The Best
Documentary nomination was what finally made me get my butt in gear to see 13th, even though I’ve wanted
to see it for a while. I can take streaming
movies for granted sometimes – movies in theaters have to be seen within a
limited time frame, and DVDs from Netflix have to be watched before they send
you new ones, but there’s no real rush with a streaming movie. I’m glad I finally saw it, though, because it’s
very, very good.
Made by
Ava DuVernay (Selma, Queen Sugar, the upcoming A Wrinkle in Time(!!!),) 13th is the story of the 13th
Amendment and all that followed, a documentary about the groundwork that was
laid to keep Black people in chains even as they were being freed from
slavery. It’s an ambitious project that
covers a lot of ground, but the crux of it comes down to one dependent clause
in the amendment: slavery is abolished, “except
as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” The documentary asserts that direct lines can
be drawn between the slavery of centuries past and the criminal justice system
of today.
There’s
so much here. The almost instant post-abolition
shift to create an image of Black people as dangerous criminals, portraying
them as crooks, murderers, and rapists (of white women.) Using prisoners as a work force, from chain
gangs all the way to present-day corporations whose products are made by
inmates earning pennies. Painting the
Civil Rights movement, including the non-violence advocates, as dangerous
radicals. The deep ties between
politicians and the many groups who profit from keeping the prisons
filled. The campaign to view addiction
as a crime rather than a disease. The
suffrage denied to convicted felons. The
Black Panthers, the war on drugs, superpredators, Black Lives Matter, Donald
Trump – this documentary is packed.
Running
through it all like that, 13th
might sound overstuffed, but it really isn’t.
DuVernay builds her case gradually, tying even the most seemingly-disparate
threads together from over 150 years of Black demonization and criminalization,
and I feel like anyone watching the film would have to try incredibly hard to
suggest the connections she’s drawn are mere coincidence. I won’t say it’s incontrovertible, because
goodness knows how contradictory people can be, but it would take a real talent
for self-denial to dismiss all that DuVernay has laid out.
Stylistically,
it’s very well-done. It has the usual
mix of talking heads, news clips, photographs, and voiceovers, and music is
used really effectively throughout. I
also love the simple, powerful device of flashing the word “CRIMINAL” across a
black screen in bold white letters every time someone says it, emphasizing how
often it’s been spoken, how it was made to creep into our subconscious without
our knowing. And I was bowled over by a
montage of Trump egging on his supporters to attack protesters. I’ve seen these clips juxtaposed with footage
of the violence at his rallies before, but DuVernay takes it a step further by
incorporating old footage from the Civil Rights movement. Given Trump’s repeated refrains about what
you could to protesters in “the good old days,” it’s chilling to hear those
words and see video of Black people being attack on sidewalks, at lunch counters,
on marches, especially being met by police with dogs and hoses.
Warnings
No comments:
Post a Comment