Never in its history has the New York Film Festival opened with a non-fiction film, until now. This year, NYFF will open the festival with Ava DuVernay’s upcoming documentary The 13th, about the nation’s history of racial inequality and the U.S. prison industry. Premiering on September 30th, The 13th will stream on Netflix and have a limited theatrical release on October 7th.
DuVernay was inspired to create the film as “an answer to my own questions about how and why we have become the most incarcerated nation in the world, how and why we regard some of our citizens as innately criminal, and how and why good people allow this injustice to happen generation after generation.”
Much of The 13th exactly why America has the distinction of having the highest rate of incarceration in the world and will feature interviews with an array of politicians, activists, and historians. As well, the documentary will explore the Civil Rights Movement and include today’s Black Lives Matter campaign.
