One groundbreaking project that put Netflix on the map as a reputable documentary streamer is Ava DuVernay's "13th", a provocative documentary that sharply examines the relationship between race and mass incarceration. The title comes from the 13th Amendment to the American Constitution, which ended slavery and involuntary solitude, with the exception of it being a punishment for those convicted of a crime. Through interviews with scholars, politicians, and activists, it reveals the troubling history of mass incarceration following the Civil War, diving deep into Jim Crow laws, the war on drugs, and the prison-industrial complex today.
Watch "13th" on Netflix.