The 54th New York Film Festival opened last Friday with Ava DuVernay’s powerful documentary, 13TH, which deconstructs the pattern of mass criminalization of African-Americans in the United States since the passing of the 13th amendment. On this week’s podcast, hear a panel of the film’s subjects continue the conversation at the first free talk in this year’s NYFF Live series.

The film compiles interviews with influential activists and leaders, including Angela Davis, Michelle Alexander, Newt Gingrich, and Senator Cory Booker, to tell the tragic and infuriating story of institutionalized racism in this country. The day after the premiere, we welcomed Ashley Clark (BFI, The Guardian, Film Comment), 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 (former Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) for a panel discussion moderated by the Film Society’s Deputy Director Eugene Hernandez.

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