In this gripping and traumatic documentary, Number Thirteen, acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay describes the modern American criminal justice system as a direct continuation of slavery. The Oscar-nominated film reveals the real motives behind America’s record incarceration numbers and deftly recalls the phenomenon’s shameful origins more than a century ago.
The United States holds the record for the most prisons per capita in the world. Lawmakers and corrections system representatives claim this unprecedented slavery is a by-product of protecting your community from violent or destructive criminal activity. But the overwhelming evidence — as presented in the film — suggests otherwise.
The film begins with an overview of the enduring power of the popular myth embodied in the 1915 film “The Birth of a Nation,” which successfully revived the Ku Klux Klan and elevated the image of blacks as crude and vulgar criminals.
This, in turn, is further reflected in the political landscape. Through insightful historical footage and insightful interviews with scientists, journalists, and politicians, the film exposes the culprits that matter most: Nixon’s War on Crime, Reagan’s War on Drugs, Clinton’s Omnibus Crime Act. Each of these movements worked to suppress black emancipation while promoting the prison-industrial complex.
The economics of mass incarceration is another dynamic explored in the film. DuVernay isn’t afraid to single out companies that seek to maximize profits from incarcerated people. It is in the interest of their shareholders to have a steady stream of dead bodies entering their prison facility. These institutions are predominantly African American. Whether the incarceration was justified for petty drug offenses or the country’s disastrous immigration laws, the result has enriched a greedy elite and ruined entire generations of families. The scourge of prison overcrowding shows no signs of abating, and at the same time it is being monetized on such a staggering scale.
Part 13 deserves credit for creating a sense of symmetry across a wide range of story layers, from The Birth of a Nation to Trayvon Martin. It’s a quintessential cinematic portrayal of this disturbing subject.
Directed by: Ava DuVernay
