Dear Reader,
About two years ago, I received an unexpected phone call. A production assistant was looking for experts in constitutional law to provide commentary for a proposed documentary about the Fourteenth Amendment. Would I be interested in talking with the production team? I was decidedly not interested. I was swamped with writing and teaching commitments, and I knew from past experience (an ill-fated web-series on Beyonce and intersectional feminism!) that such requests are often huge time sucks that never pan out into anything notable.
The production assistant immediately intuited my disinterest. “I know you are very busy, and you must get a lot of these requests, but this is legit. Did you see Ava Duvernay’s 13th—the documentary about the Thirteenth Amendment?” I had. “Well, this will be for the Fourteenth Amendment what that was for the Thirteenth.” I remained skeptical. “Yeah, but that was on Netflix and it was directed by an Oscar nominee.” She went in for the kill. “Well, this will also be released on Netflix and Will Smith and Larry Wilmore are two of the executive producers. I swear, it’s legit.”
So, that’s how I found myself on a soundstage discussing various aspects of the Fourteenth Amendment, the women’s suffrage movement, Pauli Murray, and reproductive rights and justice with a film production team. And last week, I, like so many other Netflix subscribers, got the chance to stream and view the finished product—Amend: The Fight for America, a six-episode docuseries on the Fourteenth Amendment and its role in scaffolding social movements for access to citizenship and race, gender, and LGBTQ equality. I just finished watching the series, and while I may be hopelessly compromised by my own involvement in the production, I think it is a remarkable achievement—a compelling and timely story about the Constitution and the oscillating trajectory of the nation’s efforts to make good on its promise of equality for all.
