Reel Justice Film Series: 13th

Join us for the February installment of the Reel Justice Film Series. The Reel Justice Film Series is a monthly screening and discussion of a film focused on social justice issues. Through engaging with these films and a guided discussion following the screening, students will gain a deeper understanding of the issues facing our society and the role they can play in positive change.

The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary 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 progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from a dazzling array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis.