13th opened last October’s New York Film Festival and is now available on Netflix. Tomorrow, Netflix has released a 30 minute conversation about the film with Oprah Winfrey and director Ava DuVernay.
Here is also the press conference from the NYFF:
With such a broad subject matter, it’s quite astonishing how director Ava DuVernay was able to weave “talking heads” with facts, figures and history footage into the coherent and thought-provoking documentary, 13th.
Starting with racism in the prison system, the film is about much more than that and covers a wide variety of issues that stem from the time of the 13th Amendment. Rather than go chronologically, the film flows from different topics but ties them all together in a way that is interesting and informative.
Let’s step back and acknowledge how incredible it is that this film opened the New York Film Festival and is available to watch just a week later on Netflix. How amazing is that? You don’t have to find an indie theater to see it. Anyone can see this with their subscription or even just sign up for a free trial to watch. For those in New York, it’s opening at the IFC Center with a Q&A with Jelani Cobb, Univ. of Connecticut professor and contributor to The New Yorker, at 7:55 show!
This film presents factual information in a way that is fair and unfortunately depressing, yet there is a sense of hope that cannot be mistaken. This is a must see.
Festival Director Kent Jones & 13th Director Ava DuVernay at the press conference
13TH will premiere at the New York Film Festival on Friday, September 30, which is the first time a nonfiction work will open the festival. The film will launch globally on Netflix October 7, including a limited theatrical release.
Synopsis
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.
About Ava DuVernay
Nominated for two Academy Awards and four Golden Globes, writer/director Ava DuVernay’s most recent feature “Selma” was one of 2015’s most critically-acclaimed films. Winner of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival’s Best Director Prize for her feature “Middle of Nowhere,” DuVernay’s earlier directorial work includes “I Will Follow,” “Venus Vs,” and “This is The Life.” In Fall of 2016, her first television series as executive producer, writer and director, “Queen Sugar,” debuted on Oprah Winfrey’s network, OWN. DuVernay distributes and amplifies the work of other people of color and women directors through her film collective ARRAY, named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in Hollywood for 2016.
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