In the form of an easily overlooked provision in its meaning, the 13th amendment's authors left themselves a sizable and very exploitable loophole when it was enacted in 1865. The Netflix documentary "13th" is about this provision, which changes slavery from a legal business model to an equally legal way to punish offenders. The first documentary to begin the New York Film Festival in its 54-year history will have its premiere tonight with "13th." The film's director, Ava DuVernay, offers an uncompromising, knowledgeable, and in-depth look at the American prison system, focusing on how the prison industrial complex impacts people of color.
Each interviewee is photographed in a setting that suggests an industrial setting, visually supporting the idea that prison serves as a factory producing the free labor that the 13th Amendment purportedly dismantled by outlawing slavery.