13th

13th examines the United States prison system and the racial inequality running through the nation's history. Ava DuVernay directs the documentary, which takes its title from the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery and forced labour except as punishment for a crime. Scholars, activists and politicians, among them Angela Davis, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Michelle Alexander and Senator Cory Booker, appear as themselves to trace how that exception, and later policies such as the war on drugs, contributed to a prison population that grew from roughly 200,000 in 1970 to more than two million. The film connects this rise to a longer story that includes slavery, the civil rights movement and the legislation of the 1960s.

The film was released in 2016 and runs 100 minutes. It was written by DuVernay and Spencer Averick, who also produced with Howard Barish, and it has 32 credited cast members. It sits third in DuVernay's filmography, after Middle of Nowhere and Selma, and before A Wrinkle in Time. On IMDb it holds 8.2/10 from around 39,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 7.8/10 from 814 votes. A film critics' rating of 8.8/10 from 105 reviews places it above both audience scores.