13th Movie Review (2024)

FAQs

What are the criticisms of the 13th? ›

DuVernay's film is a mix of a variety of talking heads, muckraking information that might be out of a Michael Moore film about things like the ALEC company and the like who formulate actual legislation that is pro-for-profit prisons, and footage from the likes of Nixon and Reagan's most damning points looking " ...

The film contends that, although the 13th amendment outlawed slavery over 150 years ago, it was essentially allowed to continue via the side door of mass incarceration. Christiane speaks two experts featured in this documentary on the subjects of racism, capitalism, and the war on drugs.

Many viewers, especially those aware of the issues discussed in the film, may feel a combination of emotions such as helplessness, inspiration, and a call to action after watching 13th. The documentary reveals the deep-rooted injustices faced by Black communities and the urgent need for change.

The documentary features interviews with several leading scholars, pundits, and activists working on the issue, as well as a host of other commentators, including journalists and politicians. The main argument at hand is that mass incarceration is an extension of slavery.

The film argues that America uses the 13th Amendment, through the legal system, to continue slavery. The film points out that Black Americans are over-represented in America's legal system. Although Black people make up 6.5 percent of the U.S. population, they comprise 40.2 percent of the prison population.

The film argues that there is a direct link between American slavery and the modern American prison system.

“In 2023, we still have legal slavery in the United States because Congress left this institution in place for 'punishment for a crime' when it passed the Thirteenth Amendment,” Booker said in a statement.

Amendment Thirteen to the Constitution – the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments – was ratified on December 6, 1865. It forbids chattel slavery across the United States and in every territory under its control, except as a criminal punishment.

Involuntary servitude or involuntary slavery is a legal and constitutional term for a person laboring against that person's will to benefit another, under some form of coercion, to which it may constitute slavery.

Provocative and heartbreakingly real, this documentary is recommended for mature teens and up.

What is the historical context of the 13th documentary? ›

The film explores the prison-industrial complex, and the "intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States"; it is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the United States and ended involuntary servitude ...

Final answer: The film 13th characterizes the US criminal justice system and political institutions as deeply embedded with racial injustice and rooted in profit. It utilizes facts and historical context to reshape viewers' perception of mass incarceration as systemic racism.

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans.

13th / Film synopsis

As part of the film's critique of Reagan's war on drugs and “Just Say No” advocacy, none other than Newt Gingrich blasts the fact that prison sentences related to crack cocaine, seen as a “black” drug and the reason for so much crime in the inner cities, were so severe compared to the slaps on the wrists for users of ...

The target audience of this movie is the federal system, black communities, and the modern society. This movie seems to coincide with the Black Lives Matter movement that stormed the country in 2015 after the death of black males at the hands of police officers.

As scholars of slavery and the histories of African America, our research shows the 13th Amendment's exception clause reinvented slave labor and involuntary servitude behind prison walls.

The 13th Amendment's criminal-exception loophole created conditions for preserving the economic benefits and social order embedded in the system of slavery. Proslavery lawmakers created laws that, if violated, were covered by the exception, just as Illinois had done with its Black Codes.

The 13th Amendment exempts from the involuntary servitude clause persons convicted of a crime, and persons drafted to serve in the military. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution did not end discrimination against those who had been enslaved and blacks.

In April 1864, the Senate, responding in part to an active abolitionist petition campaign, passed the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery in the United States. Opposition from Democrats in the House of Representatives prevented the amendment from receiving the required two-thirds majority, and the bill failed.