DuVernay boldly explores how prisons and detention centers are making a profit off of free prison labor, most of it done by black men which begs the question, is slavery really dead?

| Dec 29, 2021

DuVernay brings to bear all of her cinematic and storytelling skills to wrap a thoroughly researched investigation into a most compelling documentary about the long lasting but little known effects of 13th Amendment.

| Nov 30, 2021

This fierce and fearless documentary is so brilliantly constructed that its message is inspiring as well as infuriating.

| Nov 30, 2021

Ava DuVernay's 13TH is essential viewing on the history of racism in America - and how the warehousing of black men in contemporary corporate prisons is rooted in the slavery of the past.

| Nov 30, 2021

DuVernay underscores the blatant yet rarely discussed clause within the 13th amendment of the Constitution.

| Nov 30, 2021

Ferociously intelligent, rigorous and impassioned, DuVernay's film is a battle cry for democracy.

| Nov 30, 2021

Silence is oppression, and by being silent we become tolerant. Impressive documentary, terrifying truth. Ava DuVernay channels understanding today through the knowledge of the past. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 9/10 | Mar 1, 2021

13th will fill your mouth with bitter anger but, if there's a way forward, it's one a filmmaker like DuVernay can get behind. There's hope in the power of imagery.

| Jan 5, 2021

Ava DuVernay's scathing documentary explores the injustices at the heart of America's painful racial history by examining the systemic failures of the penal system.

| Oct 27, 2020

[Ava DuVernay] has made a searing, detailed exploration of racial inequality as seen through the prison system.

| Original Score: A+ | Jul 11, 2020

..a thoroughly persuasive and artfully crafted argument.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 4, 2020

While enormously stimulating and often angering, the film is not without its flaws.

| Jun 25, 2020

Ava DuVernay probes the dark history of racial inequality the haunts the U.S., paying particular attention to the country's prison system and the way it targets and exploits African-Americans.

| Jun 22, 2020

Brutal, necessary watch for all who want to understand why America operates with impunity re its horrendous treatment of Black people. Incisive and shocking, moreso now than when it debuted in 2016.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jun 7, 2020

...13th explores legal measures enacted to ensure African Americans are not truly free and equal, from drugs laws that disproportionately affect them to voter suppression ...

| Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 31, 2019

From Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to Bulworth, the cause of political injustice always comes back to corruption. Ava DuVernay's documentary, 13th, follows a bit too glibly in this tradition-though it also, and admirably, transcends it.

| Sep 18, 2019

Systems of oppression tend to reinvent themselves, according to 13TH. Is there a way to move past them?

| Sep 11, 2019

What we have here is an honest-to-god portfolio of horror and insanity, an exceedingly well-structured talking-head essay on the (black) body politic...

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 15, 2019

With clarity and focus, Ava DuVernay traces a history of inequality that has resulted in the United States having the highest incarceration rate in the world, in her documentary, 13TH.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 4, 2018

The film transcends its plainness with the sheer force of its intelligence and content.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 4, 2018