Library Stories: Books on the Backroads film screening

You are invited to a free screening of Library Stories: Books on the Backroads, an hour-long documentary film about New Mexico’s rural libraries by Ben Daitz and Mary Lance. A joint presentation by the Magdalena Library and kind of a small array, 106 N Main, where the film will be shown, Saturday, May 20, at 2 PM.

According to Albert Einstein, “The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.”

Folks who live in Magdalena, Datil, Glenwood, and the four other small towns and Pueblos in rural New Mexico featured in this film, know exactly where their libraries are, and that they are essential to the educational and social fabric of their communities. Not just because of the books, DVDs, and internet connections they share–it’s also because rural libraries have stories to tell.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/763849930

Ben Daitz is a physician, writer, and documentary filmmaker. Recent documentaries include: The Sun Never Sets, about Española, New Mexico’s Rio Grande Sun, one of the best small-town newspapers in the country; The Medicine in Marijuana, a scientific look at the plant, co-produced with Ned Judge, and aired on NM PBS; and the latest, Project Echo: A Democracy of Knowledge, about an extraordinary world health project, aired on NM PBS and PBS affiliates around the country.

Mary Lance has over forty years’ experience in documentary production and archival research. Her independent documentaries include Crowville (2019), Blue Alchemy: Stories of Indigo (2011), Agnes Martin: With My Back to The World (2002), Diego Rivera: I Paint What I See (1989), and Artists at Work: A Film on The New Deal Art Projects (1981). Her work been distributed widely in the USA and abroad at institutions including Film Forum, Tate Modern, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.