Skill Builder

🎥 Why We Recommend Ava DuVernay’s 13th

13th isn’t just a documentary—it’s a gut punch. A raw, unflinching look at the legal and political machinery that morphed slavery into mass incarceration. Ava DuVernay pulls no punches as she dissects the 13th Amendment, exposing how a single clause—"except as a punishment for crime"—laid the legal groundwork for centuries of systemic oppression.

At the Ronin Project, we don't deal in comfort—we deal in truth, healing, and transformation. That starts by confronting the systems that break people before they even have a chance to heal. This film aligns with our core belief that modern-day incarceration is not a broken system—it’s a well-oiled machine designed to marginalize, exploit, and erase.

We recommend 13th because it gives voice to the voiceless. It reveals the connections between Jim Crow, the war on drugs, private prisons, and the billion-dollar industry built on human caging. It validates the lived experiences of many we serve—veterans, returning citizens, trauma survivors—whose lives were shaped or shattered by these very systems.

Watching this film may leave you angry, uncomfortable, or overwhelmed. That’s the point. Change doesn’t come from silence. It comes from understanding, from awareness, and from action.