Ava DuVernay is returning to Netflix with 14th, a new documentary that takes on the heated debate over birthright citizenship and who gets to be an American.
The Oscar-nominated director announced details on the film Thursday, saying it explores the history of the 14th Amendment amid ongoing political battles in Washington. The film will be released later this year.
The 14th Amendment guarantees automatic citizenship for children born on U.S. soil, including the offspring of undocumented immigrants. The amendment was ratified after the Civil War and guaranteed birthright citizenship to formerly enslaved Black people.
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“14th pulls this constitutional fight out of the footnotes and into the present, chronicling the vicious battle over the amendment that has raged for over 150 years,” according to the official description.
The announcement about the doc comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s executive order that would have dramatically limited birthright citizenship in a 6-3 decision.
The film comes after DuVernay’s acclaimed 2016 documentary 13th, which examined mass incarceration and racial inequality in the U.S.
“If 13th asked who gets caged, then 14th asks who gets counted,” DuVernay said in a statement. “This is not a film about the past tense of freedom. I’m not interested in asking you to look back. The film asks what kind of country is being written beneath our feet now… while we’re busy believing the stories we’ve all been told.”
The director said she did more than 50 interviews with historians, legal scholars, politicians, and cultural commentators for the new film.
Participants include Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida), as well as Georgia political organizer Stacey Abrams, Sherrilyn Ifill, Robert Chang, Donald T. Critchlow, Hasan Piker, and Pulitzer Prize-winning historians Eric Foner and David Blight.
Netflix executive Adam Del Deo praised DuVernay’s new film.
“With 14th, she delivers another ambitious and thought-provoking documentary with the depth, artistry, and humanity that have come to define her work,” Del Deo said.
The director’s past projects include Selma, Middle of Nowhere, A Wrinkle in Time, and Origin. She also created multiple TV series, including the Emmy-winning When They See Us and the popular family drama, Queen Sugar.
The new documentary comes from the Array film collective, which DuVernay founded. The film is produced by the director alongside Spencer Averick, Tammy Garnes and Paul Garnes.
A release date on Netflix will be announced later.
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