Sarah Jessica Parker Stands Up For School Librarians In a Sundance Breakout Hit With Texas Ties

This year’s 41st Sundance Film Festival turned out to be a quieter festival without as much star power as prior years. Whether it is because of the Los Angeles fires or the changing landscape of the entertainment industry, there has been a paucity of bidding wars by entertainment companies for independent films. Even movies with A-list stars such Jennifer Lopez (Kiss of the Spider Woman), Olivia Colman, (Jimba) and Benedict Cumberbatch (The Thing With Feathers) failed to land a deal.

The festival’s lack of pizzazz and acquisitions does not diminish the outstanding number of movies, especially documentaries. Here are three outstanding documentaries with ties to Texas that are seeking distribution:

Speak

Speak follows five high school oratory students over the course of a year as they prepare for the National Speech and Debate Association Championships in the category of Original Oratory, the Super Bowl of public speaking. The many prominent Americans who participated in this competition in their high school days include Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Stephen Colbert, Bruce Springsteen and Oprah Winfrey.

Two of the five students the documentary follows are from Texas. Noor Garoui lives near Lubbock with her mother and younger brother who is handicapped and suffers from serious health issues. Noor spends much of her time caring for her brother and her pet pig. She speaks about the need to advocate for people with disabilities. Noah Detiveaux from El Paso has Asperger’s Syndrome and his mother committed suicide several years earlier. He plans to advocate for assisted suicide. Although the documentary does not break new ground, its subjects are so charismatic and have such interesting background stories that Speak make for an inspirational and joyous film.

Selena y Los Dinos

Selena y Los Dinos, narrated by Selena’s father Abraham Quintanilla, provides an intimate portrait of the late Tejano singer with new archival footage and interviews with her band, family and husband. Selena lived in Lake Jackson as a young child before being raised in Corpus Christ where she initially performed with her family before becoming a music superstar.

Although she was tragically murdered 30 years ago at age 23, her voice, presence and sheer star power are just as resonant today. No doubt the audience knew how the documentary would end, but one could still hear sniffles throughout the Sundance crowd as the documentary reached the point of her demise.

The filmmakers evoked this audience response to a known outcome by celebrating Selena’s life rather than her horrific murder. This film received rave reviews for depicting the legacy that Selena left on Latin music and culture.

The Librarians

The Librarians follows a group of school librarians, primarily in Texas and Florida, as they are faced with an organized wave of book bans. In Texas, parent groups and state representative Matt Krause sent public schools a list of 850 books to be banned. The books under attack include titles dealing with gender and sexuality. The librarians shared details of being targeted, threatened and even fired for resisting or probing on reasons for the book bans.

The film’s executive producer Sarah Jessica Parker appeared at the Sundance premiere, which unlike a typical Sundance movie, needed two bomb squad dogs and extra security because of threats. “I can’t imagine our country without the opportunity to know the world, to be better people, to learn about people different than ourselves,” Parker says.  

The documentary argues that libraries have been turned into battlegrounds by politicians, and that librarians are the heroes defending democracy. Thus film takes viewers inside emotionally charged board meetings as parents, students and politicians debate over what kids should be allowed to read.

This powerful, disquieting documentary received standing ovations at each of its showings and has already emerged as one of the standout films of the 2025 Sundance.

Jane Howze is managing director of The Alexander Group, a national executive search firm, headquartered in Houston. She has reported on the Sundance Film Festival for 16 years and is recovering the 41st addition of this granddaddy of film festivals for PaperCity  on site in Park City, Utah.