Christopher Lee

Case StudyAva DuVernay

Ava DuVernay not only directed the documentary 13th, which documents the roots of
mass incarceration to the 13th amendment and slavery but also has a deeper connection to the
source material than viewers might know. Born and raised in Compton, DuVernay remembers
spending her summer vacations as a young child in Alabama. Her father's family has worked the
farmlands in Lowndes County, near the city of Selma, once rampant with the Ku Klux Klans
presence and influencethe topic of another DuVernay film Selma.1 Describing Alabama,
DuVernay writes, There was no one protecting anyone out here. You're in the open fields. You're
housing and feeding civil rights workers that come in. Someone comes and burns a cross on your
lawn. You can't call the police 'cause it was the police. As a child, her father witnessed the
protest march from Montgomery to Selma. Furthermore, her aunt Zenobia Whiting remembers
the tests people had to take at the polls and the poll taxes they had to pay to vote. Avas maternal
family was affected as well. Her maternal great-grandmothers family relocated from Texas to
California during the Great Migration. DuVernays grandmother who was born and raised in
south Central LA, suffered discrimination in the segregated Westoften forgotten in discussions
of segregation.2
During the 1980s and 1990s, Ava DuVernay grew up in Compton, one of many cities,
such as Long Beach, Lynnwood, South Gate, that were heavily policed communities. DuVernay
describes the vivid presence of policemen in her city: Police officers coming to peoples houses
on my block. Cruisers going up the street, ghetto birds overhead. Thats where I grew up. Police
officers didnt make DuVernay feel safe but afraidnot of whatever the officers were coming
1 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/selma-ava-DuVernay-60-minutes/
2 Watch starting at 9:08: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUgQdpSDSN8

for but of them.3 She would think Oh boy, what are they coming for? And who are they
coming after? Her intimacy with mass incarceration and police brutality is rooted from direct
experiences of daily life in Compton. By interacting with neighbors on parole and families of
imprisoned people, DuVernay came into direct contact with the criminal-justice system. She
recalls asking friends their weekend plans. They would respond, Oh, Im going to see my father.
Hes locked up.
When DuVernay entered college, she chose English literature and African American
studies as her majors. Her education as African American major gave context to her narrative
and experience of childhood.4 Studying African Liberation theory and history of oppressed
people instilled within DuVernay the desire to tell stories about African Americans. After
dabbling in journalism, DuVernay used her love for film as her medium to communicate
powerful ideas. She made a number of acclaimed films, one of which was the universally
embraced Selma. After Selma, DuVernay began her next project, 13th. Because of her familiarity
with mass incarceration and racial injustices in the criminal justice system, DuVernay started the
13th documentary as an examination of the prison industrial complex and the prison/punishment
for profit. DuVernay describes her anger and disturbance that more people werent aware that
multi-billionaire dollar companies were profiting off black bodies and people from her
community.5 As the project further developed, the documentary traced the historical roots of
mass incarceration back to the passage of the 13th amendment, which outlawed slavery but
allowed it to be used as a punishment for criminals. The documentary asserts that because of this
clause, a different form of slavery has been perpetuated: mass incarceration. Lobbying groups,
corporations, such as ALEC, and politicians, including our own presidents, have used the War on
3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEMmj1wlMTc
4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEMmj1wlMTc
5 Watch starting at 2:50: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUgQdpSDSN8.

Drugs and the mass policing and imprisonment of African Americans, including also Hispanic
minorities, for political expediencies and corporate profit.
Like how her studies as an African American studies major illuminated her childhood,
DuVernay sets education as her mission to her audience. A recurring motif in 13th is a single word
that flashes in giant capitalized letters, whenever it is uttered: criminal. Forcing us to question
what criminal means and who the true criminals are, DuVernay explains:
the idea you have in your head was not built by you per se, but built by preconceived
notions that were passed down generation after generation. The very ideas that we hold in
our head are for someones profit and political gain. That stuff really trips me out. It
makes me want to really interrogate what I think, read more deeply, understand more
deeplyOr do I think what someone wants me to think of that? Thats what we try to
excavate in the doc.
In other words, DuVernay believes that the discussion of racial injustices and abuses must be
expressed with fully-defined historical context. The subject matter of the film is appropriate
because the United States is in the midst of a Black Lives Matter moment, thereby
necessitating the interrogation of the deeper connection between the prison-for-profit and the
historical legacy of slavery.6 DuVernays objective is to help people understand that this film
illustrates the current moment of the declaration that the lives of black people, our very breath,
our very dignity, our very humanity, are valuable and matter to the world.
So what do we as audience do now? DuVernay believes it is not enough to merely educate
yourself but to educate others. She explains that the ordinary person does not need to join a
march or even push for legislation, but anyone watches this film now has an obligation to
consider the way her or she deals with another person as it deals with race. When confronted
6 http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/10/ava-DuVernay-13th-netflix/503075/

with the reality of racial injustices perpetuated by our own government, the audience must
consider rallying around this moment and taking in a totality of what it is, and making it internal
in whatever way that means to you. The audience can neither be passive nor indifferent about
racial injustices. In an interview with Complex magazine, DuVernay desires the audience:
to see [13th] and feel something, and start to do something about it. And doing something
is the compassion that we can start to put in the world around these issues. Where is
the rage coming from? Do you see this legacy of oppression? Is there any cause for it? I
mean all of the ways misunderstand each other comes back to being in a compassionate
place, and I think compassion comes from knowledge. So if theres anything that is my
hope for 13th is that it provides knowledge that can open up to compassion that can open
up to change.7

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

1. If you have watched 13th and considered Ava DuVernays personal experience, have you
changed your views and opinions on the police killings of African Americans and mass
incarceration, especially in light of the last few years?
2. As a filmmaker, Ava DuVernay used the medium to tackle and discuss racial issues. What
is the role of art, music, and literature in dealing with other issues of social justice?
3. DuVernay challenges us to internalize the subject material and do something. Have you
been a passive observer of racial issues in our country? Are there any steps that you can
take or do things differently to be an active participant?

7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVT3BVZ8nno