On October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther nailed what is known as the "95 Theses" to the door of the cathedral in Wittenburg, Germany. The 95 statements were an indictment to the ruling religious powers that the oversight of their historic faith had gone astray. While there were many other forces at play, this act is commonly referred to as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, which dramatically changed the way the Church was using its power at the time.
In honor of this 500th anniversary, instead of retelling the story of the Reformation, Echoes is choosing to show a movie that invites us into the need for another, radical reformation - the reformation of our prison and judicial system in the United States. Join us as we watch and discuss 13th, a movie to which we need to heed and respond.
The movie will start very shortly after 6:30pm in order to have time to watch the 100 min movie, and have a discussion. Location will be at the Whatcom Land Trust (412 N Commercial), right next to City Hall, and two blocks from ourovercrowded county jail.
About the movie, from Wikipedia:
13th is a 2016 American documentary by director Ava DuVernay. The film explores the "intersection of race, justice and mass incarceration in the United States;" it is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which freed the slaves and prohibited slavery (unless as punishment for a crime).
The documentary opens with an audio clip of former President Barack Obama stating that the US has five percent of the world's population but twenty-five percent of the world's prisoners. DuVernay contends that slavery has been perpetuated in practices since the end of the American Civil War through such actions as criminalizing behavior and enabling police to arrest poor freedmen and force them to work for the state under convict leasing; suppression of African Americans by disenfranchisement, lynchings and Jim Crow; politicians declaring a war on drugs that weigh more heavily on minority communities and, by the late 20th century, mass incarceration of people of color in the United States. She examines the prison-industrial complex and the emerging detention-industrial complex, demonstrating how much money is being made by corporations from such incarcerations.
13th has garnered acclaim from film critics. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Academy Awards, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards.