User reviews

It appears that all reviews of this documentary are in turn reviewed by where people stand politically. I'll side-step that by analyzing this as a film lover who is multi-ethnic and has studied criminology and has worked for many years in the behavioral health system, including rehabilitation and diversion of people entering the judicial system, of all races and social classes. And so it goes...

"13th" or "The 13th" does well in cinematic sense with an interesting photography of the subjects it interviews, and very effective editing. Its juxtapositions of past and present work well for film purposes, although some may object to the sociopolitical comparisons. What was ineffective and annoying was the use of sudden words quite often going into the screen, including the occasional song lyric, not all of which felt like it matched. It often felt like it was there to pad time, which is odd given the wide range of subjects that were interviewed who likely had more to say. That stole from the experience for me, akin to complaints that I've read others make of other documentaries that have done this, e.g. "Nico Icon". As a whole, the narrative starts off potent but loses some traction about 2/3rds through, similar to how I felt about DuVernay's "Selma".

From the criminal justice and political aspect, "13th" does best when it sticks to its thesis: that politicians created a system of mass incarceration for dubious reasons, which are rooted in racism and intentional disenfranchisement, and which is possibly influenced by businesses that make a profit from running prisons and using prisoners as a cheap or free workforce. Yes, it is a long run-on sentence, but that's the thesis. It supports itself well when analyzing politics, and the intentional and unintentional consequences. It alternates between stating one side of a debate as fact (e.g. whether Woodrow Wilson endorsed "Birth of a Nation") and having people who represent both sides of the debate. Regardless, it achieves its effect of a plausible theory, while eliciting horror, anger, and disgust. It is less well supported when exploring the link of current companies that stand to gain from imprisonment. They clearly document that they lobby to expand their business opportunities, including some highly questionable attempts and an inappropriate role in writing laws, but it's less clear that they are a driving force behind the incarcerations. It doesn't help when they use some gross generalizations, e.g. that Aramark sells rotten food. I've seen Aramark serve their generic, fattening cafeteria food to dozens of institutions, and it is never rotten, as in those two awful instances. However, DuVernay does raise an effective alert of a potential threat, that at the very least leaves us questioning the role of commercialization/privatization of the criminal justice system.

She is less successful when she goes off course into tying in Black Lives Matter; it didn't really fit the main narrative, but more of a sub-narrative of law and order being altered by racism. This deserves a larger, longer, more careful focus, as it brings in much debated situations that are too recent, some brought in too briefly. "OJ: Made in America" addresses this sub-topic better, using a greater length.

But as much as DuVernay puts into the film to explore how incarcerations increased, she misses many factors. Racism, explosion in population in the post-war era, political machinations, and introduction of drugs and drug laws are all mentioned. She somehow leaves out the increase in availability in firearms, the development of gangs (ironic, as the Bloods and the Mara Salvatrucha started in US prisons), and a sharp increase in a pro-crime, narcissistic sub-cultures. This is not limited to one racial/ethnic group or socioeconomic group, nor is it recent. But 90s-on gangsta culture has driven in hard a message that life is short; you need to blow massive amounts of money in narcissistic displays of it; that decent jobs will not get you there, that stealing, dealing, grifting and boosting are the only ways; that going to prison is good and inevitable; and that the slightest challenge to your being the center of the universe should be responded to with violence. This culture, when it is bought into by anyone of any group, is the hardest thing to deal with when trying to rehabilitate someone, second only to an abusive family. And I've seen it with white kids from wealthy families, 2nd generation Latinos with hardworking parents with different values and culture, African-American kids with extremely hardworking parents who reject this message, and adults who should know much better. And it is now being exported overseas, with the same result of increased incarceration and police violence. Why skip this? Why not question it as well? DuVernay's thesis suggests that almost everyone in the criminal justice system are only there because of petty drug charges, but she fails to test the null hypothesis. While this is true of a segment of prisoners, it does not apply to all. I bring it up because more than half of felons and people otherwise with repeat criminal justice involvement that I have encountered (of all races) have charges for multiple crimes; it is not just simple possession, or dealing small amounts of lesser drugs, but additional crimes such as those around theft, sudden acts of aggression, forgery, or driving while intoxicated. Are African Americans more exposed to drug crime in general, due to the same factors she lists? And what are the alternatives to incarceration? DuVernay also regrettably skips probing rehabilitation and probation, other than to briefly question the latter as over-done and possibly driven by profit.

In sum, good for discussion of political issues, but not comprehensive in criminology issues.

Most documentaries I have seen lately (on a variety of topics) have been one-sided, so it's fine if you know that going into it. This was well done, though, and shed a lot of light on current events, but also the events leading up to the explosive times we now find ourselves in.

***I took slight issue with the Assata Shakur and Angela Davis section. Do your research and find out why their portrayal is controversial for some (Shakur more than Davis).***

I think everyone should watch this one. Empathy and kindness towards the oppressed will only come for some if they would just educate themselves just a little bit, and then continue on to educate themselves further. We all have much work to do.

The voices and arguments here are not new. Read "The New Jim Crow." Read "Just Mercy." Read any critical analysis of modern American jurisprudence. But this film brilliantly assembles disparate voices (Newt Gingrich and Jelani Cobb? Together? Really?) to tell the story...to tell our story. DuVernay finds our nation's narrative arc. It may be disturbing, but it is also true. As the prison population ticks up, so does your understanding of who we have been and who we are becoming.

This documentary shines a very bright light on two fundamental issues going on in our country. The power of money and it's influence on profitable incarceration and ultimately perpetual slavery. I think it did a fabulous job of being virtually opinion free and making a point to stay focused on facts. That said, I think you have to be open to the information. By that, whether you lean right or left, it's best to digest this documentary with an open mind free of your own political thoughts and opinions.

It's foundation is about slavery and how it plays a role in modern events. It suggests that slavery never went away, it merely reinvented itself to "keep up with the times", always having financial gain being the catalyst for it's continued existence. It really shines when it presents it's case on how mass incarceration is today's slavery. The direct correlation between labor based slavery of yesteryear and labor based incarceration of today is frightening in regards to similarity. You can deny it if you choose to, but if you continue to do so after seeing this presentation, then it's simply because you deny fact.

When Colin Kaepernick protested the flag, though I'm a black man, I was offended by his stance. After watching this documentary however, I look at his point of view with a different lens. I don't entirely agree with his approach, but I have to admit that oppression in this country is still very alive and well. I think too many people look at oppression in traditional views like slavery and the holocaust. But in my opinion, you have to appreciate oppression as the complexity that it is, in order to acknowledge it's existence. Again this documentary does an excellent job of making that case. I won't delve too deep into why, I would just simply recommend watching it.

Word of caution however. This documentary doesn't pull it's punches. It's very dark, very disconcerting regarding politics and if it hits you right, it will make you angry and sad all at once. My two children stayed in the forefront of my mind while watching this, and my heart bled for them throughout, seeing what kind of world that awaits them. I tried to be optimistic about light being brought to this issue in such a well put together way, but I believe that we as a country, still have a ways to go, seeing that someone like Trump could get so close to being President.

Overall, this documentary is very important and should be seen by everyone able. Whether you lean right or left, you cannot deny some of the dirty deals made by politicians to keep their pockets lined via profitable incarceration. Real change needs to happen without question, but this documentary drives home the point that as long as "the almighty dollar" rules, don't expect much change anytime soon.

There is something to be said of a person who does not know when to stop and listen a message that has left them in the past. I watched this film and cried because I have spent my adult life keeping myself and my children out of the "system". I have spent teaching my children that they are more than what white society is trying to pin on them. To read a review that basically regurgitates all of the right leaning rhetoric that, if they watched the film, started at the very beginning of slavery. The US was/is built on the backs of other races that the US has no intention acknowledge. The history that is taught in the US not only white washes (pun intended) but also teaches to have pride in a misrepresented history. To find out what contributions brown and black people made to this country is an elective in college that most white Americans will never even glance at. So to say that this film is one sided...yes it is but white America has had it one sided for over 400 years with all the strength, weight, industrial, and political power at its disposal. SO, go a look at the history from a perspective other than Rush Limbaugh and the like. You just might finally understand that brown and black lives are not a tool for whites to use at a whim but humans that have the RIGHT to be treated the same......

It's not enough to look at one thing to analyze what is wrong with it, is a key point that may get overlooked (or simply not exactly the focus, but between the lines) in Ava DuVernay's powerful indictment of an entire society. When you look at the systemic issues of racism in this country, slavery is the key thing, and the title refers to the 13th amendment to the constitution (need a cinematic reference point, see Spielberg's Lincoln for more), and how one small line in the amendment referring to how slavery is outlawed except, kinda, sorta, for criminals, is paramount in how black people and bodies have been treated in the 150 years since the end of the Civil War.

Because at extremely crucial times in history, like right after the signing of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts, black people were not in positions of power or government or, of course, in business (as this doc goes very in depth on), figures who spouted 'Law and Order' and "War on Drugs" made life not a matter of inconvenience or difficult for blacks, it was more like a refitting or metamorphosis of the sort of principle that went into slavery - keep everyone repressed and afraid, and if they get out of line they have to work and work for no wages and have little rights - into the modern age. Anyone can look up the statistics about how high the prison incarceration rates have gone up over the past 45 years (this despite the fact that, at least since the 1990's, crime rates have gone down generally speaking nationwide), and particularly for African Americans the struggle is that, well, 1 out of 3 black men will go to prison in their lifetimes (vs how much smaller that ratio is for whites).

DuVernay's film is a mix of a variety of talking heads, muckraking information that might be out of a Michael Moore film about things like the ALEC company and the like who formulate actual legislation that is pro-for-profit prisons, and footage from the likes of Nixon and Reagan's most damning points looking "Presidential" while distorting the truth (and the even more damning points from their advisers caught on tape how they actually were going about specifically going after minorities as "threats" to the system). Constantly here, the thing is, nothing is in a vacuum. What we see from The Birth of a Nation by Griffith (incidentally I saw this doc mere hours after seeing Parker's new film, so this almost picks up where he left off), was that there actually was a film that one can say really did inspire people to commit acts of violence: hyping up the KKK to become a dominant force after years of being dormant and unpopular, by painting blacks as the "savages" that will come and rape and pillage your precious whites.

So much in that film may seem awful and hateful now, but also these sorts of images continue to be perpetuated, is what DuVernay is saying, and things are interconnected all the time; what happened with the Central Park Five in 1989; Willie Horton; Bill Clinton's crime bill; Mandatory Mininums; Trayvon Martin and Ferguson; all of these companies making bills for politicians that they can literally *fill in the blank* with their state name, which calls to question what a country is if corporations are writing bills. There's so much to unpack in the film, but as a director DuVernay keeps things moving at a pace that is electrifying but also never hard to take in. I'd want to watch this again more-so to admire the touches of filmmaking, all of the text pieces she puts up to accompany song transitions (Public Enemy for one), than even to take in pieces of information she puts out.

Also fascinating is how she puts the variety of talking heads here: we get people like Charlie Rangel (who was once very tough on crime and regrets it today) and mayor David Dinkins and Cory Booker and Angela Davis, but we also get to see Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist and a sort of spokesman for one of these ALEC type of companies (I forget his name). Having them juxtaposed with figures who have seen how awful this country has treated people of color in the justice system with drug laws that are meant to make criminal (that's a word that comes back again and again) makes for a viewing experience that can be startling but it keeps you on your toes. Will they possibly say something reasonable or reprehensible? Some watching it may not even know who Norquist is - I should think DuVernay made this film to last, not just for the 2016 year, albeit clips from Clinton and Trump, the latter some of the explosive racist moments at his campaign stops in the crowds, make it timely - but it shouldn't matter too much.

13th gives you a massive amount of facts and statistics, but it's never a lecture, and if it's a plea it's that people should realize real reforms don't or really can't happen overnight. Minds and attitudes need to change on a more fundamental level, where *centuries* of oppression have kept metastasizing like a cancer. And at the center of it is DuVernay creating a conversation and narrative that inspires a great many emotions, mostly sadness and anger, but is just as palpable as in her film Selma. A must-see.

The documentary is an excellent summary of American History. To a larger degree it is important to address some of the comments made. I find several people's comments such as, "don't do the crime, if you can't do the time" indicative of the very systemic racism that was the impetus for the need of such a piece. The comments are very telling and actually say more about the people writing them than do their intentions to demean the documentary by leaving negative reviews.

The fact that people can disregard this for the myriad of completely shallow reasons such as, "I stopped watching when I realized it was against Trump and for Hillary" is laughable. The reality is that you don't want to accept America's REAL history. The documentary was well over an hour and the section about the presidential race was a minute fraction of that.

Again, shallow reasons such as this speak volumes about the people leaving them. America's history is what it is. None of us are proud of these particular aspects or at least you shouldn't be but in an effort to get better we must first accept the truth. This is the truth. Acceptance is the first step towards getting better. It is so not about Trump or Hillary. I almost don't think you actually watched because no reasonably intelligent person would dismiss the piece as you guys did for the reasons you chose.

The documentary is an excellent summary of American History. This doc should required viewing in school. You cannot deny the facts and of one chooses to do so, then You have to be profiting from this current system to criminalize fir financial gain. The fact that people can disregard this for the myriad of completely shallow reasons such as, "I stopped watching when I realized it was against Trump and for Hillary" is laughable. The reality is that you don't want to accept America's REAL history. Denial is no longer an option. I know many American families are currently benefiting From the prison industrial complex, whether shareholders in the private prisons or contracts provided for the necessities required in prisons. No longer can black bodies fund the wealth on America. Following the timeline after slavery was abolished in 1865 the landscape was set in motion for the current climate. Americans stop living in you're bubble, sacrifice is required from us all to stop this. The system is so ingrained within the stability of the middle class family so there will be denial in rhetorical speech that this is no so bad, blacks are criminals and need tobe incarcerated but this is image of us is not new. History speaks the truth about America's original sin with slavery.

Let me start by saying any doco or movie that aims to illustrate the endemic inequality in the US is to be applauded. '13th' is no exception. It contains a lot of information that should open the eyes of many. Having said that, it is not a great documentary.

My first objection is the music. While the songs used intermittently were effective, the score throughout was beyond heavy handed and distracting. The music was in direct competition with the people speaking and I, at least, found it difficult to follow along. It just never stopped and played throughout the movie. It was also unnecessarily emotive. I mean, the subject matter alone was pretty emotionally heavy, I didn't need any musical cues about how to feel. The other more technical complaint i have is that visually, it was a bit lacking. We see lots of talking heads from different angles, jumping from one person to the next quite rapidly. The occasional break to newspaper article was beyond welcome. There were still pics and such now and then, but not enough to switch it up. More graphic illustrations would have helped.

As for the most important part -- the information -- it could have been more balanced and meatier. I'm not saying the info was not true (definitely not!) but there could have been more statistics and facts to back up the points. For example, there are the shocking numbers on the rise for incarcerations. Great, very effective, but why not simultaneously show the stats for whites, hispanics, etc. Compare the percentages. There were some other moments where I really wanted them to give more information to better paint the time and place, or give a better perspective. I could have done with fewer people 'teaching' me and repeating a lot of the same things.

I would still recommend this movie to just about anyone. It was worthwhile, but just did not deserve all the praise it received as a documentary. 6.5/10

This is the best movie of the year. Ava DuVernay elegantly and simply shot, 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 loopholes in our own amendment are what have allowed the systemic race in the prison system to thrive.

It paved the way for the 1994 Federal Crime Bill, implicates ALEC as a dangerous political lobbying group that provides sample bills, and uses our own history against us. That's not a criticism: she is right and brilliant to do so. The documentary explores the growth industry of prisons and CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) which stands to profit and encourages lawmakers to keep their prisons full for the labor they provide our capitalist society.

This film explores human rights violations and is an indictment against a harmful system of the prison industrial complex. You won't leave this film not remembering which amendment did this or who has stood to gain from its expansion. This is a love letter to Black and Latino Americans who have been affected, as well as their families, to say "I know how we got here". Every high school should require watching this film.

I can't find suitable worlds to describe my feeling after watching this documentary. The American democracy seems to be a cover for a horrible monstrous inhumane system of exploitation and criminalisations. Highly recommend.

I want to be clear that I am not reviewing the message presented by this film, a flaw in documentary reviewing that I find very common, even (especially?) among professional movie critics.

Instead, I want to address how this film works as a film in delivering its message.

13th is clearly intended to shock its audience. Its message is a wholly unpleasant reality to deal with - the idea that institutional racism is arguably as prevalent in the US today as it has ever been and that it serves the wealthy in maintaining their power and wealth. I consider myself to be relatively well-informed about the privatisation of the jail system in the US and other matters that the film highlights, such as police brutality and attempts to disenfranchise black Americans in many states. However, I did find 13th shocking still, and felt at the end of it that I had learned more than I perhaps even wanted to know. The film commanded my attention and, largely, stayed on topic and linked its points together credibly.

Having said this, I did find that the pace of information delivered and the rapid editing was simply overwhelming at times. More than once, I had to wind back and listen to a point again, simply because my brain was still trying to register what was pouring into it. This made the film feel like a deliberate assault on the senses.

A good illustration of this is the multitude of talking heads that are brought into the movie one after the other, all facing different directions, though they're the only thing on screen at the time, with barely a pause for breath between each point. The effect was as if there were 15 people in a room all talking over each other, but the camera is only ever on one of them at a time. Clearly these are all individual interviews, filmed separately, so why does director Ava DuVernay feel the need to present them all in such a haphazard manner? It felt to me that the only reason for this is to make the viewer disoriented as all of this information comes rushing at them. In short, to make them less able to critically analyse what is being said. It feels like the technique used by someone who isn't telling the truth. Now I am not arguing that this is the case here - I don't think that it is - so why make the style like this? I think that the message of this movie is shocking enough without the need to pummel the audience into submission with the way it is edited and I think that it's a shame that this was the choice made. With some audiences I imagine it will backfire and they will feel alienated by a message they may otherwise have accepted.

Overall, I definitely applaud this film for its ability to enlighten audiences about an important issue, but I fault it for choosing to do so in such an overwhelming manner, which makes real-time critical assessment of its message difficult.

13th is a great documentary about the history of race relations in the U.S. and the development of the atrocity that is the prison industrial complex. The only problem I have with it, is that it should have been a docuseries instead of a film. It's too short to properly delve into the subject matter. Race relations, the war on drugs, the war on crime, privatization of prisons, mass incarceration-these topics are too great and the history is too rich to adequately and thoroughly describe in just two hours.

Not only should this documentary be mandatory in ALL high schools and colleges in BOTH the USA & Canada, and win the Academy award---Ava DuVernay honourably deserves a Nobel Peace prize!!!!

The title refers to the 13th Amendment, which was passed back in the late 19th century following the end of the Civil War. This reform was set to put an end to slavery, and when it passed, many thought it marked the end of racial discrimination that tattered our country (especially the South). Regrettably so, the unfair treatment against African-Americans still lingered, and it's a problem that still remains active to this day. While many influential figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. contributed to such political movements such as the Civil Rights of 1964, many African-Americans are struggling to find for their freedom in various areas. One of which involves the law enforcement, and how the prison system has continued to react reasonable towards crime committed by the white community, while given an unfair treatment towards the black community. Directed by Ava DuVernay who last took charge of the MLK biopic 'Selma', this thought-provoking documentary focuses on the history of the mass incarceration of African-Americans, and how it shed light on America's corrupt practice of racial inequality in the prison system. With the mass incarceration rate growing rapidly year by year, this film offers a deep intake of on how African-American have fallen victim to unfair treatment by the legal system.

Ava DeVernay's purpose for this documentary is not to offer a bias sentiment on our country's legal system but to open the spotlight of an issue that has put racial tensions and the law enforcement into bitter collision. Embarking on the history of the 13th Amendment, this film pedals on the harrowing history of unethical conduct against the African-American community including lynching and hate crimes such as the murder of Emmett Till. DeVarnay powerfully supports the material with interviews of college professors and archive news footage of protests, beatings, and police brutality -- all of which are very haunting to watch. DeVernay also gears in the effort of touching on various policies the government's attempts on passing policies in reaction to the epidemic of prejudice treatment against the colored community. A vast majority of this material leads to the vital commentary of our country's prison system which has exhibited an alarming amount of imprisonment of wrongly accused black citizens. The further the film goes on, the more heart- stirring it proceeds as it grows more and more evident on how our society has fallen shallow in justice against the historically underprivileged demographic. Most importantly, it touches firmly on an issue that still remains wildly relevant to this day, especially when you turn on the news. Although some will argue the film plays on their emotions, it only offers a unpleasant truth of a controversial issue.

13th is a harrowing, thought-provoking documentary that makes an enthralling delivery of a haunting issue that has affected our society in many decades, while offering a crucial historical lesson on the clash between race and law enforcement. It is not pleasant to sit through nor does it offer a bias agenda. But most importantly, it is a documentary that deserves your attention.

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.

My wife and I watched this when I first came out and it had a tremendous impact on how we view America in terms of race.

We recently watched it again as a viewing party in order to generate discussions on issues of racism and the impact this film had on those in the room was powerful!

Well-communicated and designed documentary on the forms of subtle slavery that came after slavery ending (a "must see")

The "idealistic" story of America is one of a country that had an ugly history of slavery, denounced and rejected it, and has since been progressing towards a better and fairer society, albeit imperfectly. The alternative "cynical" story is that racism has been a core defining feature of America since its founding and that all that has changed over time has been its form.

13th comes down emphatically on the side of the second version of the story, and sets out to argue the case. The first half of the film is quite strong, with numerous shocking and discomforting segments.

The film traces the history of how slavery transitioned to Jim Crow and most recently to mass incarceration. It shows how law-and-order agendas have been loaded with racial implications that in many cases were not just undertones, but front and center.

One criticism I have is that the film loses focus at the midway point, when it ought to be consolidating its key message. It seems like the director is trying too hard to squeeze in a laundry list of "checklist" issues, like corporate influence on public policy, that are less strongly connected to the main thesis and serve to confuse and distract.

My second criticism is one that is also generally directed towards many other Netflix documentaries these days. The director takes a weighty topic and explores it from one editorial angle, yet there is not much genuine reckoning with alternative hypotheses, let alone value-neutral exploration. Indeed, it seems the very object of this genre of documentary is to "make the case" for a certain viewpoint. This becomes all the more unfulfilling when the principle is applied not just to the substance of the film, but to its style. I routinely found it difficult to follow what person was making what point, because of how the clips were spliced together to present the narrative. There was at least one sequence where the interviewees were literally completing each other's sentences. The second half of the film would have benefitted from more "show don't tell," as too many talking heads had to get their moment under the spotlight. Surely a truly powerful film is one that leaves viewers to reckon with their own inferences, rather than laying out the narrative in chapter and verse.

A sociocultural hierarchy with strong racial or ethnic elements and a seemingly permanent underclass is distressingly common in many parts of the world, both now and in the past. Is America no better than these other places? Is it worse? Is there a virtuous base to the American story, flawed as it is? How might the various versions of the American story weave together? All difficult questions that I'm not sure this film has truly grappled with, with rigour and sincerity. Of course, that would be an unfair expectation, weighty as these questions are. 13th starts out strong with a poignant and thought-provoking retrospective, but then loses focus and falls flat.

A stirring and informative documentary on the disturbing systematic criminalization of black people in the United States, from the periods of slavery to civil rights protests to current mass incarceration. This is a large scope for a documentary and I applaud Ava DuVernay for maintaining a clear, concise and comprehensive overview that never drags or diminishes in meaning or the overarching thesis. Neither does she run down any rabbit holes or ruminates on a single subtopic, as tempting as it might be. It's an ideal introduction, but more importantly, it clarifies that this is nothing new, but the continuation of centuries of oppression. It may look different, and smell different, and talk different, but it's still the same. And as relevant as ever. As an aside, the presentation was visually stylish, and the time periods covered cleverly and rousingly segmented through music and lyrics of the time. Highly recommended.

I was moved by the film. The narrative structure was effective: archival photographs and video footage; interspersed with documented interviews from a balanced (somewhat) and diverse range of authorities on the topic; and peppered with effective graphics mirroring the topic and highlighting an effectively chosen song/musical score. The moment that stays with me most effectively? Just the realization that there is a term for this: "Prison Industrial Complex" = corporations operating in prisons and profiting from punishment. Wow!

Score Grid (out of 4):

Script/Story: 4

Cinematography/Visual Effect: 3

Editing: 4

Sound/Musical Score: 4

Production Design: 4

Acting/Performance: N/A

This documentary had a point of view, and it presented it very persuasively. The strong narrative push, and its emotional and intellectual appeal, is the film's strongest point. Its weakest point was its imbalance. While it presented a politically balanced picture of the situation (political being defined as in our two- party system where both Republicans and Democrats were presented as contributing to the problem), I feel it needed more balance on the racial component.

It is an excellent piece of film making and an extremely effective product in the documentary category. I particularly like the narrative structure, where interviews are cut between archival footage and textual and auditory storytelling. I was extremely moved by this compelling work.

Was willing to give this a try, I'm open minded. But the premise that the number of African Americans in prisons is connected to slavery is preposterous. The documentary became a one-sided political agenda. It was too long, too meandering, and failed to support its objective.