Ava DuVernay’s ‘14th’ turns the focus to a United States Constitution amendment
Nearly a decade after her Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning premiere of 13th, Ava DuVernay is going to be back for more with 14th on Netflix, pivoting her attention to the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Passed in the debris of the Civil War in 1868, the 14th Amendment outlined the foundational principles of citizenship, equal protection, and due process. The citizenship clause grants citizenship to all individuals born or naturalised in the US, a turn of the tables on the Dred Scott decision that barred enslaved people from citizenship. The equal protection clause is meant to provide every citizen equal protection under the law.
Meanwhile, the due process clause prevents the state from depriving any individual of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law. In short, the Netflix documentary titled 14th turns its lens on the very amendment designed to end hierarchy on humanitarian grounds, which keeps igniting debates and discussions that refuse to fade.
Scheduled to premiere later this year, 14th aims to bring the constitutional fight from the footnotes to the present, detailing the extensive fight over the amendment that has been going on for 150 years.
Pieced together with deep archival scholarship and eye-grabbing contemporary tabloid headlines, the upcoming Netflix documentary features high-profile attorneys, politicians, historians, and cultural figures who open up about the question America has yet to find answers: “Who gets to belong?”
14th brings together a diverse range of scholars, lawyers, curators, cultural workers, and political players from the US. According to Tudum, DuVernay has conducted over 50 expert interviews to construct the documentary, including conversations with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Anna Paulina Luna, former Senator Alex Padilla, lawyers Sherrilyn Ifill, Robert Chang, and Stacey Abrams, conservative author Donald T Critchlow, and cultural critic Hasan Piker.
Also featured in the series of DuVernay’s interviews are Pulitzer Prize winners Eric Foner and David Blight.
“If 13th asked who gets caged, then 14th asks who gets counted,” DuVernay tells the streamer. “This is not a film about the past tense of freedom. I’m not interested in asking you to look back. The film asks what kind of country is being written beneath our feet now… while we’re busy believing the stories we’ve all been told.”
DuVernay directs 14th from ARRAY. She also produces alongside Spencer Averick, Tammy Garnes, and Paul Garnes. Although a release date isn’t available, check back later for more information.