A decade after 13th became a cultural touchstone, Ava DuVernay is returning to Netflix with a continuation of that work. 14th, a documentary centered on the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection and Citizenship Clauses, has been quietly in production for over a year and is set to launch on Netflix later this year.
“If 13th asked who gets caged, then 14th asks who gets counted,” DuVernay told Deadline. “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.”
Where 13th examined the 13th Amendment and the history of mass incarceration in America, 14th shifts the lens to the 14th Amendment and the ongoing battle over who gets to be counted as a full citizen. Ratified in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, the 14th Amendment was written to guarantee full and equal citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, directly overturning the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision, which had ruled that Black Americans could not be citizens.
Its three core provisions have shaped American law for over 150 years. The Citizenship Clause guarantees birthright citizenship, currently at the center of major legal battles under the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The Equal Protection Clause, which prohibits states from denying any person equal protection under the law, served as the legal foundation for landmark civil rights rulings including Brown v. Board of Education, which ended school segregation, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage. The Due Process Clause prohibits states from depriving any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.
DuVernay’s documentary examines how an amendment written to guarantee full citizenship and equal rights in the wake of slavery continues to be challenged, reinterpreted and contested in real time, particularly in the context of immigration policy, voter rights and the rollback of equity initiatives.
The film features a wide-ranging group of interviews spanning the ideological divide, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, former GOP Senator Jeff Flake, California Senator Alex Padilla, Stacey Abrams, NAACP Legal Defense Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill, sitting Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who was fired by President Trump in May 2025, left-wing cultural critic Hasan Piker and conservative author Donald T. Critchlow.
14th is produced by DuVernay alongside longtime collaborators Spencer Averick, Tammy Garnes and Paul Garnes through Array Filmworks.
“With 14th, she delivers another ambitious and thought-provoking documentary with the depth, artistry, and humanity that have come to define her work,” said Adam Del Deo, Netflix’s VP of Documentary Film and Series. “We’re proud to continue our creative partnership with Ava and bring this powerful film to audiences around the world.”
13th debuted on Netflix in 2016 and examined the history of racial inequality in the United States through the lens of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery but contained a loophole permitting forced labor as punishment for crime. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and won a Peabody Award. DuVernay’s subsequent work with Netflix includes the Emmy-winning limited series When They See Us and Colin in Black & White.
A premiere date for 14th has not yet been announced.