To celebrate the release of 13th, Netflix hosted a special conversation between Netflix Chief Content Officer, Ted Sarandos, U.S. Ambassador, Nicole Avant, director, Ava DuVernay and CNN political commentator, Van Jones – lead by the one and only, Oprah Winfrey.
ABOUT 13TH
The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary documentary 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 criminalisation and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from an array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis.
