An exciting documentary about prison life in the United States. After the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, everything seems different. The law states that 'there is no forced servitude except as a penalty for a crime for which the party has been duly convicted, must be present within the United States.' That law gives us an insightful look at the prison system in the United States and how America's history reveals racial inequality that may be a major event.
6 July 1921, New York City, New York, USA
16 September 1950, Piedmont, West Virginia, USA
13 May 1964, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
19 May 1925, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
4 March 1950, Paint Creek, Texas, USA
8 September 1941, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
27 April 1969, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
29 July 1938, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1 April 1973, Castro Valley, California, USA
May 25, 1993 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA
6 February 1911, Tampico, Illinois, USA
6 July 1946, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
26 October 1947, Chicago, Illinois, USA
9 January 1913, Yorba Linda, California, USA
January 3, 1981 in Fairfax, California, USA
April 12, 2017
What the film does beautifully, is its connecting of a thread that runs through the past one hundred and fifty years; we did not come to this place in history by accident.December 28, 2016
Given the concerns about relations between law enforcement and minority communities, 13th could hardly be timelier.December 09, 2016
It's all very alarming and upsetting and terrifying.December 28, 2016
It's a crazy amount of ground to cover, but only rarely does 13th sacrifice clarity for cinematic energy.November 09, 2016
Manages to capture the depth and insidiousness of more than a century of cultural, societal and economic oppression along racial lines and then condenses it into a brisk 100-minute package that could literally slip right into your pocket.February 01, 2017
A hard, painful and necessary documentary with well-presented interviews, which helps us understand similar situations that are also present in Mexico. [Full review in Spanish]January 05, 2017
Director Ava DuVernay ('Selma') has made a very powerful and provocative documentary film which highlights a clear danger to American democracy. It shows how America's enormous prison industry and its largely black population came to be.February 22, 2017
Watching this documentary makes it clear that there has been a problem with incarceration used as an economic and political driver for a long time and that action must be taken to change this.March 01, 2017
[DuVernay's] movie, for all its good words and bad pictures, lacks the fierce urgency of now.December 28, 2016
It's an absolute must-see.December 28, 2016
In its sweeping treatment of the history of American racism, the film brought me closer than I've ever been to understanding how it could be that so many people could have ever grown used to the moral catastrophes that were slavery and Jim Crow.October 13, 2016
13th ... is dense with information, and it moves fast. But it's also a story told in images, and the ones DuVernay has chosen ring not just with sadness and horror but also cautious optimism.