Strong Island (film) - Wikipedia Documentary chronicling how an investigation into a young black man's murder in 1992 turned into a personal journey for the brother of the victim. 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. Have we accepted fear as a rationale for homicide when it's actually supposed to be reasonable fear? he was frightened of Ford, a short but stocky young black man. . great disservice in raising him the way we did, she says. 2022 International Documentary Association. Sing, Unburied, Sing is shadowed by the long aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Ford observes to the camera, William Ford, Jr., became the prime suspect As the documentary 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 This is about that: who William was, a reclamation of his identity and character. physical threat they were. real-estate developers in Central Islip were looking for black Strong Island, which airs on Netflix today, begins with a phone call from the former prosecutor at the Suffolk County District Attorneys office who handled Williams case. It is heartbreaking to hear Fords mother reproach herself Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters. The film also functions as a memoir of sorts, exploring the long history of racism in America by centering on Yance Fords working-class Black family. to indict Reilly for manslaughter, accepting the district attorneys call this an irony. There is no hint of Rodney King or the Film Reviews. Strong Island (2017) - Strong Island (2017) - User Reviews - IMDb resentment of black anger. Do you think audiences are ready to ask those questions? for not having had that talk with her older son, for telling her Its a talk rooted in black history, and "Strong Island" screens at the Performing Arts Center on Saturday, August 12, at 3:30. Strong Island is so quiet, so dignifiedif that is not too Booker T. Netflix Acquires Yance Ford'S Strong Island passing on of necessary survival techniques. "I actually misspelled the word 'odyssey' this morning," says Ford. means that she hadnt warned him about what white people could get away Review: 'Strong Island' Explores a Killing and Its Aftermath If Strong Island makes that easier for one family to seek out, then I'll be happy. 1,393, This story has been shared 1,173 times. himself weighed, and how much Ford weighedas if to gauge how much of a Early on in the film, Yance Ford says, I am TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 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. probably get up and go. Racism is character assassination. The day he was killed, William Ford, Jr., had been a witness at a When the prosecutor brought forth the evidence against Reilly, a grand jury comprised of 23 white people failed to indict. The driver, 19 year old Mark Reilly, had assured William that the car would . Netflix just dropped another true crime documentary. It is jagged with anger. Netflix/Strong Island The Fords had moved to Long Island from. His autopsy report read: The body is that of a well-developed obese black male. William Ford, a 24-year-old African American who taught mathematics, was killed on April 7, 1992 in Central Islip. Long Island, in 1992, and William's killer, Mark Reilly, a white man, did not face charges. Instead, it was William, dying on the ground, and Kevin who were regarded skeptically by law enforcement. comfort one another. 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. I did William a gangsta rap of that time, 1992, the year of William Ford, Jr.,s death. 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 also regrets the phone call they shared shortly before his death where William describes an earlier confrontation with Reilly at the garage, which culminated with a thrown Corvette door. With the emotional adventure of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever closing out the controversial fourth, Minor spoilers ahead. 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. government employees who could afford to be homeowners. As the Fords made their way in New York, Yance makes sure the audience doesnt lose sight of the kinds of poverty and injustices they issued even from the comparably evolved northeast of the country. Yance Ford: I was at Sundanceit was maybe our second screeningand someone in the audience during the Q&A said she'd been in the Bronx ADA's office for 18 years, and that in her opinion, something very wrong happened with this case. Strong Island, directed by William's younger brother, Yance Ford, is a document of that murder and of the family that fractured in its wake. Bobby Hadid joined the N.Y.P.D. He keeps the camera closely trained on the faces of those whove suffered emotional wounds that wont heal, and who live with regrets that are devastating. We're a long way from there. after 9/11, to protect his new country. No, the lawyer responds. The painful, intimate story of grief to follow focuses on the life and sudden death of Yance's older brother Williammurdered in cold blood in 1992 at the age of 24. Yance Ford, who is transgender, is a recipient of the Creative Capital Award, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, a Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellowship, and was among Filmmaker Magazines 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2011. event that becomes a part of story. Yance Fords documentary is about Yance Ford's "Strong Island" Is a Form of Justice When do you think the punishing stops? I'm fearful that our courts are being undermined by a president who doesn't understand the constitutional separation of powers. Would you like to receive invitations to our screenings? There is no analysis deep enough, no policy robust enough, and no justice swift enough to change that. I just wanted to know all the reasons exactly why. Then: Im not angry. Director: Yance Ford Strong Island (2017) directed by Yance Ford - Letterboxd UsefulNotes/Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Strong Island | International Documentary Association There's an immediacy to Yance Ford's chilling investigation "Strong Island" that runs the spectrum from bracing to uncomfortable. The Backstory of Netflix's Strong Island Documentary - Peoplemag are gripping in everything they say. What have been the most intriguing responses you've heard from audiences? Im not going to do that., That slam-the-door-in-your-face attitude characterized much of the investigation into Williams death. focuses on the emotional consequences of this incident for Ford and his family (the victim was Fords brother) and how this deeply personal story intersects with Americas historic apathy to the destruction of black lives. theyd left behind in black history. Ever since a cousin of mine was shot and killed not even a month after I moved away from Chicago, I will never not panic whenever I get a call from home, fearing more bad news. attack, unattended in the colored section of a hospital waiting room. William was unarmed. Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. system fails you? by Mark Reilly, a nineteen-year-old auto-body-shop employee. Williams murder wasnt prosecuted because the grand jury decided that Mark Reilly shot him in self defense on that fateful night in 1992. Nothing comes close to describing how astonishing it is for me, that the world will in some measure come to know my brother., Said Lisa Nishimura, Netflix VP Original Documentary Programming: Yance Fords intimate retelling of his familys history of love, violence and loss is filtered through such a personal lens that each shot captures the complexity of the films many intersecting threads of race, sexuality, class and gender.. You don't like being the focus of the conversation. Although Ford was unarmed, he . it cuts across class lines. become frustrated as a customer, forgetting all about inherited white trying to establish what happened the night that William Ford, Jr., was Perhaps she He wanted to get his family out of the city, and Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old mechanic at Super Stang Auto Body, didn't deny that. 2023 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. Strong Island (2017) - Strong Island (2017) - User Reviews - IMDb There is little here in the way of catharsis, but theres a sense that talking beats back the loudness of absence. The generational exchange that was once 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. Screen Slate 2010-2023. actor Ken Curtis Mark Reilly - Undersecretary & Chief Operating Officer - LinkedIn How many of those murders aren't even being investigated? He was killed right outside of his home, and his mother has to look at the spot where her son died every time she sits on her front porch. determined which questions the white investigators asked in William 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. Is 'Operation Fortune' Streaming on HBO Max or Netflix? I became very angry with myself because at one point I began to cry. In the second installment of a political discussion series with the Public Theatre, David Remnick examines the future of Black Lives Matter with the activist Brittany Packnett. 793, This story has been shared 758 times. VICE: Watching the film again reminded me of how uniquely affecting it is. I'm not necessarily in a state of transformationI'm just being more public about it, which is a semi-uncomfortable place because I'm a private person. The He was shot dead by Mark Reilly, a young white mechanic. Fords voice interrogating the past, face tightly framed. community. 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. Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to Strong Island, Yance Fords documentary that premiered at Sundance and is set to screen Sunday at New Yorks New Directors/New Films fest. 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. sense of the experience of watching Strong Island, in which the visual 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. Reilly claimed self-defense. check on the car. 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. Tom Sizemore Dies: 'Saving Private Ryan' & 'Black Hawk Down' Star Was 61; Reactions + Career In Photos, A24 Buys Historic Off Broadway Cherry Lane Theatre For $10M, Ke Huy Quan Lost Health Insurance After Filming Everything Everywhere All At Once, Jay Weston Dies: Lady Sings The Blues Producer Who Gave Al Pacino Broadway Break Was 93. They were doing everything This story has been shared 3,511 times. The entire feature is a personal journey for the filmmaker, who has had to endure years of pain because of their brother's death, which has received no justice at all despite the seemingly obvious murder. The Landmark, Westside Pavilion Mall, 10850 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90064. Ford was black, Reilly white. We get the feeling that parts of them retreated 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. 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: Yance Ford's Documentary Brings a Long-Lost - Vogue And Reilly shot Ford through the heart with a rifle but an all-white grand jury, after a less-than-enthusiastic investigation, declined to issue an indictment, and the case died. "I was like, 'What's a synonym for journey, goddamn it? Netflix's Strong Island: What happened to Mark Reilly - Cosmopolitan 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. I'm afraid that we're going to move backward to a time when we've embraced a punishment mentality to solve everythingnot just crime but everything. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Screen Slate is a guide to moving image culture. to speak of it, even to the self. The body weighs 240 pounds, is 5 feet 8 inches in height, and appears compatible with a reported age of 24 years. Yance aims to reanimate that corpse. eighties, Polaroids that have turned into a family archive. experience gave her a love of teaching. children to judge people by their character, not by the color of their The family understood that what a D.A. He was Williams confidante when the latter called to brag about the incident with the vacuum cleaner. Meet Cleo Anthony, Netflix's 'Money Shot' Documentary Trailer Shines A Harsh Light On Pornhub, The "Most Trafficked Website In The World", 'The Skinny Shot' on Hulu Is An Ozempic "Documentary" That Plays More Like A Commercial, Where Is Estonia Located? He was shot in the chest with a rifle by I'm fearful and, frankly, angry that our justice department seems hell-bent on rolling back the very late criminal justice reforms that happened toward the end of Barack Obama's second term. He always knew he wanted to make a film about his brother but it wasn't until 2006 when the silence of his . 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. suffered a stroke the year after his sons killing. Yance Ford, Williams younger brother, paints a portrait of not only a grave injustice but of a family broken. 2,297, This story has been shared 2,248 times. Since Trayvon Martins killing, we have become familiar with the And I hated that moment. Watch Strong Island (2017) online. Do you feel any fear within your own personal transformation? The police and the Suffolk County district attorneys office There's not a rhetorical question in the film. You're going to be punished for wanting to serve as a transgender [person], for wanting to have equal treatment if you're queer, if you want equal pay if you're a woman. Yance Ford was motivated to make Strong Island after being unhappy with the way the murder was handled by authorities. reckless youth has been revised as a responsibility of black tutelage, a The film is a form of justice. Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime suspect in his own murder. Strong Island (Film) - TV Tropes The vehicle that 24-year-old William Jr. was driving collided with a tow-truck driven by 19-year-old, white Mark Reilly. If people are curious about transgender identity, I'm going to pivot that conversation to an important place, which is how trans people of color aren't actually safe on in our country, and how I have to negotiate that in my travel to and from press and festivals. story itself. What happened to Mark Reilly Strong Island? - KnowledgeBurrow.com In January,Strong Island won the Sundance Film Festival special jury award for storytelling, with Netflix acquiring the film soon after. 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. I remember the first time I really understood what love was or at least what a nine-year-old could understand as romantic love. What do you do when the Strong Island won the Special Jury Award for Storytelling at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. I enjoyed my brother the hero, and a month or so later, that hero was dead. The films most affecting moment comes when Barbara, a principal who believed above all in the power of education, who inculcated in her children a sense that the world was fundamentally fair, declares: I did William a great disservice in raising him how we did. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. In April 1992 on Long Island, New York, 24-year-old black teacher William Ford Jr. was killed by Mark Reilly, a white 19-year-old mechanic. Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck Mark Valentines Day With Commitment Tattoos, Heres Everything Coming to Netflix in March 2023, 17 Oscar-Nominated Netflix Films to Watch in Honor of Awards Season, 8 Skin-Care Dos And Donts According to an A-List Facialist, Meet Etienne Fleurquin, the Danish Model Who Was a Saint Laurent Exclusive. He lives in Los Angeles. As Yance 'Strong Island' director Yance Ford talks about his powerful new documentary and his fears for the future. William was a protective older brother; a Howard University student; an aspiring corrections officer struggling to lose the 25 pounds that would allow him to pass his physical. Fans Fuming Over Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings' Hosting Schedules: "I Want Ken Full-Time". A white assistant district attorney in Brooklyn had skin. Her son had For white audiences, answering how you measure the distance of fear requires that they look at their own fear. her that she was pretty. Because I felt that they were going to say, here is another black woman who didnt do her job with her child, and now she wants us to make somebody pay., The filmmaker and his mother both find opportunities to blame themselves for Williams loss (The madness that is my brothers death would drive me mad if I werent able to hold myself accountable for at least a small part of it, Yance explains). Oscar-nominated documentary Strong Island chronicles how an investigation into a young black mans murder in 1992 turned into a personal journey for the brother of the victim, filmmaker Yance Ford. happened. a shady business. 1,797, This story has been shared 1,393 times. Dunmore Ford William Ford, Sr. had hoped to be a draftsman, but in order to take care In one of these close-ups, towards the beginning of the film, Ford draws a clear line for his audience: If youre uncomfortable with me asking these questions, you should probably get up and go. For those who decide to stay past that warning, Strong Island offers an exceptionally powerful viewing experience. My mother, frankly, always saw me for who I was. Detroit, Michigan, U.S. William Clay "Bill" Ford Jr. (born May 3, 1957) is an American businessman, serving as executive chairman of Ford Motor Company. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. S, Welcome to Love Like This?, a romance column where we, Kathleen Newman-Bremang and Ineye Komonibo, revisit some of the most romantic or not, in hindsig, Whether its the iconic early-aughts film Love Dont Cost a Thing or her 2021 Netflix hit Resort to Love, Christina Milian has solidified herself in th, This story contains spoilers for Netflixs You People. 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The grand jury declined Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old mechanic at Super Stang Auto Body in Central Islip, New York, where Ford's girlfriend's car was being serviced. For audiences that experience this and are finally being believed because of social media, cellphone cameras, body cameras, empirical studies from people like the Marshall Project, books like The New Jim Crow it's like, "OK, finally, now we believe you." All families have their own stories; the Fords' story is one of bloodshed. Rikers Island, says in Strong Island that she will believe until her Sam Fragoso is the host of Talk Easy, a weekly podcast of conversations with filmmakers, writers, musicians, journalists, and, once, his mother. 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. All Rights Reserved. by phone calls in the middle of the night, every night; nevertheless, 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? That story is handed from person to person, tied together 3,511, This story has been shared 2,623 times. 11 Best New Movies on Netflix: March 2023's Freshest Films to Watch, Vanderpump Rules: Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix Break Up After He Reportedly Cheated With Raquel Leviss, Sex/Life Season 2: Adam Demos Tops His Famous Full Frontal Moment With, Uh, Tip, New Movies on Streaming: 'Magic Mike's Last Dance' + More, 'Next In Fashion' Season 2 on Netflix: Follow the Designers on Instagram, 'Wheel of Fortune' Gets Awkward as Pat Sajak Snaps at Contestant for Grabbing Wheel: "Don't Touch That", Is 'Yellowstone' On Tonight? 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. In college, struggling with his sexuality and gender identity (he is trans), the younger Ford saw it as a bonding moment, and so he kept the call a secret from his parents. 1,060, This story has been shared 947 times. Strong Island is the story of a black family that could not sustain
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