I wanted to put it together in a way so that folks can see a different side of the picture. “The film has so many tangents you can go down to cover the story. Here is where the documentary illuminates the loophole that the United States of America is exploiting, with corporations the beneficiaries and our communities of the color the victims.ĭuVernay uses the 13th Amendment as a jumping-off point to show the truth of how, after the Civil War, African-Americans were arrested en masse and used to replace the free labor of the slavery system.

Constitution, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for criminal behavior. 7, the documentary takes its title from the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Ava DuVernay’s “13th” opened the 54th New York Film Festival with a jolt! Did you feel it?Īt the screening and talk back, DuVernay discussed the finer points that are part of “13th” that bring the truth up to an uncomfortable boil, which is anchored by our ongoing political conversation that focuses on race, inequality, slavery, police brutality and now, Black Lives Matter.Īvailable on Netflix Oct.

13th film fredercik douglass