Sundance 2025: Bringing “The Librarians” to the big screen with Premiere Pro and After Effects

Image Source: Sundance Institute, Photo by Amy Bench.

“The Librarians” is a documentary that follows an unprecedented wave of book banning in Texas, Florida and beyond, along with the librarians who join forces to fight against this censorship.

Director Kim A. Snyder (“Us Kids”) immerses the audience in this escalating conflict, from capturing heated community meetings to shining a light on the harassment, threats and even laws aimed at criminalizing the work of the librarians. The bravery of the librarians is at the heart of the film, exploring their efforts and determination to protect children’s rights to access books that educate and empower.

Following the Sundance premiere, we sat down with one of the editors, Austin Reedy, to chat about how he used Premiere Pro and After Effects to help bring Synder’s vision to life and manage the volume of archival footage. After Effects was particularly helpful in creating temporary effects and streamlining the workflow with the VFX team, especially since the documentary leverages lots of graphic elements throughout to tell this unique story.

Read on for an inside look at editing the “The Librarians.”

How did you first get involved with this project?

I spoke to Kim Snyder and Janique Robillard somewhat early on in the project about some of the big picture visual ideas Kim had in mind, but at the time, I was unfortunately busy on another film. We played email tag for a while and, after I finished editing my last project, I reached out hoping they still had some things they’d want me to help with, and it worked out well. They were exploring some new visual ideas so the timing was perfect.

Where were you when you found out you got into Sundance? How did you feel?

I was on a Zoom call, like most of the world these days! It felt fantastic, I’ve been a film editor for over a decade and this is near the top of all our bucket lists. I had one film play at the festival before, but it was during the all virtual year, so I was really excited to go in person.

How do you begin a project/set up your workspace?

Every project is different based on the type of film and the schedule, but in a perfect world I like to just spend a few weeks watching things and absorbing what I can without thinking too much about how it will all fit together. I believe that institutional knowledge is an important part of making films, and documentaries in particular benefit from having people on the team who just know what you have to work with. I also like to spend a lot of time pulling together music ideas and references, since it's such a big part of filmmaking. In particular with period pieces, I enjoy getting immersed in the music of that time period.

Tell us about a favorite scene or moment from this project and why it stands out to you.

There is a scene when Martha Hickson, the librarian from New Jersey, goes to a school board meeting in her town. There is a local man who screams obscenities at her, but there are also high school students who speak in her defense. It feels incredibly brave for her to show up at all. It encapsulates the heart of this story for me, which is: “what do ordinary people do when they’re caught in the middle of something they don’t want to be caught up in, and how do they respond?” As the film shows, there’s something incredible about how these folks have responded to the situation they found themselves in, and their willingness to defend these things they care so much about is inspiring to me.

What were some specific post-production challenges you faced that were unique to your project? How did you go about solving them?

I think the toughest thing for us, and many projects at this point, is that we are often all or partially remote. It's easier with the tech available, but in documentary film, we’re often still using the old school method of duplicating hard drives and tasking our brave Assistant Editors with helping us manage the assets. For the window of time I was on the film, two of the three editors were remote, so we just shuffled media and hard drives back and forth and did our best.

What Adobe tools did you use on this project and why did you originally choose them?

The film was edited in Premiere Pro and I additionally did some work in After Effects. I’ve been a VFX editor on several projects and have found the better I can create a temp effect or style that captures what the director wants, the more easily we can incorporate that idea into the edit early on and communicate it to VFX artists later. I started using After Effects regularly about 3 years ago, and it’s been part of my workflow ever since.

I’ve also used Frame.io several times, both as a way to share dailies with folks when we’re spread out, as well as a way to get notes quickly on screeners and incorporate them into the edit process.

If you could share one tip about Premiere Pro, what would it be?

My advice for Premiere is the same for all the NLE’s I’ve worked with, and it's to build your project in a clean and organized way! It can be a hard sell when you’re in a hurry but I’ve never had a turnover complaining that a project was well organized.

Who is your creative inspiration and why?

I like to find inspiration from the people I work with as often as I can. Films are difficult to make, and it's great to have a good team of people all trying their best to get it done. It's humbling but important to learn how much you can learn on each project, so I do my best to keep my ears open.

What’s something tough you’ve had to face in your career, and how did you overcome it? What advice do you have for aspiring filmmakers or content creators?

I feel pretty fortunate to have not had anything particularly hard to face in my career. I have worked my share of late nights into early mornings and every project has its own set of challenges and stresses. My advice would be above all to be patient and kind — making films is really hard and everyone has a bad day (or many more than one). These projects are ultimately made collaboratively, and being good to the people all trying to meet the same goal is often the best thing you can do.