Streaming: Netflix (With Subscription)
Warnings:
Violence
Racism
Explicit Language
Sexual Abuse
Drug Abuse
Graphic Imagery
Rating: TV-MA
13th is a documentary film that examines the prison system in the United States in depth and exposes the nation’s shameful history of racial inequality. Written, directed and produced by Ava DuVernay, 13th explores race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States. The title of the film comes from the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States constitution that was adopted in 1865. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery across the United States and ended involuntary servitude however, redesigned racial caste allows punishment for a conviction of a crime to carry out new forms of involuntary servitude. 13th explains how slavery has been perpetuated since the end of the American Civil War and portrays how certain laws weigh more heavily on minority communities especially African Americans. This film examines the prison industrial complex from every angle and highlights the issues by discussing how people are profiting off of incarcerations of marginalized communities. In order to best explain this information DuVernay interviewed experts from numerous professions including Newt Gingrich, Henry Louis Gates, Cory Booker, Angela Davis, Michelle Alexander, and Jelani Cobb just to name a few. The film was released to Netflix in 2016 and was later released for free on YouTube in 2020. An interesting fact is that the film was produced and filmed in secrecy, it was only revealed after it was announced as the opening film for the 2016 New York Film Festival, and it was the first documentary to ever open the festival. 13th was well received by critics, Manohla Dargis of the New York Times praised the film, and she summarizes it by stating,
“The United States did not just criminalize a select group of Black people. It criminalized black people as a whole, a process that, in addition to destroying untold lives, effectively transferred the guilt for slavery from the people who perpetuated it to the very people who suffered through it.”
13th was nominated for dozens of awards, it won Best documentary at the British Academy Film Awards, as well as the Primetime Emmy Awards. It also won a Peabody Award for excellence and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Duvernay won a Primetime Emmy Award for her writing and was nominated for her directing. 13th is an eye-opening film that uses archival footage, graphics, cinematography and tactful editing to reveal the prison industrial complex in a powerful way.
The first most important part of the documentary to highlight is the archival footage. The archival footage validates everything that the interviewees are saying and the way it is edited enforces their points as well. Editor Spencer Averick known for Selma, A Wrinkle in Time, and When They See Us interlaces the archival footage with modern day commentary from politicians like Donald Trump. This editing technique enhances the facts that the interviewees are stating and allows the audience to make the connection that the prison industrial complex is a redesigned form of modern-day slavery. The editing also highlights how not much has changed from the past to present day, the same type of treatment that people endured decades ago still goes on today.
The second important element of the film that assists with better portraying the statistics are the graphics. Throughout the film the graphics show appalling numbers of incarcerations and highlights how they grew astronomically over the years. In addition to the climbing numbers of incarcerations, the graphics also compare the ratio of how many white men will be incarcerated in their lifetime (1 in 17) versus how many Black men will be incarcerated in their lifetime (1 in 3). Lastly, the graphics also emphasize words from statements of the interviewees, or at times words from music that is included. This accentuates the information that is being brought to the attention of the audience with an added visual element. The use of graphics throughout 13th helps the audience comprehend and contextualize the important information that is being articulated.
Finally, the cinematography is something that didn’t go unnoticed in 13th. The cinematography was executed by Kira Kelly and Hans Charles. The filming locations and production design of the interviews were deliberately placed with brick walls and industrial equipment to represent the labor that has been stolen from Black people in this country for centuries. Angela Davis’ interview was located at an abandoned train station, it was chosen in particular because “it was this gorgeous train station, gorgeous because of the level of decay. It’s something that would be hard for our art department to recreate,” stated Kelly. There is a large arch that frames Davis in the shot, it appears almost like a throne which DuVernay notes in an interview with Oprah Winfrey (conversation available on Netflix). In another interview with Michelle Alexander, Kelly deliberately makes Alexander stand out with a gray background and a pop of color with her chair, also hinting like she is on a throne. In Henry Louis Gates’ interview he is on a Hollywood soundstage with an electrical plant in the background. A shot was included where the sun is setting on the electrical plant which is exactly the type of background that unconsciously makes the audience think of work or labor. This attention to detail and deliberate artistic approach with these interviews is interesting but also significant when it comes to documentary filmmaking. Oftentimes creative shots are not something that can be achieved in certain settings and the filmmaker just has to work with what they have, however DuVernay and Kelly were methodical when approaching the look of this film.
13this an eye-opening documentary with stunning cinematography, thoughtful editing, informative graphics and heartbreaking archival footage. This film is important to better understand how the prison industrial complex is fostering involuntary servitude in the United States. This film shines a shameful light on how the United States never reconciled for the atrocities they produced throughout history towards African Americans and marginalized communities. The fact that this film is on Netflix to reach a mass audience is one step forward towards change. Education is a powerful tool that cannot be taken away and this film certainly tells a truth that needs to be heard.