Ava DuVernay’s first documentary in 10 years — titled “14th,” after the constitutional amendment that it traces — will arrive on Netflix on Dec. 4. That wasn’t always DuVernay’s plan: At one point, she wanted it to be released ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“It was Stacey Abrams who said to me, ‘You shouldn’t do that,’” DuVernay said Thursday at the Global Women’s Summit hosted by The Washington Post. She added that Abrams, the former two-time candidate for Georgia governor and voting rights activist, thought the film “will be more needed and more instructive after” the elections.
Abrams is interviewed in “14th,” which follows the history of the amendment that grants birthright citizenship, protects due process and guarantees equal protection under the law. DuVernay felt compelled to make the documentary after the Trump administration tried to end birthright citizenship via executive order, setting off a wave of litigation before the Supreme Court affirmed in June that nearly everyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen.
“What she really was saying to me is that the opposition is not going away,” DuVernay told The Post’s Geoff Edgers, explaining why Abrams thought it made sense for “14th” to arrive after Nov. 3. “These ideas are not going away, the money behind it is not going away, and it will come back with a vengeance.”
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