Ava DuVernay’s new documentary 14th will close out the the 64th New York Film Festival in its world premiere October 9, 10 years after her film 13th opened the fest.
DuVernay’s previous doc argued that loopholes in the U.S. Constitution’s 13th Amendment — the abolition of slavery — led to today’s mass incarceration of Black Americans.
“That film was released on the eve of Donald Trump’s presidency; since then, an alarming number of our democratic norms and principles have eroded, further disenfranchising Black Americans,” NYFF said Tueday. “In response to our distressing new reality, DuVernay has created a thrillingly expansive sequel of sorts, which passionately and persuasively details how the tenets of the 14th Amendment, ratified post-Civil War, are now under systematic attack.”
Voices in the film, a Netflix release, include Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), current Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), lawyer and former Georgia State representative Stacey Abrams, legal voices Sherrilyn Ifill and Robert Chang, and social commentators like Donald T. Critchlow and Hasan Piker.
Watch on Deadline
The 14th Amendment’s foundational principles include birthright citizenship, due process, equal protection under the law, and the prohibition for heads of state to engage in acts of insurrection.
“Exactly a decade after 13th opened the New York Film Festival, it feels especially meaningful to return with 14th as the 2026 Closing Night Selection,” said DuVernay. “NYFF has always been a place where films invite conversation rather than simply applause. To that end, 14th attempts to interrogate a promise powerful enough to change a nation — and controversial enough to divide it for more than 150 years. There’s no better place to begin that conversation than NYFF. I’m grateful to [NYFF Artistic Director] Dennis Lim and team for believing in work that asks difficult questions, and I’m honored to share this film with New York audiences first.”
Lim called 14th “a movie for the moment that sees through the fog of the present. The great gift of this urgent and essential work is its clarity: Ava has made a film that shows us precisely what led us here, and what is at stake right now.”
DuVernay, an Emmy, BAFTA, Sundance and Peabody Award winner and Oscar nominee (Selma, 13th, Middle of Nowhere, A Wrinkle in Time, Origin and series When They See Us, Queen Sugar), is the founder of the narrative collective Array.
The North American premiere James Gray’s Cannes-premiering Paper Tiger will open the fest, which runs September 25-October 12.
