The title of Ava DuVernay’s
extraordinary and galvanizing 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 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.
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