The Public Theater has set a one-night Public Forum event for Ava DuVernay's 14th on Tuesday, December 1 at 7:00 p.m. at The Town Hall in New York, N.Y., with the evening ending in a special conversation with Alicia Keys.
The timing gives the film a live public stage just days before its theatrical release begins on Friday, November 27 and before its global Netflix premiere on Friday, December 4. For readers looking up Ava DuVernay now, this is the reason: the documentary is moving from the screen into a forum built around the 14th Amendment, with a high-profile guest who brings her own public voice to the closing exchange.
14th explores the birth, legacy, and importance of the 14th Amendment, and the event is being framed as more than a screening. The program will include historical texts and songs, clips from the film, and a conversation with DuVernay, building the night around the same themes the documentary takes on: how equality under the law was won, and how fragile that promise can be when it is tested.
That is also where the evening carries its edge. DuVernay has said she never imagined expanding on the histories and theories in the film through song, dance, and oration, and called the forum a one-of-a-kind experience that should remind people that history is something we make. But the film is not only a celebration of democratic ideals; it also warns that weakening equality for all can create a threat from which no one would be able to escape.
Public Forum is described as a theater of ideas founded in 2010, and this event brings that format directly into the conversation around 14th. The Public Theater said the program will connect Reconstruction-era history to contemporary political challenges, while DuVernay thanked Alexa Smith, Jeremy McCarter, and the Public Forum team for centering the film in a celebration and interrogation of democratic ideals. The next date to watch is December 1, when the forum unfolds at The Town Hall before the film reaches theaters and then Netflix days later.
