Ten years ago, the Ava DuVernay documentary “13TH” was released to great acclaim. The film argued that the 1865 constitutional amendment of the title paved the way for mass incarceration of African Americans today thanks to a combination of racism and politics. The New York Times critic Manohla Dargis called it “powerful, infuriating and at times overwhelming,” and the academy nominated it for best documentary.
The film opened the New York Film Festival in 2016, and fittingly DuVernay is back with a follow-up, “14th,” that will close the 64th edition of the event this fall, according to an announcement Tuesday from Film at Lincoln Center, which runs the festival.
Described as a “sequel of sorts,” the new documentary examines the 14th Amendment, which guarantees due process and declares that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” are citizens. The Supreme Court recently blocked President Trump’s effort to ban birthright citizenship, noting, “The framers of the 14th Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’”
According to festival organizers, the film, which they called “a tough-minded reckoning with our moment in crisis,” argues that the amendment’s tenets are under attack and draws “a direct line from the Reconstruction era to today.”
In a statement, DuVernay, whose credits include the Oscar-nominated drama “Selma” and the TV series “Queen Sugar,” said, “On behalf of everyone who worked to tell this story, we hope it leaves people debating, questioning, and, above all, imagining what is still possible,” and added, “There’s no better place to begin that conversation” than the New York Film Festival.
Last week, organizers announced the opening-night selection: “Paper Tiger,” a 1980s family drama from the director James Gray that stars Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Miles Teller.
The festival runs Sept. 25 to Oct. 12. For more information, go to filmlinc.org.
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