13th

2016 Directed by Ava DuVernay

From slave to criminal with one amendment

An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.

Jelani Cobb Angela Davis Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Michelle Alexander Cory Booker Marie Gottschalk Michael Hough Gina Clayton David Keene James Kilgore Bryan Stevenson Nicholas Turner John Hagan Van Jones Barack Obama Bill Clinton Jimmy Carter George W. Bush Donald Trump George H. W. Bush Hillary Clinton Martin Luther King Malcolm X

Alternative Titles

A 13ª emenda, Der 13., Enmienda XIII, 13. lisäys, Тринадцатый, Det 13:e tillägget, 13 Madde, The 13th

documentary

100 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Lucy ★★★★½ 19

this week i’ve been thinking a lot about ways in which i could help. i can’t do or give as much as some can, but i do have this platform on a site that i dearly love, and i intend on using it for a moment to try and help:
here is a great resource of blm information and places to sign and donate overall to learn more and help. here is a google doc link to many petitions, places to donate, and even numbers and emails. this is a site where you can split donations among up to 60 different bail funds for protesters, other services and centers. this fund helps black trans protesters with resources, medical care and bail. and…
Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★★½ 12

This is an AMAZING documentary, please watch it.
Review by Lucy ★★★★½ 3

ava duvernay really should already have an oscar by now
Review by kailey 8

i am simply an unimportant fish in the stream but please, please consider donating and/or helping in some way that you can in regards to george floyd and other victims of police brutality.
a wonderful mutual of mine, siobhan, has a good post with resources.
some other places you can donate are black visions collective , reclaim the block , and Northstar health collective .
credit to this Tumblr user.
here is another doc with resources to compliment the one siobhan posted.
black lives matter. please consider calling or emailing officials in Minneapolis to continue placing pressure so that George Floyd can receive justice. your voice and your heart matters. thank you all so much.
Review by aaron ★★★★★ 2

this was an absolute mandatory watch to recognise the systematic racism within the police force, government and the rest of the world.
It is not enough to share a blacked out screen on Instagram or retweet one #blacklivesmatter post on twitter. we need to stand up, use our voices to amplify and to challenge anti-black actions. we need to become allies, acknowledge our privilege and use it to educate others & help poc. DO NOT STAY SILENT.
SPEAK UP | SIGN PETITIONS | DONATE MONEY
if you’re not angry, then you’re not paying attention.
Review by josh lewis ★★★ 1

lotta people will undoubtably only see this as a primer to the issue (dismissing how important primers are, i guess) but there's an astounding power to the way duvernay sequences this, the way she moves us through the major events, records and timelines with passion and anger, allowing black voices & art to naturally narrate, connecting the simple progression of power, policy and victim into the larger, shape-shifting systemic evil we're still allowing to abolish the freedoms/end the lives of lower class citizens, especially POC, today. one moment near the end that cinematically connects footage at trump rallies to footage from the civil rights movement in the 60s is absolutely harrowing as she goes on to present an essential & compelling case…
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★ 20

35/100
Not a bad film, exactly—just one that I didn't need to watch, telling me a whole lot of things that I already know. First half hour in particular laboriously outlines 20th-century racial politics, assuming ignorance of such basics as The Birth of a Nation, Jim Crow laws, and the Southern strategy; I felt like I'd accidentally wandered into an 8th-grade history class, started wondering if maybe there were some papers I could correct. Eventually, DuVernay starts making a cogent, vital argument, viz. the tactical imprisonment of African-Americans as an extension of slavery, but in a way that still seems to be pitched at extremely low-information viewers. I was more or less familiar with the substance of O.J.: Made in…
Review by matt lynch

"The opposite of criminalization is humanization."
Review by Lyzette ★★★½ 19

White people (or NBPOC, for that matter) who rate/review this film unfavorably because it "doesn't say anything we don't already know" need to understand that they as dissenters are not exceptional in their role in this entire fabric. Anti-racism might seem like common sense, but we just ushered into office a man who will undoubtedly continue this reign of white supremacy that has existed in this country for centuries. By not actively speaking out against these powers at play or by remaining neutral, you are inherently contributing to their existence being justified. And if you still don't understand this one basic fact
you've missed the point of the film entirely and there's no helping you.
Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★½

Essential viewing.
Review by thomas1995 ★★★★

I AM NO LONGER ACCEPTING THE THINGS I CAN NOT CHANGE. I AM CHANGING THE THINGS I CAN NOT ACCEPT...
PROS:
~13th starts in a smart way and goes back to the era of slavery pointing out that racial inequalities weren't completely eradicated but relived through different ways until the Civil Right Movement. After the Civil War people of color were presented as murderers or rapists of white women. The reference to the movie ''Birth of Nation'' is on point and the romanticization of KKK is unconceivable to think that existed. Furthermore, the arrest of people of color for labor purposes and the degredation of them into second-class status (Jim Crow laws) are clear examples of their oppression, just with…
Review by hunter strawberry

our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter
minnesota freedom fund: minnesotafreedomfund.org
petition: www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd

Recent reviews

Review by Loulie ★★★★½

A powerful, fact-filled documentary that had me at times shaking with anger, wide-eyed in disbelief, and crying at the sheer weight of injustice. Amazing stuff.
Review by somefilmnerd ★★★★½ 1

One of the most important documentaries ever.
Even more relevant 4 years later and actually existed me on the injustice of the criminal justice system.
Then she made A Wrinkle in Time.
Ava DuVernay obviously has talent though and I would to see her create a film as powerful as this film and her prior films instead of creating cookie-cutter Hollywood films.

But honestly fuck America for supporting a corrupt system and abuse of their people for 100’s of years.
Review by Edilson ★★★★★

On October 7, 2016, Ava DuVernay addresses the most important cinematographic material in the historical context of society in 1 hour and 40 minutes. The trigger came through the legacy of the Civil War constituted in "Birth of a Nation" of 1915, the rise of the KKK formalizing the racial criminalization made by politicians, legislators, police and all those who contradict the participation of people of color in American territory. The 13th Amendment was a legislative act that modified the US constitution to abolish slavery, starting in 1865. However, in the constitutional text, the proviso that authorizes slave labor for those convicted of crimes was maintained. Mainly, due to the action of large corporations to shareholders, projects were created based on the breach of this law, completely establishing systematic racism that would give rise to a modern form of slavery and all forms of violence.
Review by Brandon Clark ★★★★★

America: what the fuck!?
Review by montanar ★★★★½

Should be mandatory viewing in all schools.
Review by Zeaudiaque ★★★★½

Et c’est dit.
Douloureusement véritable.
Douloureusement réel.
Review by Timothy ★★★½

4 years later.
I consider the ways this country has and has not changed. And the ways I have and have not changed. I don’t know what the way forward is.
Review by Allan_ ★★★★½

Um documentário direto e prático, mas extremamente eficiente em transmitir o assunto que busca tratar em sua totalidade sem suavizar ou exagerar em nada. Já tinha visto todo o compromisso da Ava com a questão do antipunitivismo em When They See Us (e o caso abordado na série é inclusive citado aqui), mas é nesse documentário que se encontram as fundações da crítica da diretora ao sistema penal e carcerário dos Estados Unidos. Isso porque ao invés de se aproveitar de todo o material mais imediato que é possível de ser encontrado à todo momento nos tempos recentes sobre violência policial, encarceramento em massa, etc. Ava quer antes trazer para as telas as bases históricas que sustentam o sistema que…
Review by annikapeterson ★★★★★

everybody should watch this its on youtube u can watch it for free
Review by ghostofghibli ★★★★

Not as eye opening or impactful on a repeat viewing, but still well-made and absolutely essential.
Review by chloe :) ★★★★½

please please watch this its so important
Review by Bri ★★★★½

powerful and striking, this should be a mandatory watch for every US citizen.
Imagine our country's education system showcasing and teaching the information and lessons brought up in this documentary rather than history as the white man wrote it in his book to preach about other white men.