Directorial genius Ava DuVernay takes on mass incarceration in her new documentary, titled The 13th. In the film, DuVernay confronts the long standing history of mass incarceration and its effect on African Americans. Taking on issues like convict leasing and Jim Crow Laws, she explores some sensitive yet hard-hitting topics.

“I got to confront, and had to deal with, the stereotypes I’ve held. A big one for me was the notion that our current national status of having the world’s highest incarceration rate was the doing of Republicans, the doing of conservatives. In analyzing, investigating, and pulling back the layers, you start to see that there’s been political maneuvering that’s crossed party lines in very disturbing ways,” she says.

As previously reported, DuVernay’s documentary will open up the New York Film Festival as the first documentary to do so on September 30th. For those of us who won’t be there, we can look forward to catching it on Netflix October 7th.

ava duvernay mass incarceration documentary — Photo: Netflix

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