Join the Mount Zion Tzedek Committee ofor a watch party of the Netflix documentary Thirteenth, a movie about the history of racial inequality in the U.S. which focuses on how our laws and criminal justice system have been shaped to disproportionately target African Americans, and how that has caused mass inequality and caused our prison population to explode into the largest in the world. Noah Gerber and Vic Rosenthal will co-host the Netflix party.
The movie will be shown via Zoom (Meeting ID: 978 4249 3537) and the host will use screen share to play the movie for everyone. The run time is about 1 hour 40 minutes, and afterwards we will stay on Zoom for a discussion about the movie and the topics it discussed.
Below is a list of discussion questions we will go over in our post-movie chat, and you’re encouraged to take a look at them before the movie starts, just to get an idea of what to be thinking about throughout the film.
- How did you feel after viewing 13th? Did you feel helpless, inspired, stirred to action, or a combination of all three? Do you think the message of the film was ultimately hopeful? Why or why not?
- If you’re old enough to remember the “war on drugs” brought on by Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, etc., how did you feel about it at the time? Did you realize that the “war on drugs” was framed in a way that criminalized the “inner city” and disproportionately people of color? Did this movie change your view on the war on drugs?
- Why do you think the US has been unique in the way our prison population has exploded over the past few decades, compared to other “developed” countries (who also have drugs and crime)?
- What are the similarities and differences of today’s Black Lives Matter protests and the Civil Rights protests of the 1960s?
Watch the trailer for Thirteenth:
