With such an ambitious goal, it’s frankly miraculous that 13th moves as assuredly as it does. Rather, 13th is an introduction to this overwhelming history of injustice, a resource for those who may not have read Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy or Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. It is, to say the least, an overwhelming document.ĭuVernay, at the film’s world premiere press conference, said that she considers 13th to be a “primer.” She has no interest in replacing the more targeted work of her fellow filmmakers, such as Dawn Porter ( Gideon’s Army) and Samuel Pollard ( Slavery by Another Name).
It gradually focuses in on the 21st century manifestation of the prison industrial complex, but that’s hardly small potatoes. Its subject is the systematic abuse of black labor and black bodies since the end of the Civil War. Its target isn’t as small as a court case or even a single industry. Yet 13th isn’t nearly as narrowly focused as many of the politically motivated documentaries that garner similar attention. Anointed by the New York Film Festival and granted an enormous platform by Netflix, its release is a major event. Her third feature documentary, 13th, has been greeted accordingly. What do we mean when we call a film, particularly a documentary, “important”?Īva DuVernay is certainly an important filmmaker, both as an artist and as an advocate for positive change in a white- and male-dominated industry.