13th
The title 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 movie gives us an in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
1 October 1924, Plains, Georgia, USA
November 23, 1921 in near Webb, Mississippi, USA
6 July 1921, New York City, New York, USA
12 June 1924, Milton, Massachusetts, USA
January 3, 1981 in Fairfax, California, USA
11 June 1930, New York City, New York, USA
12 December 1924, Bronx, New York City, New York, USA
23 April 1977, Birmingham, England, UK
4 November 1916, St. Joseph, Missouri, USA
19 August 1946, Hope, Arkansas, USA
10 July 1927, Trenton, New Jersey, USA
6 February 1940, Webster, South Dakota, USA
1 April 1973, Castro Valley, California, USA
13 May 1964, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
29 July 1938, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
9 January 1913, Yorba Linda, California, USA
February 22, 2017
Watching this documentary makes it clear that there has been a problem with incarceration used as an economic and political driver for a long time and that action must be taken to change this.
December 28, 2016
In its sweeping treatment of the history of American racism, the film brought me closer than I've ever been to understanding how it could be that so many people could have ever grown used to the moral catastrophes that were slavery and Jim Crow.
October 13, 2016
13th ... is dense with information, and it moves fast. But it's also a story told in images, and the ones DuVernay has chosen ring not just with sadness and horror but also cautious optimism.
February 01, 2017
A hard, painful and necessary documentary with well-presented interviews, which helps us understand similar situations that are also present in Mexico. [Full review in Spanish]
April 12, 2017
What the film does beautifully, is its connecting of a thread that runs through the past one hundred and fifty years; we did not come to this place in history by accident.
December 28, 2016
It's a crazy amount of ground to cover, but only rarely does 13th sacrifice clarity for cinematic energy.
December 28, 2016
Given the concerns about relations between law enforcement and minority communities, 13th could hardly be timelier.
March 01, 2017
[DuVernay's] movie, for all its good words and bad pictures, lacks the fierce urgency of now.
December 28, 2016
It's an absolute must-see.
November 09, 2016
Manages to capture the depth and insidiousness of more than a century of cultural, societal and economic oppression along racial lines and then condenses it into a brisk 100-minute package that could literally slip right into your pocket.
January 05, 2017
Director Ava DuVernay ('Selma') has made a very powerful and provocative documentary film which highlights a clear danger to American democracy. It shows how America's enormous prison industry and its largely black population came to be.
December 09, 2016
It's all very alarming and upsetting and terrifying.
