Ava DuVernay’s 13TH was the Opening Night World Premiere selection of the 54th New York Film Festival in 2016, the first documentary ever to kick off the festival. The film describes a loophole in the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution that has allowed a progression from slavery to today’s mass incarceration, and features interviews with some of our leading writers, thinkers, and activists. At the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater the next day, several of the key subjects and other special guests came to a Free Talk to discuss the film and its harrowing subject matter.

Take a look at the video above to view this in-depth talk. Participants include Ashley Clark (Film Comment, BFI), Jelani Cobb (The New Yorker, The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress), Malkia Cyril (Center for Media Justice), Kevin Gannon (Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning), and Khalil Gibran Muhammad (Harvard Kennedy School; former Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture).

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