Ava DuVernay's '14th' Premieres at NYFF as Urgent Sequel to '13th'

Ava DuVernay's new documentary "14th" premiered Friday night as the closing-night film of the New York Film Festival. The film will receive a brief theatrical run on November 27 before streaming on Netflix on December 4. DuVernay made her intentions explicit in an interview with Variety, saying, "We're in the midst of something very sinister, something very dangerous."

The film's focus is the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War and now contested on issues from birthright citizenship to due process and the insurrection clause. That film, released a month before Donald Trump's first election, saw a surge in viewership during the 2020 protests and was nominated for an Academy Award. The Hollywood Reporter called the film "another essential and compelling constitutional deep dive."

Variety's review said it "exerts the same kind of historical/topical force that '13th' did." The Guardian described it as "a fascinating and troubling companion piece" and "just as lucid and galvanizing as its predecessor." The film runs 108 minutes, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and features editing by Spencer Averick and a score by Jason Moran.

The documentary assembles a wide range of voices, including Stacey Abrams, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jasmine Crockett, Alex Padilla, and Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who is fact-checked on screen. Historians and legal scholars such as Eric Foner and Sherrilyn Ifill provide the constitutional framework, while ground-level figures like Devon Henry, the contractor who removed Confederate monuments in Richmond, bring the argument into lived experience. DuVernay also weaves in archival footage and clips from comedians including George Carlin and Hasan Minhaj.

DuVernay told The Hollywood Reporter that the idea came in early 2024, when Trump was campaigning on challenging birthright citizenship. "This movie kicked my butt because it was like building a plane midflight," she said. During production, she followed Carla Hayden, the first Black Librarian of Congress, who was fired three weeks later, and Dr. Lonnie Bunch, the first Black secretary of the Smithsonian, who retired amid speculation of political pressure.

Netflix backed the project without interference, according to DuVernay. "I was really hopeful that they would continue to support the filmmakers in the way that they've established — and they did," she said. The release comes as Hollywood studios have faced scrutiny over politically sensitive material, with Amazon dropping the Sam Altman docudrama "Artificial" and Apple delaying the political thriller "The Savant."

The film's production was shaped by current events.