13th is a documentary directed and produced by Ava Duvernay. The documentary dives deep into America’s prison system and America’s history of racial inequalities. The documentary contained many forms of rhetoric, including, kairos, logos, ethos, pathos, and visual rhetoric. Using these methods of rhetoric helps director Ava Duvernay get her point across to the audience.
In her documentary, director Ava Duvernay demonstrated the use of kairos.She did so by releasing the documentary when she did. The timing of when the documentary came out is important to take note of. The documentary came out on October 7th, a month before the 2016 presidential election. During the 2016 presidential election, topics about racial inequality were the talk of the town in America. So when 13th came out, it helped contribute to
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Throughout the documentary, the audience can visualize, whether that's through graphs, models, or statements. 13th used logos at the beginning of the documentary when President Barack Obama stated that "The United States is home to 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners. Think about that" (Obama, 13th). This statement supports one of Ava Dunevary's claims that America’s prison system is unbalanced compared to other countries. It supports her claim because it showed the audience data that represents how unbalanced America’s prison system is, and the statement can be fact-checked. Another reason why using facts helped Ava Dunevary’s claim is because using false information at the beginning of the documentary would not benefit her. If the documentary started with a false statement, the audience would not trust the rest of the information throughout the documentary. Since it did start with a factual statement, the audience will be more willing to accept that other information in the documentary is true. Plus, who wouldn't trust a statement from President