13th (film)
13th is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Ava DuVernay. It explores the prison–industrial complex, and the "intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States". The title refers to the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the United States and ended involuntary servitude, except as punishment for convicted criminals. The film argues that this exemption has been used to continue the practice of involuntary servitude in the form of penal labor.
DuVernay contends that slavery in the United States has been perpetuated since the end of the Civil War through criminalizing behavior and enabling police to arrest poor freedmen and force them to work for the state under convict leasing; suppression of African Americans by disenfranchisement, lynchings, and Jim Crow; politicians declaring a war on drugs that weighs more heavily on minority communities; and, by the late 20th century, mass incarceration affecting communities of color, especially American descendants of slavery. In addition to the prison-industrial complex, the film examines the emerging detention-industrial complex, discussing how much money is being made by corporations from such incarcerations.
The film garnered widespread critical acclaim. It was nominated for the Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Academy Awards, and it won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards.
Synopsis
The film begins with an audio clip of President Barack Obama stating that the US has 5 percent of the world's population, but 25 percent of the world's prisoners. There follow interviews with a number of activists, academics, political figures from both major U.S. political parties, and public figures, including Angela Davis, Bryan Stevenson, Michelle Alexander, Jelani Cobb, Van Jones, Newt Gingrich, Cory Booker, Marie Gottschalk, and Henry Louis Gates Jr.The economic history of slavery and the post-Civil War racist legislation and practices that replaced it are explored. Southern states criminalized minor offenses, arresting freedmen and forcing them to work when they could not pay fines, and this approach was institutionalized as convict leasing, which created an incentive to criminalize more behavior. DuVernay contends that most black people were disenfranchised across the South at the turn of the 20th century, being excluded from the political system at the same time that lynching of black people by white mobs reached a peak. In addition, Jim Crow legislation was passed by Democrats to legalize segregation and suppress minorities, forcing them into second-class status. Following the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s that restored civil rights, the film notes the Republican Party's appeal to southern white conservatives, including the claim to be the party to fight the war on crime and war on drugs, which began to include mandatory, lengthy sentencing. A new wave of minority suppression began, reaching African Americans and others in the northern, mid-western, and western cities where many had migrated in earlier decades. After their presidential candidates lost to Republicans, Democratic politicians such as Bill Clinton joined the war on drugs.
As a result, from the early 1970s to the present, the rate of incarceration and the number of people in prisons has climbed dramatically in the United States, while at the same time the rate of crime in the United States has continued to decline since the late 20th century. As late as the 2016 presidential election, the eventual winner Donald Trump worked to generate fear of crime, claiming high rates in New York City, for instance, which was not true, according to the film, which states that crime was lower overall than it had been in decade. Private prison contractors entered the market to satisfy demand as arrests and sentences increased, forming an independent group with its own economic incentives to criminalize minor activities and lengthen sentences in order to keep prisons full. Politicians and businessmen in rural areas encouraged construction of prisons to supply local jobs, and they also have had incentives to keep prisons full.
The federal Bureau of Prisons announced in 2016 its intention to stop contracting with private providers for prison services. According to the film, the over-incarceration of adults has severely damaged generations of black and minority families and their children.
The film explores the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council, backed by corporations, that has provided Republican state- and federal-legislators with draft legislation to support the prison-industrial complex. It contends that only after some of the relationships were revealed did corporations like Walmart and others receive criticism and drop out of the organization.
The demonization of minority poor to serve political ends is examined, along with how this has contributed to fears of minorities by whites and to problems of police brutality against minority communities. In the 21st century, the regularity of fatal police shootings of unarmed minorities in apparently minor confrontations has been demonstrated by videos taken by bystanders and by the increasing use of cameras in police cars or worn by officers. DuVernay ends the film with graphic videos of fatal shootings of black people by police, which Manohla Dargis describes as, following the previous discussion, having the effect of "a piercing, keening cry".
Production
The film was written by Ava DuVernay, the director of Selma, and Spencer Averick, who also edited the film. Produced and filmed in secrecy, the existence of 13th was only revealed when it was announced as the opening film of the 2016 New York Film Festival. It was the first documentary ever to open the festival.Release
13th was released on Netflix on October 7, 2016. A companion piece, 13th: A Conversation with Oprah Winfrey & Ava DuVernay, was released on the service on January 26, 2017, in the United States, and on January 31 worldwide. On April 17, 2020, Netflix made the film available to stream for free on YouTube.Reception and legacy
Critical response
On the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 109 critics' reviews of the film are positive, with an average rating of 8.8/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "13th strikes at the heart of America's tangled racial history, offering observations as incendiary as they are calmly controlled." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100 based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called the film "powerful, infuriating, and at times overwhelming", and praised its meticulous marshaling of facts. Summarizing the film, Dargis wrote that "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." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone awarded the film four stars out of four and named it one of the best films of 2016.
Criticism
Dan Berger of Black Perspectives wrote that 13th was at its best when chronicling the lives of individuals in the American prison system, but said the film "makes several significant factual errors", such as using outdated statistical data and overstating the role of for-profit prisons. John Anderson of America Magazine had similar criticisms of the film.Viewership
On a panel about the future of film published in The New York Times, DuVernay said:During the George Floyd protests in June 2020, the film experienced a 4,665% surge in viewership on Netflix.