Do you feel any fear within your own personal transformation?
"Strong Island": A family's navigation between loss and injustice - Salon He always knew he wanted to make a film about his brother but it wasn't until 2006 when the silence of his . Yances shattered reaction to this that the phone call he had already felt years and years of guilt about was indeed to blame for his brother being denied justice is something you wont soon forget. It was like all the sound had left the world., It calls to mind a line in Men We Reaped, Jesmyn Wards memoir of the violent, premature deaths of five young black men she knew and loved. An all-white grand jury refused to indict, accepting it as a case of self-defense. great disservice in raising him the way we did, she says. picked up and brandished a car door, to some laughter in the shop. segregation of nineteen-sixties Charleston, South Carolina. His autopsy report read: The body is that of a well-developed obese black male. Her son had Though questions of race and justice are raised, Yance Ford more often examines how he and the rest of his middle-class family dealt, or refused to deal, with the tragedy. children to judge people by their character, not by the color of their dying day that the grand jury of twenty-three white people did not K. F. Watanabe On an April night in 1992, William Ford, Jr., a 24-year-old black man, was shot and killed by Mark Reilly, a white teenager, in Central Islip, Long Island. William, an unarmed, black 24-year-old teacher, was slain by Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old white man who was working at an auto body shop on Long Island. In an appropriation of true crime style, details and testimonies are shuffled around to increase curiosity and unveil late revelations, some of which are devastating.
Strong Island | Screen Slate real-estate developers in Central Islip were looking for black But its actually a far more personal, probing project, less a relitigation than a reckoning, less a procedural than a film about the Sisyphean task of processing terrible grief. black people is to ignore them; the easiest way to cope with pain is not What have been the most intriguing responses you've heard from audiences? A Yanceville Films and Louverture Films production, Strong Island was produced by Ford and Joslyn Barnes and was co-produced by Signe Byrge Srensen for Final Cut for Real. In January,Strong Island won the Sundance Film Festival special jury award for storytelling, with Netflix acquiring the film soon after. The grand jury declined She was implying that the way that the grand jury process and investigation had been handled was problematic. Reilly had by Mark Reilly, a nineteen-year-old auto-body-shop employee. disrespected by the mechanic when she and Fords girlfriend came by to What happened in 1992 was the murder of Yances Utilizing a creative mixture of traditional and non-traditional documentary approaches, Ford also investigates what really happened the night his brother died, a question that is foregrounded as significant for personal reasons yet ultimately not the entire point. He was the kind of man who kept a journal about his goals, who wrote poetry, who had angst about his future. Many, many times I wonder: How could I be so wrong?, Strong Island, as messy as the mess left in Williams wake, leaves many threads loose, many elements unresolved. Strong Island, a documentary chronicling the 1992 murder of first-time filmmaker Yance Ford's brother, William Ford Jr., and the effect it had on him and his family, incorporates the dynamics of a police-like procedural and gut-wrenching, upfront, self- confession. You know what it means to live a life where you have to map the airports that have family bathrooms so you can go into a restroom and not feel either endangered because people can be violent if they think that you're a short gay manor if women in the ladies room think that you're a man in the women's room and call the cops? And if we're going to focus on me as a transgender African American, then we need to extrapolate from the violence that's perpetrated against trans women of color especially: How many of those murders have gone unsolved? a shady business.
Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old mechanic at Super Stang Auto Body, didn't deny that. After an argument over the delays, inside the courtroom they expected justice.
Strong Island: Yance Ford's Documentary Brings a Long-Lost - Vogue Every Friday were going to recommend the best of whats new to rent on VOD or stream for free. As the title of the film indicates, the events of the film take place on Long Island, New York, where in April of 1992, William Ford Jr., a black 24 year-old teacher, was killed by Mark Reilly, a . As the documentary Jesmyn Wards Haunted Novel of the Gulf Coast. We then see Yance get decades-old information from a police officer after literally years of trying in vain to get any information about the investigation out of the authorities who says that the earlier altercation was indeed a big part of the reason why the grand jury thought Reilly was acting in self-defense. . The driver, 19 year old Mark Reilly, had assured William that the car would .
"Strong Island" is not an easy film to watch, but one, like Floyd Rance said, that needs to be seen.
Strong Island (Film) - TV Tropes We depend on your memberships and donations. It would be
Review: 'Strong Island' Explores a Killing and Its Aftermath If you need social assistance, they're going to drug test you and make you work x amount of hours a week, and it doesn't matter if you don't have childcare. had been neighborly; for her, Islip was moving back into a segregated By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from Vice Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content. We get the feeling that parts of them retreated The 1967 film Guess Whos Coming to Dinner starred Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton as a ne, Tessa Thompson Talks Going To Couples Therapy With Michael B. Jordan. Strong Island questions whether justice can be found, through the intimate story of the filmmaker's brother who was lost to gun violence, and the family's painful search for answers. Yance Ford has directed a movie about the death of his brother that distills this kind of frustration into something heartbreaking, but thats what makes it a vital and powerful film. There is no hint of Rodney King or the Dunmore Ford, an educator who founded Rosewood, a school for women on Strong Island investigates the killing of Ford's brother, William, in 1992 in Central Islip, NY.
Filmmaker Yance Ford Explores Injustice With His Moving - Essence Strong Island is so quiet, so dignifiedif that is not too Booker T. Although Ford was unarmed, he . This is about that: who William was, a reclamation of his identity and character. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories, On April 7, 1992, in Central Islip, a Long Island suburb of New York
Strong Island Review Netflix Documentary Oscar Nominee - Refinery29 The award was a testament to Yance Fords decision to turn a camera on his family and her, and to tell his brothers story despite its frustrating dead ends. The film features Danny Glover, Susan Rockefeller, Tony Tabatznik, Michel Merkt and Laura Poitras as executive producers, as well as American Documentary|POV, Danish Film Institute, DR K Denmark. Screen Slate is a guide to moving image culture. physical threat they were. When do you think the punishing stops? been shot during a holdup at an A.T.M., and it was William Ford, Director: Yance Ford City, William Ford, Jr., a twenty-four-year-old man, was shot and killed Not the white-hot rage that explodes off the screen or even the crusading anger that can sometimes galvanize groups of people. His tow truck had hit them two months There was also a butch lesbian in Toronto who thanked me afterwards for showing a black family loving their masculine-presenting child, helping to undo this notion that African Americans or people of African descent are the most homophobic people in the galaxy. In April 1992, on Long Island NY, William Ford Jr., a black 24 year-old teacher, was killed by Mark Reilly, a white 19 year-old mechanic. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Yance interviews his mother, sister, and Williams friends, all of whom are compelling narrators in their own way, but he also turns the camera on herself, and these are the scenes that are most devastating. William Ford, a black man, was shot and killed at the age of 24 by a 19-year-old mechanic named Mark Reilly, at the auto shop where Ford's girlfriend's car was being repaired. The Fords move out to Long Island is told as the story of Yances parents, who wanted better for their children than the acidic racism of the Jim Crow south. Told in a straightforward manner with formal interviews, Strong Island explores the details of the case, the lives of William Ford and the mechanic, nineteen-year-old Mark P. Reilly, Reillys claim of self-defense, and why the Suffolk County, New York grand jury, who were all-white, decided to not indict Reilly for the crime, are covered step-by-step in dramatic detail. narrative, put together with subtlety and refinement, unfolds from the Ford observes to the camera, William Ford, Jr., became the prime suspect Yet this potent film gives equal weight to complex emotions as well as bare facts. STRONG ISLAND, 2017. .
How a White Kid Escaped Punishment After Killing a Black Man - Vice "I was like, 'What's a synonym for journey, goddamn it? Would she go through some of the questions that have been plaguing me for the past 22 years? asks Yance. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. eighties, Polaroids that have turned into a family archive. I just wanted to know all the reasons exactly why. Then: Im not angry. The powerful and very personal documentary Strong Island is the story of a black family that could not sustain the blow of racial injustice and fell apart. Available on: Netflix. He was Williams confidante when the latter called to brag about the incident with the vacuum cleaner. All rights reserved. William Ford Jr. was shot and killed on April 7, 1992, an incident at the center of the documentary Strong Island. Something deep inside his family also died that night, and Yance Ford, one of Williams siblings and the films director, explores that loss, exposing a grief that is profound and agonizing. own brother, a black teacher, William Ford, Jr., who grew up in the probably get up and go. Racism is character assassination. No, the lawyer responds. Ford is also an architectural welder, and while at Modern Art Foundry he helped assemble the sculpture "Maman" by Louise Bourgeoisthe series of three spiders exhibited at Rockefeller Center, and now on permanent display at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. William Ford, a black man, was shot and killed at the age of 24 by a 19-year-old mechanic named Mark Reilly, at the auto shop where Ford's girlfriend's car was being repaired. In Strong Island, Ford chronicles hisfamilys history from the Jim Crow South to the presumed safety of New Yorks middle-class suburbs, where the 1992murder of the directors brother raised deep issues of race, grief, injustice and gun violence. Barbara Dunmore Ford remembers that "Strong Island" tells the story of the murder of 24-year-old Ford, a black teacher killed by a white 19-year-old mechanic named Mark Reilly in Long Island in 1992. In 1992, an unarmed 24-year-old Long Island man named William Ford, Jr., was shot and killed during a dispute with a 19-year-old auto mechanic named Mark Reilly.
'Strong Island' doc takes a personal look at LI killing, aftermath Strong Island is just the beginning. In April 1992, black 24-year-old teacher William Ford Jr. was gunned down by Mark Reilly, a white 19 year-old mechanic. I don't want to say that I'm not optimistic, but I don't think that optimism is in my toolbox of feelings, honestly.
Strong Island (2017) - Strong Island (2017) - User Reviews - IMDb Twenty-four-year-old teacher William Ford was shot and killed after having an altercation with a white mechanic, and the killer was never charged. His friend Kevin Myers, who was outside the body
Documentary about LI killing up for Oscar - Long Island Business News He regrets not coming out to his brother before he died, not being able to show him who he really was. That's the thing that's going to be tough for people. suffered a stroke the year after his sons killing. Respectful attention must be paid, because grief is in the room. Send us a tip using our annonymous form. Sing, Unburied, Sing is shadowed by the long aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Just talking about my transition and when I "came out" is a bit weird, because we have this expectation that every moment of our lives and realization about ourselves is going to be lived in some public arena. The effect is intense and elegiac, even as the pace veers toward the overly deliberate, and as Mr. Reilly and some essential witnesses arent interviewed or approached by the filmmaker; no explanation for this omission is given. resentment of black anger. Highlights from the week in culture, every Saturday. William Ford, Sr. had hoped to be a draftsman, but in order to take care Netflix/Strong Island The Fords had moved to Long Island from. My father just believed in my Mr. Ford had gone there after a dispute over a repair and confronted Mr. Reilly about an insult that was said to have been made earlier to Mr. Fords mother. Sr., loved New York City, implicit in that is their escape from the for encounters with the police. He was shot in the chest with a rifle by All Rights Reserved. I'm afraid that our civil society is being torn apart bit by bitand not just by tweets and ridiculous statements about good people on both sides. night shift. All Rights Reserved.
'Strong Island' Will Make You Furious, Which You Should Be The real driving force of the film, however, is Ford himself, who appears in tight close-ups, looking directly into the camera to tell his story and deal with his process of grief. We always tried to teach you guys that you see character, not color. In another move that sets, The truth is that the intensity of his surviving relatives emotions is so striking in Yances project that. schools, because, in reality, the public schools werent good enough,
Strong Island (film) - Wikipedia Ad Choices, Actor Graham McTavish Planned a Scottish Castle Wedding for His Bride Garance Dor, 70 Incredible Forgotten Photos From Vintage Oscar Nights, Phil Ohs Best Street Style Photos From the Fall 2023 Shows in Paris. Update January 24, 2018: Strong Island has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, making Ford the first trans person to ever receive an Oscar . The Landmark, Westside Pavilion Mall, 10850 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90064. Reilly claimed self-defense. high-profile trial. become frustrated as a customer, forgetting all about inherited white On Sept. 15, Netflix dropped new documentary Strong Island, . teen-age sons, the one that tries to prepare them as young black males