Ava Duvernay's timely non-fiction film "The 13th" confronts the harrowing racial climate of America and the country's highly disproportionate population of incarcerated African-Americans. The feature got its name from the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which mandated the abolition of slavery, however, the current system of mass incarceration still echoes the outlawed practice.
In an interview with Indiewire, Duvernay said that the film will be offered "as an answer to [her] 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.”
"The 13th" will debut as the first non-fiction film opener at the upcoming 54th annual New York Film Festival on which runs from September 30 - October 16. Watch the trailer below.