Ava DuVernay on Why the 14th Amendment Outgrew Birthright Citizenship

Ava DuVernay pitched Netflix a documentary about birthright citizenship. Two years later, her film "14th" became something far larger — a portrait of what she now calls a "constitution in and of itself."

Speaking with IndieWire's Chris O'Falt at an Art of the Doc event in Los Angeles, DuVernay traced how the follow-up to her acclaimed documentary "13th" evolved well beyond its original premise. The 14th Amendment is best known for granting U.S. citizenship to everyone born in America — a right the current administration frequently attacks.

That alone seemed like enough material. It was not.

What changed during those two years?

DuVernay said the first year of production focused squarely on birthright citizenship. Then the political climate shifted, and other clauses of the amendment began surfacing in headlines.

"I thought we were talking about birthright citizenship. That's what I sold to Netflix," DuVernay said with a laugh. "We worked on it for two years. The whole first year we were making a movie about birthright citizenship. And then we started seeing the other parts get attacked. The parts where I was like 'This is too hard, I don't want to focus on these other parts.' But when we started to hear them coming up in those headlines, you couldn't leave that out."

The amendment, she and O'Falt agreed, "flies under the radar" next to the amendments everyone memorizes in history class. Yet it contains the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause — protections that shape daily American life.

"It does [fly under the radar]," DuVernay said. "Which is wild, because it holds in it the rights that we abide by. I didn't realize the depth that was in the 14th amendment. One of our folks in the film says it's a constitution in and of itself. I didn't know that the 13th, 14th, and 15th truly created a new constitution that got clicked onto the first one."

Who gets to tell the story?

DuVernay framed the stakes in narrative terms. History, she argued, is not a fixed record but a contest of voices.

"It really comes to who gets to tell the story, and whose voice is the loudest," she said. "That really becomes what history is. It's the stories we tell each other."

Her stated hope is that "14th" can steer the conversation so future generations recognize the value of legal protections that previous generations took for granted.

The caveat is obvious: a documentary does not amend a constitution. What it can do, on DuVernay's own account, is reset which stories get told loudly enough to register as history.

The film continues the project of "13th," her documentary on the legacy of the amendment that abolished slavery. National Geographic Documentary Films, part of a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the National Geographic Society, backs feature documentaries whose films reach 300 million people across 180 countries and 33 languages via National Geographic channels, Disney+ and Hulu. Its recent titles include "Sugarcane," "Bobi Wine: The People's President," "Fire of Love" and the Oscar- and BAFTA-winning "Free Solo."

The full conversation with DuVernay is available in the event's complete video. What "14th" changes for viewers is the frame: not one clause under attack, but an entire second constitution quietly holding up the first.