DuVernay's 14th World Premieres as NYFF Closing Night

Ava DuVernay’s documentary 14th will world premiere as the closing-night selection of the 64th New York Film Festival, screening October 9 at Alice Tully Hall with Netflix releasing the film later this year. The project serves as a follow-up to her 2016 documentary 13th, which opened NYFF and argued that loopholes in the 13th Amendment contributed to mass incarceration of Black Americans. 14th turns the lens to the 14th Amendment, examining birthright citizenship, due process, equal protection, and the inscription of these principles in current political struggles. The film features a broad slate of voices, including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Anna Paulina Luna, Senators Alex Padilla and Jeff Flake, Stacey Abrams, Sherrilyn Ifill, Robert Chang, and Hasan Piker. DuVernay describes the work as a tough-minded reckoning poised to provoke debate and imagination about what kind of country is being written today. The NYFF choice aligns with ongoing national conversations about constitutional rights and who is counted as part of the nation in the current era.