To Be Destroyed Preview
To Be Destroyed follows author Dave Eggers as he meets with students and teachers in the Rapid City, SD school district where his novel, “The Circle,” was pulled from shelves along with works by Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), Stephen Chbosky (Perks of Being a Wallflower), Bernardine Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other) and Imbolo Mbue (How Beautiful We Were). Centered on what young adults should or shouldn’t be exposed to, the book-banning movement targeted literature written about or by members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color. Through intense footage of school board showdowns, community activism, and poignant interviews, the film unveils power struggles and resistance in the face of censorship. As Eggers navigates this landscape, we learn how these ideas resonate far beyond the borders of Rapid City, quietly permeating our entire nation in both troubling and inspiring ways.
PREVIEW CLIP HIGHLIGHTS:
Author Dave Eggers on why book banning is futile: “High schoolers, especially seniors in high schools, they’re about to be totally independent people. They’re treated as adults in the eyes of the law and they can certainly handle a few passages and a few books that have a little bit of a sexual content to them or adult content.”
Central High School Student Shaun Hoeft on the value of personal choice over book censorship: “If you give us the books, and you tell us, ‘You don’t need to go through this if you don’t want to.’ Then, one, you don’t have to take it away. It’s there for whoever wants it.” Adding: “It can expand you as a person to experience things outside of your comfort zone but we need to learn and figure it out for ourselves.”
Author Dave Eggers discusses the importance of the accessibility of all books to everyone including the Holy Bible: “There’s a book that shows up on a lot of banned books and challenged books lists, right now, number six on the list.” Adding: “I would defend to the ends of the earth that this book has to be accessible…there’s more than a few things you could learn from this book and people have learned and it’s important to a billion people around the world.”
- Dave Eggers, Author of “The Circle”
- Arthur Bradford, Director
- Stephen Chbosky, Author of “Perks of Being a Wallflower”
- Jill Westbrook, Central High School Teacher
- Sean Bradley, Central High School Teacher
- Shaun Hoeft, Former Central High School Student
- Shaye Beardsley, Former Central High School Student
Credits
- Directed by: Arthur Bradford
- Produced by: Jennifer Ollman
- Executive Producers: Rashida Jones, Rebecca Kutler, Amanda Spain, Loren Hammonds, Dave O’Connor, Elizabeth Waller, Trevor Noah, Sanaz Yamin, Michael Sugar, Ashley Zalta, David Hillman, Norman Aladjem, Derek Van Pelt
- ACE Producer: Katie Taber
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