Following DuVernay’s documentary 13th (NYFF54 Opening Night) which implicated the 13th amendment’s failures in the mass incarceration of Black Americans, DuVernay’s 14th expands our knowledge of the constitution’s importance in our lives. This is especially so for those not aware of all sections of the amendment. Additionally, the film with full force emphasizes the current administration’s attacks on our civil rights in an attempt to vitiate the 14th and the power it gives citizens. 14th made its World Premiere as the Closing Night film of the NYFF 2026.

DuVernay’s documentary codifies what law scholars refer to as the second constitution or “Second Founding” of our civil rights. To expound upon this she uses a chorus of experts. These include congresspersons like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), senators former and current (Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Alex Padilla (D-C), activists like Stacey Abrams and social commentators like Hasan Piker to name a few.

In covering the history of the amendment, DuVernay has experts discuss its necessity after the Civil War so Republican leaders could complete what the original founders began, to guarantee liberty for all. Thus, to insure that the bloodshed during the Civil War was not shed in vain, after President Lincoln’s assassination, Republicans worked to safeguard Lincoln’s plans of liberty for African Americans. John A.Bingham (responsible for birthright citizenship), Thaddeus Stevens and others expanded the people’s voice in their state and federal government.

Importantly, these second founders wrote the law as a weapon and shield against tyrannical governments. Indeed, the country could not afford to return to the southern states’ oppressive, institutional slavery. The second founders viewed liberty as paramount, as the Declaration of Independence proclaimed, and finally wrote it for all.

DuVernay selects Sherrilyn Ifill as the key narrator of the film because of her extensive knowledge. Ifill, the Howard University Professor who leads the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy, identifies the five section structure of the 14th amendment. For example, Section One, best known as the birthright citizenship section, includes equal protection under the law and due process if the state or federal government violates a citizen’s rights.

In exploring each of the sections Ifill and the other experts clarify lesser known details. With illustrations, video clips (past and present), archived photographs, and more, the commentators discuss what follows Section One citizenship rights. In Section Two, the 14th apportions representation and removes it if men have their voting power denied. Third, it disqualifies members of the branches of government from holding any office if they committed insurrection. Fourth, it validates public debt but not for insurrectionists. Finally, the “Second Constitution” gives congress the power to enforce each section of the amendment via legislation.

During the process of reviewing the amendment’s historical application, the film identifies its successes, during Reconstruction. Then, the unfortunate pivot follows. DuVernay experts discuss how the confederacy attempted to the dissolve its power in the South after Reconstruction until after WWII, for as long as possible.

Empowered by the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson’s separate but equal (the “equal” never was), the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), buoyed up the spirits of their communities from 1900 through the 1930s. Spinning romantic, nostalgic notions of “the lost cause,” the women reframed the brutal losses of the Civil War. Indeed, they propagandized a new invisible war against the union from which they dared not secede again. They celebrated their treasonous confederate leaders. Also, they flew their triumphant confederate flags and normalized their quaint confederate symbolism throughout the country.

During this propaganda war, the South rewrote history books and softened the horrors of slavery. To reinforce their power, and end their rights, they lynched and burned African Americans alive, and torched their successful businesses or communities. DuVernay includes archived photos of the Tulsa, Oklahoma Race Massacre. Also, she doesn’t shy away from showing photos of Black American lynchings.

As evidence of their disemboweling the 14th, DuVernay and her experts spend time on the power of the UDC’s propaganda to dupe, blind and distort the truth to great effect. This lasted well into the 21st century. For example, commentator Steve Schmidt says the confederate flag showed up in the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021. Prior to that date, the confederate flag never entered the Capitol. Thanks to the Trump Administration and RNC stoking their paid for rioters to attack the Capitol, the white supremacists uplifted the “lost cause” in another treasonous rebellion.

From 1900 to WWII, the UDC women and their backers lifted their confederacy to iconic status. To do this, they erected from 830 to 1500 statues, monuments, memorial parks, etc. in every southern state. Though few had been erected after the Civil War, the massive spike paralleled the enactment of Jim Crow segregation laws and the disenfranchisement of Black Americans. Propaganda warriors, the UDC worked hard to nullify in practice the 14th in the South. And congress never enacted the enforcement Section V of the amendment to stop the misinformation, lies and traitorous behavior.

When the Civil Rights Movement awakened Northerners and celebrities to march and protest the 14th violations, the movement turned the hand of the Supreme Court in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education. Then, after President Kennedy couldn’t get his legislation passed and was assassinated, President Johnson enacted the monumental Civil Rights legislation. And for the first time since Reconstruction, the 14th functioned to protect citizens’ rights with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

However, the struggle to dismiss the power of the 14th occluded by the myth of “the lost cause,” continues to this day with treachery. As DuVernay experts explain each section of the amendment, they also identify its violations by the Trump Administration using salient videos (i.e. George Floyd protests, January 6th insurrection, Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, immigration kidnappings and more).

DuVernay has the experts discuss the normalization propaganda of confederate symbols as a sub rosa acceptance of the power of white supremacy and racism. For example until recently (the George Floyd protests), the flag, the monuments and the names of confederate leaders on schools, roads, etc., in the North and South seemed acceptable. However, one commentator discusses the meaning can’t be acceptable because under the 14th, racism, bigotry, and celebrating slavery and treason are unlawful. However, white supremacists make excuses to keep their power symbols. DuVernay devotes a segment showing the backlash for taking down the Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson statues in Virginia. The company appointed to remove the statues received death threats. Finally, they removed the statues and melted them down. The myth of “the lost cause” dies hard.

Indeed, DuVernay’s experts draw lines from the racists of the past to the Trump administration’s attempts to vitiate the power of citizen’s rights of the14th in the present. This is especially so with immigrants kidnapped by masked, ill-trained ICE agents. DuVernay includes clips of ICE’s unsettling violence and excessive force with citizens, with senators, with migrants. Thus far, the murders of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti have received no justice. And to fulfill quotas to get monetary bonuses, agents pick up documented citizens. Children disappear into detention camps, more like concentration camps, where horror stories of inadequate conditions, abuse and violence leak out.

Ifill and the others affirm that equal protection under the law for anyone on US soil means exactly that; civil rights protection. However, the film provokes audience outrage at the Trump administration and complicit lawmakers of both parties. Thematically, DuVernay’s experts identify that congress has the inherent power to enforce the amendment. However, she proves throughout the film that both Republicans and Democrats don’t use the power they have against the Executive Branch. Thus, congress violates the amendment by not enforcing it. Trump violates every section of the amendment, even trying to get money for insurrectionists he pardoned. Additionally, states rights which could counter the illegality of the Executive haven’t been used, as seen with the accumulating murders by ICE agents.

DuVernay exposes painful truths between the sanctity of the amendment and the human lack of will and power at all levels to enforce it unequivocally through the decades, with some decades worse than others. On the other hand 14th makes a superb case for proving the high crimes and misdemeanors. This includes crimes of the president and his cabinet and the congress for not holding upholding the 14th but for dismantling it. Additionally, all who provoked and supported the treasonous insurrection are disqualified from holding office as illegitimate. Much should be done about this unconstitutional behavior, but nothing viable has happened thus far to remove the unfit and unqualified illegitimate law breakers and hold them to account.

Unfortunately, Ifill and the others in this time of acknowledged darkness, proclaim that hope lies with “we the people” and our votes. On that note the film concludes, as if the task of ending such an overarching, monumental film overwhelmed the filmmaker. And all she could come up with was a powerless anti-climax, telling us to vote. We do, we will. And as Robert Di Nero has spoken loudly, if Elon Musk or the Republicans get anywhere near the counting of Mid Term ballots, we say, “Get your stinking hands off our votes.”

Notwithstanding, DuVernay’s 14th shines with brilliance but sounds a terrifying warning with an unsatisfactory conclusion. 14th will be given a limited release in theaters around November 27, 2026. Netflix will stream it on December 4,2026. For the write up at NYFF 2026 go to their website https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2026/films/14th/