The Official Trailer From Ava DuVernay’s ’13TH’ On Netflix

Pop culture without a guiding light or compass is a reckless endeavor. This new doc from Ava DuVernay (Selma) is exactly what pop culture needs today – some substance with our sugar. Have a look and see how this reality is very prevalent in our communities.

The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary 13TH 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.