Ava DuVernay's New Documentary Opens on Presidents Swearing an Oath

Ava DuVernay's documentary 14th closes the New York Film Festival, and it opens with a montage of American presidents taking the oath of office — FDR, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Carter, Reagan — each swearing to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Building the film's argument out of the words of the office itself is a pointed choice for a documentary Deadline frames as an impassioned defense of the Constitution aimed at Trump and what the headline calls an attempted rescission of rights. The opening does the rhetorical work before any argument arrives.