Ava DuVernay has returned to the US Constitution with 14th, a documentary about the Fourteenth Amendment and recent efforts to weaken it. The film closed the New York Film Festival and reaches Netflix on December 4, a month after the US midterm elections.
Ava DuVernay’s new documentary, 14th, has had its premiere as the closing-night film of the New York Film Festival, according to a review published by The Hollywood Reporter on October 10.
Key Details
- Director: Ava DuVernay
- Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes
- Cinema release: November 27
- Netflix release: December 4
What It Is About
The film examines the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, recent attempts to strip it of its power, and what it represents for American democracy.
It is a sequel or companion to 13th, DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated documentary, which dealt with the Thirteenth Amendment, the abolition of slavery, and the prison system.
What Critics Are Saying
The Hollywood Reporter’s review summed the film up as “infuriating and inspiring in the right ways”, calling it “a cogent, urgent clarion call”.
Like its predecessor, the reviewer wrote, it is “more a history lesson and a model of carefully composed rhetoric than a screed”.
Not every notice was as warm. IndieWire’s review, while engaging seriously with the film’s argument, described it in its headline as “overstuffed”.
A Question of Timing
The Hollywood Reporter’s critic questioned the release schedule. US voters go to the polls in midterm elections on November 3, and the film will not reach Netflix until a month later.
The reviewer said they were “baffled” by the decision, given how directly the documentary speaks to the moment.
‘Not a Sequel’
DuVernay herself has resisted the word. An interview with IndieWire about the film was headlined: “Ava DuVernay Didn’t Make a Sequel — She Made ‘14th’.”
The Earlier Film
13th was nominated for the Academy Award for best documentary feature. It lost to O.J.: Made in America, as the Hollywood Reporter’s review recalled.
Image: Ava DuVernay at the Peabody Awards in 2017 (file photo). Photo by Stephanie Moreno/Grady College of Journalism via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
