Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round (Open Captioning)

Opens Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Special Events

  • Sat Sep 20 : 

    Q&A with filmmakers after the 1:30 show

SHOWTIMES AT IFC CENTER

Please note that there are additional showtimes of AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND that screen without open captions (on-screen display of dialogue and sounds). For those showtimes, click here.

AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND is the untold story of the first organized interracial civil rights protest in U.S. history. When 5 Howard University students sat on a Maryland carousel in 1960, the arrests made headlines. When the white community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the Black students in picketing, an extraordinary history-making partnership was born. The pickets attracted Nazis, Congressman, and a press avalanche. Picketing together over the sweltering summer led to partying together, and union organizers mentored student activists. Ten 1961 Freedom Riders, including Stokely Carmichael, were incubated on the Glen Echo picket line, and the carousel arrests were challenged in the Supreme Court case. With never-before seen footage, and immersive storytelling by Emmy-award winning director Ilana Trachtman(Praying with Lior, Black in Latin America, The Pursuit), four living protesters rescue this forgotten history, revealing the price, and the power, of heeding the impulse to activism.
 
AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND includes voiceover by noted actors Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Dominique Thorne, Alysia Reiner and Tracie Thoms.

Additional showtimes for September 17-23 to be announced.

  • Country USA
  • Running Time 89 minutes
  • Format DCP
  • Director Ilana Trachtman
  • Cast Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Helene Wilson Ageloff, Christina Clarke, Courtland Cox, Esther Delaplaine, Dion Diamond
  • Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil, Closed Captioning

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.