Ava DuVernay‘s documentary 14th, exploring the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, will receive its world premiere as the closing night selection of the 2026 New York Film Festival.
The Netflix film, which will screen on Oct. 9, serves as a follow-up to DuVernay’s 2016 doc 13th, which opened that year’s New York Film Festival, and explores how the 14th Amendment and its provisions for birthright citizenship, due process and equal protection under the law and outlawing insurrection by elected officials have become the subject of a permanent argument.
Set for release later this year, 14th blends scholarship with present-day headlines and features insights from politicians, historians, cultural voices and legal minds.
“If 13th asked who gets caged, then 14th asks who gets counted,” DuVernay said when Netflix announced 14th last week. “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 doc features the voices of Democratic and Republican politicians, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Anna Paulina Luna, Sen. Alex Padilla and former Sen. Jeff Flake. The film also includes legal experts Sherrilyn Ifill, Robert Chang and Stacey Abrams; commentators Donald T. Critchlow and Hasan Piker; and historians Eric Foner and David Blight.
