‘14th’ review: Ava DuVernay’s rousing documentary is a damning exploration of the current attack on the rights of Black Americans

Dir: Ava DuVernay. US. 2026. 108mins 

A galvanizing record of an inalienable right under threat, 14th  delivers an urgent rallying cry. The film concerns contemporary far-right politicians’ steady erasure of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which was ratified in 1868 following the American Civil War and outlined the rights of citizenship conferred to people of color and second-generation immigrants. The picture painted by director Ava DuVernay via a bevy of astute talking heads and revealing historical documentation could not be more frightening, with the aim of stirring viewers besieged by systematic hate to action.

DuVernay never lets her heady documentary become too dour

14th is a sequel of sorts to DuVernay’s landmark 2016 Oscar-nominated documentary 13th, which focused on the amendment that abolished slavery in America and how it pertains to the prison industrial complex. 13th tellingly arrived at the tailend of the Obama presidency, while 14th comes as current US president Trump faces midterm elections. Premiering at New York before playing other festivals including London, the film will have a limited theatrical release in the US and UK on November 27 before bowing on Netflix on December 4, and should prompt discussion and debate amongst politically-minded viewers.

The film begins with an unquestionable sense of authority. An opening montage of presidential inaugurations stretching from Franklin D. Roosevelt to the present day depicts the central line in the office’s oath: “To preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” DuVernay employs that critical tenet to interrogate Trump’s betray of that promise, and to explore the folling back of 14th Amendment rights.

Howard University Law professor Sherrilyn Ifill forms the crux of an informative narrative, explaining how the importance of the 14th Amendment isn’t one that’s widely taught in schools. She further contextualizes that the men who crafted the Amendment – Charles Sumner, John Bingham, Thaddeus Stevens, Frederick Douglass and Lyman Trumbull – are significantly less well-known than the Constitution’s original framers. Their legislation defined birthright citizenship, due process, equal protection, and articles against sedition, allowing space for the formerly enslaved to gain economic independence. 

Through an array of bipartisan speakers like politicians Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Stacey Adams, political advisor Steve Schmidt and esteemed academics, the film breaks down how these provisions are being attacked today in the Supreme Court. In Trump v. Barbara, for example, which the judicial body ruled on earlier this year, Trump’s administration unsuccessfully attempted to disavow birthright citizenship to children born to parents who were in the US unlawfully or temporarily.

DuVernay never lets her heady documentary become too dour. She breaks up the many red flags with comedic levity by playing clips of stand-up comedians like Paul Mooney and George Carlin, who quip about the permanence of racism. She also animates archival black and white photos of Black families living and sometimes thriving during reconstruction, bringing this not-too-distant history back to life.   

Above all else, DuVernay links the Lost Cause narrative—a Civil War mythology created by defeated Southerners to reimagine their Confederate heroes into men not fighting for slavery but for state’s rights—to our contemporary woes. Their ire led to the building of monuments to pro-secessionists generals and statements, inspired the rise of Lost Cause films like The Birth of a Nation and Gone with Wind, caused the Confederate flag to be reclaimed as an emblem of Southern pride, and is now fueling the the attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies. 

It must be noted that Reconstruction ultimately ended because seditionists were, contrary to the tenets of the 14th Amendment, mostly absolved of their crimes. DuVernay draws a direct line from that acquiescence to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, showing how the law is often disregarded to dehumanize people of color while absolving white folks of penalties. Through this example, DuVernay demonstrates how government-backed attacks against the 14th Amendment undercuts the gains earned by Black individuals following the Civil War and threaten the future of the nation. 

In the film’s final moments DuVernay offers two calls to action. The first comes from Ifill, who tells the viewer they can be the catalyst for change. The other arises from Robert Glasper and Brittany Howard’s soaring original song ’The Making of Tomorrow’. When combined 14th doesn’t merely document decades of unending heartbreak, it stands proudly as an unflinching demand for change.