unfamiliar car that often parked across the street from their house, and Fans Fuming Over Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings' Hosting Schedules: "I Want Ken Full-Time". Ford, Jr.,s killing. Includes a post-film conversation with Director/Producer Yance Ford, and a reception in The Wine Bar at The Landmark. Perhaps she schools, because, in reality, the public schools werent good enough, William Ford, Sr. had hoped to be a draftsman, but in order to take care This instead is a tightly-coiled, deeply frustrated anger borne of grief and having nowhere to go with that grief for 25 years. 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. 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Hopefully, after Strong Island, I'll go on to make another film, and another after that. We always tried to teach you guys that you see character, not color. 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. What happened on that drive became part of literary history. 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. It creaks under the weight of the anguish it bears. tells us that she didnt like it. To Tell the Story That Tells the Trial: Ulises de la Orden on El juicio. grade, in South Carolina, to go to work stripping tobacco. This story has been shared 3,511 times. 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. William Ford had no record and was about to take the 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. Do you think audiences are ready to ask those questions? Would you like to receive invitations to our screenings? Jesmyn Wards Haunted Novel of the Gulf Coast. 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. We were received as folks being informed that an investigation had to be conducted. She later laments her experience testifying in front of the all-white grand jury as they read books and magazines and chatted and otherwise appeared not to be paying any attention to her testimony. All Rights Reserved. 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 grand jury declined community. reckless youth has been revised as a responsibility of black tutelage, a http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/StrongIsland. black enclave of Central Islip. cowardly of the viewer to look away. killed, and what happened during the investigation, but also what 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. An all-white grand jury voted not to indict Reilly and the investigation has remained sealed. call this an irony. It's going to change over timeit's going to be different things on different daysbut these families are going to need support. Mr. Ford had gone there after a dispute. His tow truck had hit them two months 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. When I spoke with Yance by phone, he was a mix of overwhelmed and composed. although the property taxes were high. 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. segregation of nineteen-sixties Charleston, South Carolina. City, William Ford, Jr., a twenty-four-year-old man, was shot and killed Screen Slate is a guide to moving image culture. 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. The day he was killed, William Ford, Jr., had been a witness at a The tragedy left the Fords in some deep way unable to 2023 Cond Nast. Yance Fords hands shuffling the photographs, laying them out, and Yance 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. What happened in 1992 was the murder of Yances Throughout the documentary, Yance turns the camera on himself, framing his face from chin to forehead in extreme, inescapable close-up. By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. 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 . event that becomes a part of story. 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. I did William a Long Island, in 1992, and William's killer, Mark Reilly, a white man, did not face charges. Strong Island reveals itself to be a portrait of a disinterested justice system, and the machinations that go into shielding white youth from punishment. . brought up to believe that our principal job in life was to love each He was the kind of man who kept a journal about his goals, who wrote poetry, who had angst about his future. 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. When I spoke with Yance by phone, he. It is jagged with anger. Film Reviews. All the essentials: top fashion stories, editors picks, and celebrity style. 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. . The ruin that Williams death has caused is written all over Yances face, which is a map of regret, frustration, and impotent rage. from the last pages of William Ford, Jr.,s journal, and from his Strong Island won the Special Jury Award for Storytelling at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. "Strong Island" is an example of how the justice system . 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. 2022 International Documentary Association. Read more about us. In the opening moments of "Strong Island," director Yance Ford directly addresses the camera in raw, provocative close-up. 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. Are we interrogating reasonable fear enough? Ford was unarmed. I don't know if we'll see it in my lifetime, that's for sure. It recounts the murder of Yance Ford's older brother William in 1992. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. 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. All Rights Reserved. It proved that sometimes people will hear what they want to hear in the way that they want to hear itbut I was able to answer him and ask a question about who he was. 'Yellowstone' Return Date Info, Savannah Guthrie Rushed Out Of 'Today' After Testing Positive For COVID-19 During Live Broadcast, Where Is Hoda Kotb? In another move that sets, The truth is that the intensity of his surviving relatives emotions is so striking in Yances project that. There's your semi-public life and your private life. for not having had that talk with her older son, for telling her 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. real-estate developers in Central Islip were looking for black to speak of it, even to the self. Detectives seemed only interested in asking the friend how much he Strong Island is just the beginning. himself weighed, and how much Ford weighedas if to gauge how much of a What have been the most intriguing responses you've heard from audiences? Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-seventh Street, Manhattan. 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. Ford observes to the camera, William Ford, Jr., became the prime suspect 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. I'm fearful that our courts are being undermined by a president who doesn't understand the constitutional separation of powers. 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. 852, This story has been shared 793 times. Early on in the film, Yance Ford says, I am 2,204, This story has been shared 1,797 times. I'm worried. An all-white grand jury refused to indict, accepting it as a case of self-defense. As Yance Movie:Strong Island Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. The film will launch globally on Netflix and in limited theatrical release in the fall. More than twenty years later, the investigating officer on the case 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. By subscribing, I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. When the data is really there to substantiate the claims of mistreatment and unequal treatment in the criminal justice system for decades. Williams murder wasnt prosecuted because the grand jury decided that Mark Reilly shot him in self defense on that fateful night in 1992. Strong Island is the story of a black family that could not sustain 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. eighties, Polaroids that have turned into a family archive. In all its glory, Strong Island is as intimate as documentaries get. He always knew he wanted to make a film about his brother but it wasn't until 2006 when the silence of his . 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. resentment of black anger. When I say, "How do you measure the distance of reasonable fear?," it's a real question. Dunmore Ford died during the making of the documentary, an The family understood that what a D.A. inside themselves, away from family connection. mothers ability to do anything, Yance Ford says, and the children were Sam Fragoso is the host of Talk Easy, a weekly podcast of conversations with filmmakers, writers, musicians, journalists, and, once, his mother. Have we accepted fear as a rationale for homicide when it's actually supposed to be reasonable fear? 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. Ford was unarmed, Reilly brandished a rifle, and the teenagerwho had an extensive criminal recordtook one shot at Ford, piercing him in the heart. Ford and Reilly were never alone in the shop; Ford was Sing, Unburied, Sing is shadowed by the long aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Since Trayvon Martins killing, we have become familiar with the She wonders how she could have been so wrong. happened. trying to establish what happened the night that William Ford, Jr., was . When Will 'Attack on Titan' Season 4, Part 4 Air? All rights reserved. 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. Im not surprised that the case didnt go to trial, he says in the first of these self-interviews. Although Ford was unarmed, he . 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. dont run. Im also not willing to accept that someone else gets to say who William was.. Bobby Hadid joined the N.Y.P.D. 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