has been bombarded with stories of books being taken off the shelves in school libraries in some states like Florida, Texas, Missouri, and Utah. In the Oscar-nominated documentary short, The ABCs of Book Banning, director and producer Sheila Nevins and producer Trish Adlesic knew that they wanted to shift their focus of this story on the young people who simply want to learn, read, and grow.

Many audiences might be surprised that there are actually three levels of banning. We constantly see empty bookshelves or hear how items were removed, but Nevins and Adlesic illuminate how a book can be categorized as restricted, challenged, or banned. Rather than interview those who want to remove the books, ABCs focuses on kids who are confused as to why books are being removed in the first place. “The [other side] won. The books are being taken away,” Nevins says when I ask about whether any kids were eager or reluctant to be interviewed about this topic.

Bookended by a speech by 100 year-old Grace Lin given at a Martin County School Board meeting in early 2023, ABCs focuses on an immediate debate. It is a film with passion on both sides, and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down any time soon. Nevins wants us to focus on those who are most affected, and it propelled her, after 31 Emmy Award wins, to get behind the camera.

The ABCs of Book Banning is streaming on Paramount+.