Literacy is Freedom: The Right to Read Social Impact Campaign accelerated the national movement to solve the US literacy crisis through grassroots marketing and distribution of The Right to Read, an award-winning documentary film directed by Jenny Mackenzie and executive produced by LeVar Burton.
The campaign co-designed and produced community-specific events and screenings to increase public awareness on the issue, equip audiences with new tools and resources to advocate for the Science of Reading in classrooms, and position the US literacy crisis as one of the most urgent and solvable Civil Rights issues of our time. It leveraged both social and traditional media channels to reach audiences of parents, teachers, and families with information on the issue and how to watch the film in their communities, from the library, and on their preferred streaming platforms.
Our primary goals were:
Our plan of action focused on screening the film with the widest possible audience of key stakeholders in districts and states that had yet to adopt the Science of Reading. We bootstrapped our audience network by partnering with leading literacy, reading, and Civil Rights organizations, including nationwide chapters of Decoding Dyslexia, the International Dyslexia Association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Association of Black School Educators, and The Reading League on free screenings and events across the US. Accompanied with audience-specific discussion guides, the film was used as an effective tool for parent engagement, teacher professional development, and policy discussion.
Other notable screening and event partners included the Council of the Great City Schools—a national coalition of the 78 largest public school districts in the US, the Council of Chief State School Officers—the only nonpartisan membership group of public education leaders in the US, New York City Schools and Los Angeles Unified School District—the nation’s two largest public school districts. These screenings featured NYC Schools Chancellor David C. Banks, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho as key speakers and panel participants.
Uniquely, we were able to bring the film’s Executive Producer, LeVar Burton to major in–person campaign activities and press opportunities in New York City, Washington DC, Little Rock, Los Angeles, which coincided with the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. LeVar’s wide, intergenerational appeal with audiences of teachers, librarians, parents, and elected officials—and specifically Black audiences, drew substantial crowds, amplified the film’s call to action, and raised the profile of the literacy crisis at both local and national levels.
In response to feedback from our Spanish-speaking and multilingual audiences, we prioritized the Spanish subtitling of the film and partnered with Loyola Marymount University’s Center for Equity for English Learners on a special release of “Guillermina’s Story”—new, unseen footage of a Spanish-speaking family on our film website and accompanying discussion guide that focused specifically on literacy for multilingual families.
At the onset of the campaign, the film was only available through educational distribution, which meant audiences could only access the film in their local area through in-person screenings. Though we shared as much up-to-date information on upcoming screenings through our film website and newsletter, it was a challenge to meet the demand for the film in smaller cities and communities for much of the campaign’s early phases. However, we were able to secure digital distribution and streaming options in June 2024—nearly 14 months after the campaign. The film can be accessed for free through most public libraries and is anticipated to be available for free on advertising video on demand platforms before the end of 2024.
Despite the challenging distribution landscape for documentary features, the campaign successfully delivered the film to a national audience of over 300,000 people through grassroots marketing and non-commercial distribution. We achieved our goal of raising the profile of the film’s message and call to action, bringing awareness of the US literacy crisis and the Science of Reading into mainstream media and applying real pressure on key decision makers in districts and states on effective literacy reform.
NYC Schools Chancellor David C. Banks credited The Right to Read as a catalyst in the district's decision to implement the Science of Reading, sharing: “...when I saw the documentary, The Right to Read…I got to the ultimate ‘aha,’ this is where the issue is.”
