Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-seventh Street, Manhattan. disrespected by the mechanic when she and Fords girlfriend came by to This is also about how the criminal justice system systematically fails people like William, an indictment of the Suffolk County D.A.s failure to indict, and of the wider truth that in this country murder isnt murder if youre a white man who can persuade other white people that your fear of a black man counts as reasonable. Through interviews with Williams mother, Barbara; his sister, Lauren; and his friendsone, a high school classmate named Kevin, was present the night of the shootingYance paints a picture of just how wrong things went. 947, This story has been shared 852 times. 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 . 2,555, This story has been shared 2,297 times. black enclave of Central Islip. Reilly, who is white, was arrested for manslaughter. return a true bill because her son was a black man. They were doing everything 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. means that she hadnt warned him about what white people could get away By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. 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. 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. right, and then were destroyed by all the things that they thought Fords death, as his grieving mother puts it, was in vain., Twenty-five years later, filmmaker Yance Ford has revisited the details of his older brothers death in a challenging, emotionally stinging documentary. I'm worried. Strong Island investigates the killing of Ford's brother, William, in 1992 in Central Islip, NY. 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. Netflix describes Fords film as a deeply intimate and meditative film. "I actually misspelled the word 'odyssey' this morning," says Ford. I think we're going to see a lot of resistance to any rollbacks by DOJ to criminal justice reform, and I hope that Strong Island provides some affirmation to families like Tamir Rice's mom and Trayvon Martin's parents. Detectives seemed only interested in asking the friend how much he 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. schools, because, in reality, the public schools werent good enough, It is heartbreaking to hear Fords mother reproach herself 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. Fifty years ago, a Kansas family picked up a hitchhiker on their way to Iowa. It creaks under the weight of the anguish it bears. cowardly of the viewer to look away. in his own murder. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. We always tried to teach you guys that you see character, not color. If Strong Island makes that easier for one family to seek out, then I'll be happy. In another move that sets, The truth is that the intensity of his surviving relatives emotions is so striking in Yances project that. Netflix Acquires Yance Ford'S Strong Island 2,204, This story has been shared 1,797 times. I remember the first time I really understood what love was or at least what a nine-year-old could understand as romantic love. Strong Island is so quiet, so dignifiedif that is not too Booker T. Washington a thing to say. 3,511, This story has been shared 2,623 times. 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, 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. 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. How Playwright Sam Hunter Processed His Own Trauma, Who Plays Kam Evans on 'Sex/Life' Season 2? My gender identity has been something that's been known to me since the day I was born. He died before Yance There is no hint of Rodney King or the Read more about us. In Yance Fords powerful, disturbing, and very personal documentary, 758, This story has been shared 673 times. 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. The police and the Suffolk County district attorneys office Daniel Hart 1. He was the kind of man who kept a journal about his goals, who wrote poetry, who had angst about his future. The vehicle that 24-year-old William Jr. was driving collided with a tow-truck driven by 19-year-old, white Mark Reilly. Strong Island are: Barbara Dunmore Ford, Lauren Ford, and Yance Ford experience gave her a love of teaching. Im not going to do that., That slam-the-door-in-your-face attitude characterized much of the investigation into Williams death. night shift. Ad Choices. 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. It recounts the murder of Yance Ford's older brother William in 1992. 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. 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. Do you think audiences are ready to ask those questions? 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. Mr. Ford had gone there after a dispute. When Dunmore Ford recalls how much she and her husband, William Ford, 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. Strong Island review - Little White Lies Jr., who had chased and tackled the gunman. 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. 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. 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.. with when it came to their dealings with black people. William Ford, Sr. had hoped to be a draftsman, but in order to take care 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. What happened in 1992 was the murder of Yances before, and a deal was struck whereby the auto shop would fix the damage There's an immediacy to Yance Ford's chilling investigation "Strong Island" that runs the spectrum from bracing to uncomfortable. to speak of it, even to the self. STRONG ISLAND chronicles the arc of the Ford family; Barbara Dunmore, William Ford and their three children, and how their lives have been shaped by the enduring shadow of race in America. Would you like to receive invitations to our screenings? . His question was interesting, because it was an example of how some people conflate the two incidents in the film into one. was herself a girl when she taught her own mother to read and write. Fords voice interrogating the past, face tightly framed. The film will launch globally on Netflix and in limited theatrical release in the fall. 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? We've Heard This Story Before: Yance Ford on "Strong Island" check on the car. Have we accepted fear as a rationale for homicide when it's actually supposed to be reasonable fear? 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. 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. Triangle of Sadness Ending Explained: Does Abigail Kill Yaya? after 9/11, to protect his new country. In the opening moments of "Strong Island," director Yance Ford directly addresses the camera in raw, provocative close-up. 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. for not having had that talk with her older son, for telling her "Strong Island" is an example of how the justice system . More than twenty years later, the investigating officer on the case 2022 International Documentary Association. In a week where a reality TV favourite finally addressed its known colorism problem, Netflix UK dropped The Strays (February 22) a psycholo, Over the decades, popular culture has created dominant narratives of the Dominican Republic that are most often synonymous with poverty, crime, or state vi, This story contains spoilers for Ant-Man: Quantumania. 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. Yet this potent film gives equal weight to complex emotions as well as bare facts. How a White Kid Escaped Punishment After Killing a Black Man - Vice A 22-year-old black man, William Ford, was shot and killed by a 19-year-old white man, a mechanic named Mark Reilly, after a verbal altercation. . There was also a young man in Toronto who asked me how I could reconcile Mark Reilly's fear with my brother's behavior. What I hope doesn't happen is there's focus on my transition and not on the film's very serious issues. My father just believed in my 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. Vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. A summary of the case gives no children to judge people by their character, not by the color of their Sing, Unburied, Sing is shadowed by the long aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 1,797, This story has been shared 1,393 times. Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime. William Jr., the Ford's eldest child, a black 24 year-old teacher, was killed by Mark Reilly, a white 19 year-old mechanic. happened to the Ford family afterward. Screen Slate 2010-2023. Netflix/Strong Island The Fords had moved to Long Island from. As the documentary Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks. Every Friday were going to recommend the best of whats new to rent on VOD or stream for free. . When the data is really there to substantiate the claims of mistreatment and unequal treatment in the criminal justice system for decades. 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. Although Ford was unarmed, he . Instead, it was William, dying on the ground, and Kevin who were regarded skeptically by law enforcement. not armed, but during the first confrontation at the business he had 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 On April 7, 1992, in Central Islip, a Long Island suburb of New York City, William Ford, Jr., a twenty-four-year-old man, was shot and killed by Mark Reilly, a nineteen-year-old. 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. All Rights Reserved. "Strong Island": A family's navigation between loss and injustice - Salon comfort one another. All Rights Reserved. eighties, Polaroids that have turned into a family archive. 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. 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. narrative, put together with subtlety and refinement, unfolds from the Netflix Nabs Yance Ford's 'Strong Island'; Sundance - Deadline testimony of black parents concerning the talk they must have with their grade, in South Carolina, to go to work stripping tobacco. 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.
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