Thanks to social media the Black Liver Matter movement grew quickly this past year. As a result of racism and excessive violence by the police many protests were held and in some places this resulted in changes being made to the police force (like introducing body cameras). But it’s an issue that unfortunately still has not disappeared. This Netflix documentary not only looks at these events, but takes a much wider view about how the prison population has grown so quickly during the past decennia (25% of all prisoners in the world are American) and why such a high relative percentage consists of Afro-Americans.
It dives into American history and starts with slavery, the abolishment of it and shows how former slaves were looked at and treated. 1915’s The Birth of a Nation is shown as an example, in which they are shown as predators looking to abuse females. Something which no one thought about twice of saying out loud or showing, slowly changed through the years, but new laws targeted specific groups within society giving them a bigger chance of facing jail. It was during the seventies during Nixon and the eighties when Reagan was in office that the people imprisoned grew rapidly.
Director Ava DuVernay presents this information through interviews, shocking imagery and powerful music to get a strong message across. The film gives a good overview of the developments in America and how the prison system was turned into an industry which makes a lot of money and where they are influencing laws so the profits can increase even more. Variety thinks this a documentary which should get the Oscar for best movie. I wouldn’t go as far, but it manages to capture the current events and place them in a story which relates them to American history and its treatment of minorities and development of law.
13th is available through Netflix
Glad you were able to catch up with this movie. I watched it a few weeks ago and found it really engaging (and saddening). It clarified just how bad the situation has become and shed some light on our current election too. 13th is also very well made, which isn’t always the case with this type of documentary.