’14th’ Review: Ava DuVernay’s Overstuffed Netflix Documentary Finds Us Living in the Age Frederick Douglass Warned Us About

Ava DuVernay has released '14th', a Netflix documentary serving as the spiritual follow-up to '13th'. The film examines the unfinished promise of the Fourteenth Amendment and the warnings of Frederick Douglass. However, critics suggest the project lacks the political rigor of DuVernay's previous work. While the documentary is described as ambitious, reviews indicate that it is overstuffed and that its sense of urgency occasionally overwhelms the core argument, causing the narrative to flounder during the NYFF 2026.