Ava DuVernay uncovers the roots of mass incarceration in 13TH documentary trailer

Ava DuVernay recently debuted the critically acclaimed TV drama Queen Sugar. Now comes a nonfiction project: 13TH, a documentary about the U.S.’s prison system. The trailer released today previews the film’s exploration of the prison industrial complex, and how mass incarceration disproportionately affects black Americans. It homes in on what is described as a “loophole” in the 13th Amendment, which excuses the very concept being abolished in the cases of “punishment for crime.” And lest you doubt the political potency of what DuVernay has made, the preview takes both 2016 presidential candidates to task.

13TH is serving as the opening night selection of the New York Film Festival this year and will premiere Friday. In a statement, DuVernay said the film “was made as an answer to my own questions about how and why we have become the most incarcerated nation in the world, how and why we regard some of our citizens as innately criminal, and how and why good people allow this injustice to happen generation after generation.” The documentary will be available October 7 on Netflix, and also have a limited theatrical release.