Ava DuVernay’s racial inequality documentary The 13th will open the 54th New York film festival, marking the first time a non-fiction film has been chosen to kick off the event.
The festival runs from 30 September to 16 October.
DuVernay, best known for directing 2014’s Oscar-nominated Selma, had kept The 13th a secret from the public, until Tuesday’s announcement; it’s still not listed on her IMDb page.
A statement reported that “the progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass incarceration and the prison industry in the US is laid out by DuVernay” in the documentary.