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13th |OT| Ava DuVernay's Netflix documentary on mass incarceration — 98% RT | 91 Meta

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Releasing 10/7. Trailer: http://youtu.be/V66F3WU2CKk

netflix: The US is the most incarcerated country in the world. The majority imprisoned are black. On 10/7, @AVAETC's #13TH explores how we got here. https://twitter.com/netflix/status/780418485272797184/video/1

The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary 13TH 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.
 
Thanks for this. Would have slipped by me otherwise. Hopefully this hits the cultural mainstream as much as Making a Murderer
 

Enzom21

Member
Kalief Browder's incarceration, abuse and subsequent suicide still pisses me off and no one was held responsible.
Looking forward to this.
 

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Definitely watching this and sharing with family/friends. We need documentaries like this right now more than ever. It's been a fucking shameful state of affairs so far in the Land of the "Free."
 
Is it episodic or film-length?

Film length. I remember reading she was "secretly " filming this for Netflix while also doing pre production work for her Disney film "A Wrinkle in Time", making her not only the first Black women, but I believe any woman of color to direct a film with a budget over 100 million dollars.
 
I've always wondered why we never discussed that the 13th amendment didn't outlaw slavery. In fact it explicitly allowed it as to allow people to profit off prisoners
 

No_Style

Member
Pardon me if there's an official thread (couldn't find one) but I just want to remind everyone to check this out. An excellent documentary that gives context to how America's relationship with racism evolved. The most powerful moments were how closely they tied years upon years of racism to events that occurred just a few months earlier.
 

Cetra

Member
Watched this morning. Easily one of the most devastating and infuriating documentaries I've ever seen. Probably the most important and vital documentary since Paradise Lost.
 
This was definitely shocking and infuriating. No one should skip this, it's the most important documentary of the year.
Look at the thread, struggling to hit 50 posts. Stuff like this is really disheartening, while a trump thread or something not as important easily hits pages.
 

Amir0x

Banned
This was fantastic, love how they called Bill and Hillary out for their part in mass incarceration, and how they tied the theme of criminalizing black people into Trumps "law and order" campaign.. particulary the affecting end montage drawing a line from jim crow to trump rallies.
 

Enzom21

Member
Incredible documentary.
Not much has changed when it comes to how white america reacts to black people protesting.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Watched the doc last night. Infuriating, eye opening, incredible.
 

Rootbeer

Banned
The documentary does such an expert job at piecing all the history together in a perspective that shows the progression of things that most people just don't realize. It was excellent and I hope it opens a lot of eyes. I know I learned a lot from it.
 
Required viewing. Too bad it seems to be a Netflix-exclusive as concise material for the subject matter ought to be more freely available to the internet video generation that could benefit from all of the solid entry points into the general topic that they can get.
 

Aurongel

Member
Watching this now, about halfway through.

The section on Nixon's rhetoric highlighting "tough on crime" fills me with a profound sense of dread knowing that I'll be hearing that exact phrase come out of a nominees mouth tonight on live television.

I'm glad they're not playing partisan lines with their content too. They've spent an equal amount of time dedicated to both Reagan and Clinton which is a decision I greatly respect.
 

Rootbeer

Banned
Watching this now, about halfway through.

The section on Nixon's rhetoric highlighting "tough on crime" fills me with a profound sense of dread knowing that I'll be hearing that exact phrase come out of a nominees mouth tonight on live television.

I'm glad they're not playing partisan lines with their content too. They've spent an equal amount of time dedicated to both Reagan and Clinton which is a decision I greatly respect.
Yup both of the Clintons get their whacks. It's really important to show the full context and hold ALL accountable for the roles they played. It's the only way a documentary like this would be taken seriously, and thankfully they got that part very right.

They have a convincing theory for what gave rise to the attitudes on display by the Clintons and those like them on the Democrat side, though. I won't spoil it, anyone curious should watch the doc.
 

Aurongel

Member
Yup both of the Clintons get their whacks. It's really important to show the full context and hold ALL accountable for the roles they played. It's the only way a documentary like this would be taken seriously, and thankfully they got that part very right.

They have a convincing theory for what gave rise to the attitudes on display by the Clintons and those like them on the Democrat side, though. I won't spoil it, anyone curious should watch the doc.

Isn't that theory just the well documented fact that
Democrats were under intense pressure during the early 90's to move closer to center on issues like crime
? That's been a well understood part of both the Republican and Democrat narrative for a while now.

Also, I finished watching this a few hours ago and man does the end of this hit you like a ton of bricks. I won't spoil it for those who just want the enormity of it to wash over them but the way certain recent speeches are overlaid with vintage films depicting segregation was... Just incredibly moving and equally depressing.
 

Rootbeer

Banned
Well I'm not claiming it's a new information. But it's new to ME. Not everyone follows every little detail about our history to such a fine degree. Documentaries are here to reveal. And it's working!
 

Memory

Member
Need to watch this when I get a free minute. Not a US citizen but I've been to the US enough times to know the whole legal system is a joke.
 
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