13th (2016)

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

Director:

Ava DuVernay

Writers:

Spencer Averick, Ava DuVernay

Stars:

Melina Abdullah, Michelle Alexander, Cory Booker

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 31 wins & 44 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Melina Abdullah	...	Herself - Interviewee
Michelle Alexander	...	Herself - Interviewee
Cory Booker	...	Himself - Interviewee
Dolores Canales	...	Herself - Interviewee
Gina Clayton	...	Herself - Interviewee
Jelani Cobb	...	Himself - Interviewee
Malkia Cyril	...	Herself - Interviewee
Angela Davis	...	Herself - Interviewee
Craig DeRoche	...	Himself - Interviewee
David Dinkins	...	Himself - Interviewee
Baz Dreisinger	...	Herself - Interviewee
Kevin Gannon	...	Himself - Interviewee
Henry Louis Gates	...	Himself - Interviewee (as Henry Louis Gates Jr.)
Marie Gottschalk	...	Herself - Interviewee
Newt Gingrich	...	Himself - Interviewee

Storyline

The film begins with the idea that 25 percent of the people in the world who are incarcerated are incarcerated in the U.S. Although the U.S. has just 5% of the world's population. "13th" charts the explosive growth in America's prison population; in 1970, there were about 200,000 prisoners; today, the prison population is more than 2 million. The documentary touches on chattel slavery; D. W. Griffith's film "The Birth of a Nation"; Emmett Till; the civil rights movement; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Richard M. Nixon; and Ronald Reagan's declaration of the war on drugs and much more.

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Plot Keywords:

prison | greed | discrimination | civil rights | prisoner | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Crime | History

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 October 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

The 13th

Filming Locations:

West Oakland Amtrack Station, Oakland, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kandoo Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

D-Cinema 48kHz 5.1

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The filming locations and production design of the interviews, with brick walls and industrial equipment, represent labor that, according to DuVernay, "has been stolen from black people in this country for centuries."

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Quotes

Bryan Stevenson: The Bureau of Justice reported that one in three young black males is expected to go to jail or prison during his lifetime, which is an unbelievably shocking statistic.

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Connections

Featured in The Oscars (2017)

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Soundtracks

Criminal
Written by Karl Jenkins, Tarik Collins, Ahmir-Khalib Thompson (as Ahmir Thompson), Saigon (as Brian Carenard), Khari Mateen, and Jamal Miller
Performed by The Roots featuring Truck North and Saigon
Courtesy of Def Jam Recordings under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Fascinating insight into the phenomenon of mass Incarceration in US Correctional facilities.

I should start by saying that I am not North American.

I am a Scotsman.

A Caucasian Scotsman at that.

And yes, a Liberal.

I love the United States and my experiences there have been universally positive.

But these were experiences in areas of privilege and that are essentially cleansed for tourists. Largely Liberal areas where whites and people of colour live in harmony (Manhattan, Florida, California, Chicago city centre, Toronto).

In these places I did not see the ghettos and the communities of colour that this shocking documentary uncovers and that has spurred on the whole Where Black Lives Matter movement.

The title refers to the 13th Amendment to the American constitution that was passed in 1864 and aimed to abolished slavery once and for all.

What 13th sets out to expose is the centuries long political outcome, that has resulted in 'Mass Incarceration' mainly of black and coloured men in the USA.

Plea bargaining is one of the most heinous causes of it. Because without money and facing massive gambles 97% of Black men plead guilty to avoid a trail where sentences will be massive due to minimum incarceration legislation.

In other words they can plead guilty to a crime they did not commit and receive perhaps a three year sentence. Or they can fight their conviction and, if unsuccessful, face a 30 year Minimum Incarceration, without parole, term.

The odds don't look good.

So, they typically take the rap and plea bargain.

Under this type of increasingly aggressive legislation and successive governments' "War on Drugs" and "War on crime" the US Prison population has risen from 200,000 to 2.5 million since 1970.

Incidentally Crack cocaine conviction (Black working class, inner city) has a significantly longer incarceration minimum to powder cocaine conviction (White, suburban.)

The US has only 5% of the worlds population, but 25% of world's prison population.

1 in 17 of white men in the USA are incarcerated, but 1 in 3 of Black men are.

Black men represent 6.5% of the US Population, but 40.2% of the prison population.

Does this mean black men in the USA are intrinsically criminal?

No it does not.

It means , the film-makers argue, that there is a political will in all parties and for many, many years to incarcerate black men as a form of replacement of slavery.

It is big business. (ALEC represents the financial interests of corporations.)

It makes politicians look tough.

"The War on Crime" literally, wins votes and Democrats are as guilty of it as Republicans.

Mass incarceration is the new slavery. Which was replaced by Convict Leasing, lynchings, the Ku Klux Klan, the Jim Crow segregation laws. And Yet it was only AFTER and DESPITE the Civil Rights Act that Mass Incarceration became the 'solution'.

But there is hope. Hillary Clinton is planning to redesign the incarceration regime (that her husband dramatically escalated) as started by Obama; the first ever President to visit a Prison and who oversaw the first drop in incarceration numbers in 40 years.

As Trump says (with glee). "In the good old days this wouldn't happen (blacks protesting at his events) because they treated them rough. They'd carry them out on a stretcher."

It's a mess and this documentary makes Ia right good job of exposing it.

OK it's very one-sided and it is represented by extremely articulate coloured American middle class academics and commentators.

But they were not always thus.

I, for one, think it's a thing of greatness and I'd urge you to watch it.