Movie #1315 ........................."13th"

Movie #1315 "13th" is a not-to-be-missed documentary that is nominated for an academy award this Sunday.  It deals with the 13th amendment which declared that, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."  It shows you how our government has gotten around this amendment through all the years to the present,  mostly with mass incarceration, because there is a loophole above ("except as a punishment for crime...") I must say that I am a tough audience for documentaries; i.e. I don't like a lot of them because they seem to go on and on to me (they don't seem edited well nor edited enough) and they tend not to use the variety of ways to get across information that are available (and depend on just interview or whatever).  But this is one of the best I have ever seen ---- from the opening statistics that are given to us (that we have 5% of the total world population but have 40% in our jails, and there's a huge statistic of how many of those jailed people have been black) until the very end (where I was moved to tears about all the violence that has occurred these past couple of months in the streets of our cities), I was glued to the screen (it can be streamed on netflix right now).  I noticed that there were so many 5's (which is what I would give it), but then occasionally a 1 --- so I wondered what could be the argument against this obviously fine film (done by a female director, I might add) and the major accusation was that it has an agenda ---- to me, an agenda in documentaries is a focus, and  what good  documentary doesn't have one?  If the accusation is that it leans Republican or Democrat, that's incorrect because this problem of  mass incarceration has been deeply imbedded in our society since the Civil War and through most of the presidencies, whether they were one or the other....one other argument I read was that the film offers no solutions ---- but, once again, a good documentary might support the argument and not give solutions ---- that seemed obvious to me with this problem because it is understood that  there are no easy solutions at all --- the film's purpose was to bring to light a huge problem we have and to educate us on it. In addition, the film was meant  to open some eyes by showing us historically how we've gotten to where we are and why we possibly could have more problems right now --- as long and as informative as this film is, there were still some parts of the problem that weren't addressed, so I hope I can see more on this subject.  But my reaction to this film  was a wow!  not-to-be-missed film here.  Everyone should see it.  5 out of 5 stars.

"13TH"         2016            1 HOUR 40 MINS

In this thought-provoking documentary, scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom.  Many people interviewed including:  Angela Davis, Corey Booker, and Newt Gingrich.

Here are comments by  Ava DuVernay, Oscar nominee for her documentary "13th" 

My thanks to the Academy for amplifying the injustices of mass criminalization and mass incarceration that we chronicle in '13th.' Now more than ever, it is important to educate ourselves, explore our shared history and elevate our awareness about matters of human dignity.

It’s an honor be included in a category with such fine documentarians and to be nominated in a year that truly embraces and celebrates inclusion within our creative community.