13th

Few films shake and astonish like this one, even though nothing in it should be a surprise.
-- Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice

NO LONGER PLAYING

13th

The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” The progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from a dazzling array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis.
Not Rated
Genre
Documentary, African-American Experience, State of the Union
Runtime
100
Language
English
Director
Ava Duvernay
FEATURED REVIEW
Richard Brody, New Yorker

Ava DuVernay’s brilliantly analytical and morally passionate documentary traces the current-day mass incarceration of black Americans to its historical origins in the Thirteenth Amendment, which banned slavery and involuntary servitude “except as punishment for a crime.” That exception, as she ...

READ MORE

13th Get Tickets

There are currently no showtimes for this film. Please check back soon.