It was in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when filmmaking couple Dawn Logsdon and Lucie Faulknor really came to appreciate libraries. After their New Orleans home was flooded in the storm, they found themselves outside a library in Baton Rogue, where lines stretched around the block to submit disaster relief applications online.

"It was the only place to go to fill out information," Logsdon said. "The city and state government all failed miserably where the library was able to help."

Now they're aiming to make a first-of-its-kind documentary called "Free for All," exploring why Americans are using public libraries in record numbers and what would happen to democracy if libraries became extinct.

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"Libraries are in a real crisis in terms of funding all around the country," Logsdon said. "If more attention isn't drawn to it, they aren't going to be able to keep up."

The pair are focusing on the Main Library in San Francisco, where they now live. Though many places across the country are struggling to fund their libraries, Logsdon said they chose San Francisco because of its strong financial investment in the library.

"We want to focus on what a library can do, not what it can't do," she said. "San Francisco turns out to be perfect for that."

Personal stories

On Thursday, the documentary filmmakers and their crew set up cameras and a green screen on the ground floor of the Main Library. While their film will feature a few characters including participants of an adult literacy program, reference and children's librarians, and homeless patrons, the task this week was to collect personal stories about the importance of libraries.

So far they've gotten everything from a story told by a library official who had a problem stealing books as a young girl to patrons who knew nothing about what being gay meant until they hesitantly tracked down a book about it at the library.

For Albertina Zarazúa Padilla of San Leandro, the library was "a matter of survival" when growing up in Carmel Valley, where English was not her first language.

"I had to learn quickly to survive in school," said Padilla, 57. "The library was the opportunity to be at the same level as everyone else; it was the great equalizer."

Eileen Asher of Petaluma said her library in Michigan helped her do life-changing research while she was growing up. After learning as a teenager that a family member was part of the Ku Klux Klan, she devoted her time to researching the group at the library and came to the conclusion that she would never go down that path.

"I've spent my life in libraries," Asher said. "I don't know what I'd do without them."

Fire chief's memories

Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White grew up next to the Merced branch. Once she had a family of her own, she made sure to instill a love of libraries among her three teenage sons. But for all the happy memories, Logsdon and Faulknor were also able to get the chief to retell a painful library experience about a 12-year-old girl who died at a Sunset branch after an asthma attack about 10 years ago.

"It was a difficult scene where she did not survive," Hayes-White said. "It's not a good story about a library, but that's what we deal with as firefighters."

Filming for the project will continue through Saturday in the Jewett Gallery, and interested participants should go to www.freeforalldocumentary.com or call (415) 824-4910. The filmmakers are working to release a feature-length documentary in two years, but an edited collection of interviews will be shown at the Main Library during National Library Week on April 20.

Neal J. Riley is a San Francisco staff writer. E-mail: nriley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @realdealneal
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