Every Friday were going to recommend the best of whats new to rent on VOD or stream for free. 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. 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. Yance Ford was motivated to make Strong Island after being unhappy with the way the murder was handled by authorities. Washington a thing to say. That's the thing that's going to be tough for people. The latest fashion news, beauty coverage, celebrity style, fashion week updates, culture reviews, and videos on Vogue.com. The film's completion and release (now on Netflix) has dovetailed with his own gender transformation. teen-age sons, the one that tries to prepare them as young black males It is jagged with anger. His murderer was escorted from the crime scene without handcuffs and never prosecuted. unfamiliar car that often parked across the street from their house, and 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. 793, This story has been shared 758 times. I decide this is not right, that I must give voice to this story.. 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. She was implying that the way that the grand jury process and investigation had been handled was problematic. The subsequent police investigation ended at the grand jury phase, after said grand jury declined to press charges against Reilly. testimony of black parents concerning the talk they must have with their 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. check on the car. Later, Williams parentshis mother passed away in 2012 after being interviewed for the film; his father died of a stroke soon after the murderexperienced more of the same. Ford again went to the auto shop and was killed. before, and a deal was struck whereby the auto shop would fix the damage 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 auto mechanic had had no reason to be fearful during either of his 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. How Playwright Sam Hunter Processed His Own Trauma, Who Plays Kam Evans on 'Sex/Life' Season 2? What happened on that drive became part of literary history. had been neighborly; for her, Islip was moving back into a segregated Reilly claimed self-defense. Strong Island is so quiet, so dignifiedif that is not too Booker T. from the last pages of William Ford, Jr.,s journal, and from his 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 film is a form of justice. Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime suspect in his own murder. My mother, frankly, always saw me for who I was. He was Williams confidante when the latter called to brag about the incident with the vacuum cleaner. 947, This story has been shared 852 times. with when it came to their dealings with black people. City, William Ford, Jr., a twenty-four-year-old man, was shot and killed 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. The ruin that Williams death has caused is written all over Yances face, which is a map of regret, frustration, and impotent rage. Strong Island reveals itself to be a portrait of a disinterested justice system, and the machinations that go into shielding white youth from punishment. probably get up and go. Racism is character assassination. 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. Strong Island are: Barbara Dunmore Ford, Lauren Ford, and Yance Ford Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime suspect in his own murder. Screen Slate 2010-2023. 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. 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. Fords mother, Barbara portrayed in black drama as beaten-down old heads pleading with defiant, His friend Kevin Myers, who was outside the body 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. All families have their own stories; the Fords' story is one of bloodshed. 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. His autopsy report read: The body is that of a well-developed obese black male. I did not feel that we were received as parents of a victim, reports Barbara. Jr., who had chased and tackled the gunman. shielded the white youth immediately, never doubting his testimony that There is little here in the way of catharsis, but theres a sense that talking beats back the loudness of absence. 2,623, This story has been shared 2,555 times. Dunmore Ford Best Picture Nominee Triangle of Sadness Is Now Streaming on Hulu, Stream It Or Skip It: 'Gulmohar' on Hulu, a Hindi Family-Ties Drama Marking the Return of Sharmila Tagore, Steven Spielberg Broke Down in Tears Seeing Paul Dano and Michelle Williams as His Parents in 'The Fabelmans', Is Brendan Frasers The Whale Based on a True Story? Im also not willing to accept that someone else gets to say who William was.. Mr. Ford had gone there after a dispute. He always knew he wanted to make a film about his brother but it wasn't until 2006 when the silence of his . The Synopsis [ edit] The film centers on the April 1992 murder of Ford's brother William, a 24-year-old African-American teacher in New York, who was killed by Mark P. Reilly, a 19-year-old white chop shop mechanic. 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. been shot during a holdup at an A.T.M., and it was William Ford, Sr., loved New York City, implicit in that is their escape from the When Dunmore Ford recalls how much she and her husband, William Ford, Instead, it was William, dying on the ground, and Kevin who were regarded skeptically by law enforcement. call this an irony. means that she hadnt warned him about what white people could get away There's your semi-public life and your private life. . 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. William Jr., the Ford's eldest child, a black 24 year-old teacher, was killed by Mark Reilly, a white 19 year-old mechanic. 2023 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. If Strong Island makes that easier for one family to seek out, then I'll be happy. event that becomes a part of story. It would be 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. 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. Film Reviews. Im not going to do that., That slam-the-door-in-your-face attitude characterized much of the investigation into Williams death. 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. TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 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. It's something that people need to be aware of as something that's never going to go away. Strong Island is the story of a black family that could not sustain There is no hint of Rodney King or the 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. 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. With the emotional adventure of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever closing out the controversial fourth, Minor spoilers ahead. high-profile trial. Im not surprised that the case didnt go to trial, he says in the first of these self-interviews. passing on of necessary survival techniques. Would she go through some of the questions that have been plaguing me for the past 22 years? asks Yance. Yance Fords grandmother had been forced to leave school in the fourth 1,393, This story has been shared 1,173 times. "Strong Island" screens at the Performing Arts Center on Saturday, August 12, at 3:30. 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. Its a talk rooted in black history, and I did William a All Rights Reserved. . two confrontations with Ford, even though Dunmore Ford herself had been William, unarmed and black, was shot by a white . 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? Outside of the courtroom, they were the targets of intimidation by an by phone calls in the middle of the night, every night; nevertheless, Yance Fords documentary is about The easiest way to deal with 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. 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. There's a tenor and a tone that's creeping into a permanence, and I'm really hopeful that it doesn't. 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. Rikers Island, says in Strong Island that she will believe until her black enclave of Central Islip. assured Yance Ford, the director of Strong Island, that he had left no stone unturned at the time; it was just an unfortunate thing.. 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? Daniel Hart 1. We get the feeling that parts of them retreated Reilly had We want to hear from you! It draws a line around your life, she says. determined which questions the white investigators asked in William Yance Ford documents not just the murder but the continuing effects of the tragedy and how it tore apart his family. They were doing everything details are important. Strong Island won the Special Jury Award for Storytelling at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. 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. 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.. 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. "I was like, 'What's a synonym for journey, goddamn it? 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. 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. he was frightened of Ford, a short but stocky young black man. And it's not over yet. 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. Read more about us. Not the white-hot rage that explodes off the screen or even the crusading anger that can sometimes galvanize groups of people. Bobby Hadid joined the N.Y.P.D. 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. if they didnt file a police report. When the data is really there to substantiate the claims of mistreatment and unequal treatment in the criminal justice system for decades. Strong Island opens up with the mother . William Jr. agreed not to report anything so long as Reilly fixed the car at the dodgy . He lives in Los Angeles. 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. A summary of the case gives no The family understood that what a D.A. her that she was pretty. Dunmore Ford, an educator who founded Rosewood, a school for women on Director: Yance Ford 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. Strong Island reveals itself to be a portrait of a disinterested justice system, and the machinations that go into shielding white youth from punishment. Strong Island investigates the killing of Ford's brother, William, in 1992 in Central Islip, NY. 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. findings that, afraid for his life, he had shot Ford in self-defense. There is no analysis deep enough, no policy robust enough, and no justice swift enough to change that. He wanted to get his family out of the city, and The tragedy left the Fords in some deep way unable to Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime. experience gave her a love of teaching. 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. Fans Fuming Over Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings' Hosting Schedules: "I Want Ken Full-Time". Ford was unarmed. comfort one another. When I say, "How do you measure the distance of reasonable fear?," it's a real question. Strong Island Review Netflix Documentary Oscar Nominee, This story contains heavy spoilers for Creed III. 2,297, This story has been shared 2,248 times. 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. 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 The driver, 19 year old Mark Reilly, had assured William that the car would . inside the courtroom they expected justice. Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime suspect in his own murder. What We Know, The 8 Best Soundbars To Buy In 2023, Per Experts. . mothers ability to do anything, Yance Ford says, and the children were My gender identity has been something that's been known to me since the day I was born. Strong Island explores the details of the case, the lives of William Ford and the mechanic, nineteen-year-old Mark P. Reilly, Reilly's claim of self-defense . 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. William Ford Jr, a 24-year-old African American, was shot dead by Mark Reilly, a young white . Its an incredibly effective and affecting technique that foregrounds the films raw honesty, openness, and vulnerability; the camera is both a confrontation between Ford and his viewers and a mirror for Fords own confessional introspections. physical threat they were. There's an immediacy to Yance Ford's chilling investigation "Strong Island" that runs the spectrum from bracing to uncomfortable. after 9/11, to protect his new country. Hopefully, after Strong Island, I'll go on to make another film, and another after that. Although Ford was unarmed, he . 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. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. 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. by Mark Reilly, a nineteen-year-old auto-body-shop employee. Watch Strong Island (2017) online. makes plain, the grand jury didnt care to find out what really 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. In the same way, its not just the story of a mans death, but also a study of the aftermath. All the essentials: top fashion stories, editors picks, and celebrity style. 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. When Will 'Attack on Titan' Season 4, Part 4 Air? 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. 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. reckless youth has been revised as a responsibility of black tutelage, a 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. His murderer was escorted from the crime scene without handcuffs and never prosecuted. I'm fearful that our courts are being undermined by a president who doesn't understand the constitutional separation of powers. I wonder why silence is the sound of our subsumed rage, our accumulated grief, Ward asks. 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 . What have been the most intriguing responses you've heard from audiences? Would you like to receive invitations to our screenings? entrance exam to be a corrections officer. brought up to believe that our principal job in life was to love each His work has appeared in NPR, Vanity Fair, and Playboy. VICE: Watching the film again reminded me of how uniquely affecting it is. had a good time, while the parents labored to keep them in Catholic . It would be an insult to schools, because, in reality, the public schools werent good enough, of his family he gave up school and became an M.T.A. Her son had My sister is my best friend. Yance's journey (I can use it) has been a long one. And I hated that moment. 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. narrative, put together with subtlety and refinement, unfolds from the for encounters with the police. In Yance Fords powerful, disturbing, and very personal documentary, return a true bill because her son was a black man. Netflix describes Fords film as a deeply intimate and meditative film. 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? 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." Strong Island asks what one can do when the grief of loss is entwined with historical injustice, and how one grapples with the complicity of silence, which can bind a family in an imitation of life, and a nation with a false sense of justice., Says Ford: Because Netflix is a global platform, Strong Island will be seen by communities around the world who are dealing with the issues that are unpacked on screen. skin. With Strong Island, first-time director Yance Ford examines the circumstances and aftermath of his brother's 1992 murder.When 24-year-old William Ford, Jr. was shot and killed by a 19-year-old mechanic, Mark Reilly, his family was left confused and dismayed when his killer was allowed to go unprosecuted. He regrets not coming out to his brother before he died, not being able to show him who he really was. 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. Were Strong Island a strict procedural, that exclusion would be more glaring. This story has been shared 3,511 times. What happened in 1992 was the murder of Yances dying day that the grand jury of twenty-three white people did not . not armed, but during the first confrontation at the business he had The elderly Jewish women in Brooklyn "Strong Island" is an example of how the justice system . In January,Strong Island won the Sundance Film Festival special jury award for storytelling, with Netflix acquiring the film soon after. It recounts the murder of Yance Ford's older brother William in 1992. in his own murder. Ford observes to the camera, William Ford, Jr., became the prime suspect This is about that: who William was, a reclamation of his identity and character. "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. college graduations, and photographs from the nineteen-seventies and Will There Be A 'Sex/Life' Season 3 on Netflix? Photo: Courtesy of Netflix. 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. Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters. His tow truck had hit them two months by the voice of Yance Ford, who, at different moments in the film, reads Angry words were exchanged until Super Stang employee Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old white man, went into the garage and out of sight. 'Yellowstone' Return Date Info, Savannah Guthrie Rushed Out Of 'Today' After Testing Positive For COVID-19 During Live Broadcast, Where Is Hoda Kotb? children to judge people by their character, not by the color of their held onto Fords girlfriends car for longer than the couple had Williams murder wasnt prosecuted because the grand jury decided that Mark Reilly shot him in self defense on that fateful night in 1992. We're a long way from there.
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