Genre: Documentary
Runtime: 100 minutes
Year: 2016
Starring: Melina Abdullah, Michelle Alexander, Corey Booker, Dolores Canales, Gina Clayton, William Jelani Cobb, Malkia Cyril, Angela Davis, Craig, DeRoche, Dacid Dinkins, Baz Dreisinger, Kevin Gannon, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Marie Gottschallk, Newt Gingrich
Description: An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation’s history of racial inequality.
Review: "13th” is a poignant documentary about centuries of racism in America. It is explained how each time a new system arose to oppress the Afro-American population. For example, companies today have their clothes made by inmates, for a small percentage of the minimum wage. Director Ava DuVernay, known for her movie “Selma” about Martin Luther King, uses this corrupt American prison system to expose contemporary racism.
DuVernay lets a variety of intellectuals explain how slavery was an economic system, just like the prison system today. A so called ‘double-whammy’: making a profit at the expense of the misery of a population you despise anyway. The only difference between then and now is that you can no longer call black people ‘niggers’, at least in public. Criminals is a better synonym. One speaker compares this change to ‘new cancer metastases’.
This ‘cancer’ is coming to light more than ever thanks to technological progress. Images recorder with smartphones record police brutality, which turns out to be more structural than thought. Events such as the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford in 2012 symbolize centuries of injustice. All this leads to the conclusion that legislators, policemen, entrepreneurs and journalist are applying double standards. For example, the possession of 1 gram of crack by an African-American is punished harder than the possession of a 100 grams of cocaine by a white American.
Such contradictions and anecdotes are exemplary of DuVernay’s approach. She shares as much information as possible with the viewer. In doing so, she can logically not ignore current political affairs, or in short: Donald Trump. Archival images of the Republican presidential candidate reveal his racist disposition. In his campaign Trump constantly talks about ‘The good Days’, when the police were still able to chase away demonstrators with brute force.
“13th" is a fantastic documentary and it will open your eyes. Some information that was shared made me sick to my stomach, how corrupt the justice system in America actual is. The final conclusion is undeniable: black lives do matter.
Rating: 4,5 / 5
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