In 2016, “13” became the first documentary to open the New York Film Festival in its 56 year history. The title refers to the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, and the film examines the large, exploitable loophole contained therein. Director, Ava DuVernay, begins the eye-opening journey into how the prison industrial complex affects people of color with an alarming statistic: One out of four African-American males will serve prison time at one point in their lives.

Hosting the screening and moderating the post-viewing discussion are two renowned local scholars and activists, Lisa Graves and Amy Quan Barry. Lisa Graves, who actually appears in “13,” is President of the Board of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) which publishes PRWatch, SourceWatch, BanksterUSA and ALECexposed.org. Vietnamese poet and novelist, Amy Quan Barry, teaches poetry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has received fellowships from Stanford University, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Wisconsin Arts Board, and the National Endowment for the Arts.