Skip to main content

Ava DuVernay's documentary '13th' simmers with anger and burns with eloquence [LATimes.com]

 

"It’s President Obama's voice we hear first. “So let’s look at the statistics,” he says. “The United States is home to 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world’s prisoners. Think about that.”

Which is what “13th,” Ava DuVernay’s smart, powerful and disturbing documentary, proceeds to make us do.

As persuasively argued as it is angry, and it is very angry, “13th” follows that statistic with another, equally unsettling one. African Americans make up 6.5% of the American population but 40.2% of the prison populace. While a white male has a 1 in 17 chance of ending up behind bars, for black males it is 1 in 3.

How did this situation happen, where did it come from? How did America end up with the highest rate of incarceration in the world? How did our prison population go from 196,441 in 1970 to nearly 2.3 million today? 

Named after the constitutional amendment that ended slavery, DuVernay’s follow up to best picture Oscar nominee “Selma” reminds us that this state of affairs did not take place overnight.

To continue reading this review by Kenneth Turan, go to: http://www.latimes.com/enterta...1001-snap-story.html

"13th" is available on Netflix.

To learn more, visit the film's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/13THNetflix/

Add Comment

Comments (0)

Post
Copyright © 2023, PACEsConnection. All rights reserved.
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×