Change The Subject: A Documentary about labels, libraries, and activism

Hyannis Public Library

The Hyannis Film Festival hopes you’ll join us for this engaging and informative look at how language and terminology have personal ramifications for many.

Have you wondered how language and terminology affects our debate about immigration? Here’s an account of how a group of Dartmouth College students changed our national rhetoric.

The 2019 documentary film Change the Subject looks at how a library cataloging term became a flash point in the immigration debate on Capitol Hill. The movie follows a group of college students who from their first days at Dartmouth College were committed to advancing and promoting the rights and dignity of undocumented peoples. In partnership with staff at Dartmouth, these students, who are now alumni, produced a film to capture their singular effort at confronting an instance of anti-immigrant sentiment in their library catalog. Their advocacy took them all the way to the halls of Congress, showing how an example of campus activism entered the national spotlight.

This Thursday, September 14 at 5 pm, Hyannis Public Library will show this mind-opening documentary, free to the public. Director Sawyer Broadley will attend, with a Q&A after the 54-minute film.