For the first time in New York Film Festival history, the event will kick off with a documentary, Ava DuVernay‘s “The 13th.” First announced this summer, the project came as a surprise to nearly everyone, with almost nothing about the project by the director of “Selma” surfacing before it was revealed. And it’s only a small part of what makes the film, about America’s long legacy of mass incarceration and mass oppression of African-Americans, so compelling. Certainly the subject matter, which could very well be spun into a partisan presentation, sees DuVernay holding everyone accountable.
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“I got to confront, and had to deal with, the stereotypes I’ve held. A big one for me was the notion that our current national status of having the world’s highest incarceration rate was the doing of Republicans, the doing of conservatives. In analyzing, investigating, and pulling back the layers, you start to see that there’s been political maneuvering that’s crossed party lines in very disturbing ways,” the director told Film Comment. “The ways in which the black body has been used for such maneuvering, regardless of party, is an ongoing through-line that’s been happening for several generations.”
The New York Film Festival kicks off on September 30th with “The 13th,” and the documentary will be available on Netflix starting on October 7th.
