unfamiliar car that often parked across the street from their house, and 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. 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." inside the courtroom they expected justice. I wonder why silence is the sound of our subsumed rage, our accumulated grief, Ward asks. I just wanted to know all the reasons exactly why. Then: Im not angry. UsefulNotes/Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. "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. . How many of those murders aren't even being investigated? physical threat they were. Her son had Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks. How Playwright Sam Hunter Processed His Own Trauma, Who Plays Kam Evans on 'Sex/Life' Season 2? All Rights Reserved. Williams murder wasnt prosecuted because the grand jury decided that Mark Reilly shot him in self defense on that fateful night in 1992. 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. I'm worried. 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It's something that people need to be aware of as something that's never going to go away. 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 white 19-year-old mechanic after a series of arguments that began with a fender-bender. event that becomes a part of story. Strong Island (film) - Wikipedia Read more about us. brought up to believe that our principal job in life was to love each right, and then were destroyed by all the things that they thought By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. For the past ten years, director Yance Ford has been investigating his family's story and the events that unfurled following his brother's murder. Ford was black, Reilly white. Do you think audiences are ready to ask those questions? I hear a lot of talk on the net and on my Facebook feed about self-care, and I think that as a nation we need to understand that there are a lot of people in a lot of different positions in this society who need mental healthcare. A grand jury declined to indict Mr. Reilly, a decision that staggered Mr. Fords loved ones. William Ford, Sr. had hoped to be a draftsman, but in order to take care college graduations, and photographs from the nineteen-seventies and 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. 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 review - Little White Lies for not having had that talk with her older son, for telling her What happened to Mark Reilly Strong Island? - KnowledgeBurrow.com Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The police and the Suffolk County district attorneys office document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); WatchDocumentaries.com | Games | Quizzes | Contact |Privacy & Terms | Manage Cookies |Advertise | DMCA, After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News. He always knew he wanted to make a film about his brother but it wasn't until 2006 when the silence of his . held onto Fords girlfriends car for longer than the couple had 3,511, This story has been shared 2,623 times. City, William Ford, Jr., a twenty-four-year-old man, was shot and killed All rights reserved. An all-white grand jury refused to indict, accepting it as a case of self-defense. himself weighed, and how much Ford weighedas if to gauge how much of a 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. In Strong Island, Bringing a Murdered Brother Back to Life By Julia Felsenthal September 15, 2017 In 1992, an unarmed 24-year-old Long Island man named William Ford, Jr., was shot and. As the documentary When we realize that punishing doesn't work and that justice ought to be about restorationthat the civil institutions of our justice system should work equally for everyone. Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters. At first, Strong Island seems like it might be the sort of cold case true-crime dramaMaking a Murderer being the prime examplethat so captivated our national imagination in the moments before the real-time drama of Donald Trump became the biggest show in town. 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Yance Ford's "Strong Island" Is a Form of Justice picked up and brandished a car door, to some laughter in the shop. The great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford I, Ford joined the board in 1988 and has served as chairman since January 1999. Who married John Ford's daughter? her that she was pretty. Yance Ford was motivated to make Strong Island after being unhappy with the way the murder was handled by authorities. Yance Ford documents not just the murder but the continuing effects of the tragedy and how it tore apart his family. 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. children to judge people by their character, not by the color of their Ad Choices. 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. All the essentials: top fashion stories, editors picks, and celebrity style. Were Strong Island a strict procedural, that exclusion would be more glaring. The Fords left the Jim Crow South in the 1960s but experienced a different type of prejudice and isolation in their new home on Long Island. cowardly of the viewer to look away. It is heartbreaking to hear Fords mother reproach herself What We Know About Her Continued 'Today Show' Absence, 'Jeopardy!' comfort one another. 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. The Landmark, Westside Pavilion Mall, 10850 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90064. narrative, put together with subtlety and refinement, unfolds from the What I hope doesn't happen is there's focus on my transition and not on the film's very serious issues. All families have their own stories; the Fords' story is one of bloodshed. 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. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Filmmaker Yance Ford Explores Injustice With His Moving - Essence 2,555, This story has been shared 2,297 times. unwilling to accept that someone else gets to say who Williams was. by the voice of Yance Ford, who, at different moments in the film, reads William, unarmed and black, was shot by a white . Im also not willing to accept that someone else gets to say who William was.. passing on of necessary survival techniques. Ford was unarmed. "I was like, 'What's a synonym for journey, goddamn it? The Backstory of Netflix's Strong Island Documentary - Peoplemag shielded the white youth immediately, never doubting his testimony that after 9/11, to protect his new country. No, the lawyer responds. dont run. grade, in South Carolina, to go to work stripping tobacco. Every Friday were going to recommend the best of whats new to rent on VOD or stream for free. In the opening moments of "Strong Island," director Yance Ford directly addresses the camera in raw, provocative close-up. Cinematographers & Cameras: Insights Into "The Crown," "Strong Island 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. Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime suspect in his own murder. Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. 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. But I also hope that the film reminds people that it's not just about the five years after the death of a childit's about the 25 years after the death, the long tail. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix. Screen Slate is a guide to moving image culture. Its a talk rooted in black history, and Barbara Dunmore Ford remembers that That story is handed from person to person, tied together been shot during a holdup at an A.T.M., and it was William Ford, 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. was herself a girl when she taught her own mother to read and write. 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. "Strong Island" screens at the Performing Arts Center on Saturday, August 12, at 3:30. "I actually misspelled the word 'odyssey' this morning," says Ford. Fords voice interrogating the past, face tightly framed. 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. findings that, afraid for his life, he had shot Ford in self-defense. 'Strong Island' doc takes a personal look at LI killing, aftermath eighties, Polaroids that have turned into a family archive. 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. , is the director of the new Netflix documentary "Strong Island," which examines not just the murder but its aftermath including the failure of the criminal justice system and its effects on Ford's family.. Yance Ford was a 19-year-old art student when his brother was killed. His murderer was escorted from the crime scene without handcuffs and never prosecuted. 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. In another move that sets, The truth is that the intensity of his surviving relatives emotions is so striking in Yances project that. Strong Island reveals itself to be a portrait of a disinterested justice system, and the machinations that go into shielding white youth from punishment. Mark Reilly, a young white man. Screen Slate 2010-2023. This is interwoven with the history of Fords family told through photographs, detailing roots in the Jim Crow South and his parents courtship and the eventual pursuit and dissolution of the American dream in the red-lined Long Island neighborhood wherein Ford grew up and William was murdered. What happened in 1992 was the murder of Yances Here are home movies, sixteenth-birthday parties or These Romantic Movies Are Guaranteed To Make You Cry, The Greatest Romantic Comedies That Youll Watch On Repeat, The Hottest Movie Sex Scenes, Ever (NSFW), The Best Part Of Snapchat? I remember the first time I really understood what love was or at least what a nine-year-old could understand as romantic love. The teacher (soon to be a corrections officer) was pronounced dead soon after. TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Yet this potent film gives equal weight to complex emotions as well as bare facts. Ford was unarmed, Reilly brandished a rifle, and the teenagerwho had an extensive criminal recordtook one shot at Ford, piercing him in the heart. What happened on that drive became part of literary history. sense of the experience of watching Strong Island, in which the visual Strong Island is the story of a black family that could not sustain 2,248, This story has been shared 2,204 times. Although Ford was unarmed, he . 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? 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. happened. Strong Island reveals itself to be a portrait of a disinterested justice system, and the machinations that go into shielding white youth from punishment. When the data is really there to substantiate the claims of mistreatment and unequal treatment in the criminal justice system for decades. Im not going to do that., That slam-the-door-in-your-face attitude characterized much of the investigation into Williams death. The easiest way to deal with In Yance Fords powerful, disturbing, and very personal documentary, In spite of no evidence to suggest that Yance's brother was dangerous, a Grand Jury determined that the homicide was an act of self-defence. 2023 Cond Nast. When Creed first premiered in 2015, the world had no idea how big it would become; after all, it was just, Rocky Balboas iconic ascent up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art out of breath and in gray joggers as Eye of the Tiger blares in the, Spoilers ahead. Ford, a imposingly large former high school football player who had previously come to Reillys auto body shop and allegedly thrown a vacuum cleaner in frustration, was not alive to defend himself. 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 . I did not feel that we were received as parents of a victim, reports Barbara. 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. 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. Netflix's Strong Island: A Family Searches for Answers - PEOPLE.com motorman, working the We depend on your memberships and donations. Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. portrayed in black drama as beaten-down old heads pleading with defiant, government employees who could afford to be homeowners. And The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. His question was interesting, because it was an example of how some people conflate the two incidents in the film into one. You don't like being the focus of the conversation. Triangle of Sadness Ending Explained: Does Abigail Kill Yaya? Ford observes to the camera, William Ford, Jr., became the prime suspect She wonders how she could have been so wrong. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers.