Essay On The Movie 13th

Ava DuVernay’s 2016 documentary, 13th, examines how the United States has globally acquired the largest prison population, majority of that population being African-American. The film is directed and edited by DuVernay and Spencer Averick, whose choices as a team have been called “powerful, infuriating and at times overwhelming” by the New York Times. 13th, named after the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution, explores how systemic racism and dog-whistle politics in the United States has fueled the rapid growth of our current prison system, causing the mass incarceration of black and brown people. The 13th amendment, ratified in 1865, at first glance abolishes slavery. However, there is one circumstance in America that makes enslavement

legal, imprisonment:

"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, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." This loophole allowed for exploitation of minority communities after the civil war until today.

In my opinion 13th can be categorized as a surrealist documentary, the film is filled with shocking imagery and imaginative juxtapositions. Early surrealist documentaries are said to have been antagonist to the original state of cinema and its traditionalism. Similarly, 13th is a retaliatory strike against the way in which we are accustomed to American history being told, in hindsight both are addressing the same breed of traditionalism. The documentary opens with an animation of the world map, the United States is highlighted. The 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, is the voice of god:

“Let’s look at the statistics in the United States is home to 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world's

prisoners…”

I would also like to take a step back to discuss the version of the world map that DuVernay presents to the audience. In 1992, activist and educator Jane Elliot proved on national television that the world map being used in most schools across America was a personification of the flat out racism in America, where the United States and Europe appear larger than Africa and China. Even after this presentation many students were still exposed to this incorrect depiction of the globes geography. The grouping of the correctly scaled world map and the voice-over by Barack Obama allows the audience to understand just how out of control the prison system truly is without being completely transparent.

The audience is provided with the facts, in order to develop their own opinions and interpretations. However, that is not to say there isn’t a subtle nudge in a certain direction. This nudge can be somewhat unavoidable in the expository mode. 13th is speaking on the behalf of an entire race and about their experiences from chattel slavery until the Black Lives Matter Movement and DuVernay set out to prove a point.

Next, we then are introduced to the documentaries key players, the experts.

DuVernay’s experts include intellectuals and activists, such as Michelle Alexander, Van Jones and Angela Davis to name a few. Throughout the film there are moments where the commentary serves as the voice of god to the previous image before there is a cut to the confessional style interview. The commentary, animation, and thoughtful combinations of audio and archival photos speak directly to the viewer throughout the film. The use of these techniques leads me to gather that DuVernay is taking a new age approach to the expository mode of

documentary.

The expository mode of documentary film presents information in a rhetorical way, in order to positively persuade the audience. Amongst the 13th’s experts or points of view, there are few who oppose the film’s rhetoric, two notable points of opposition are the interview of Grover Norquist, a board member of the American conservative union, who speaks entirely in the past tense and the original footage of presidents: Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Trump. This suggests that DuVernay is demonstrating that these points of few always sustain the authoritative position; in order to educate the audience she has to switch these roles effectively. In regard to discussing race related issues in America, especially one as newly exposed as the ongoing prison industrial complex fueled by the over-incarceration of black people, specifically black men, stubborn disbelief may arise in the minds of the viewers. I think that is why DuVernay uses the voice of god techniques, because people believe the authoritative voice.