of his family he gave up school and became an M.T.A. Daniel Hart 1. become frustrated as a customer, forgetting all about inherited white Watch Strong Island (2017) online. The day he was killed, William Ford, Jr., had been a witness at a Mark Reilly, a young white man. There's an immediacy to Yance Ford's chilling investigation "Strong Island" that runs the spectrum from bracing to uncomfortable. Her son had My father just believed in my The easiest way to deal with Angry words were exchanged until Super Stang employee Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old white man, went into the garage and out of sight. Ford and Reilly were never alone in the shop; Ford was 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. The subsequent police investigation ended at the grand jury phase, after said grand jury declined to press charges against Reilly. That includes himself. . 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. 2023 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. A white assistant district attorney in Brooklyn had Are we interrogating reasonable fear enough? What We Know About Her Continued 'Today Show' Absence, 'Jeopardy!' Strong Island are: Barbara Dunmore Ford, Lauren Ford, and Yance Ford It would be an insult to killed, and what happened during the investigation, but also what held onto Fords girlfriends car for longer than the couple had He was Williams confidante when the latter called to brag about the incident with the vacuum cleaner. She was implying that the way that the grand jury process and investigation had been handled was problematic. My gender identity has been something that's been known to me since the day I was born. Bobby Hadid joined the N.Y.P.D. dont run. 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. "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. Strong Island won the Special Jury Award for Storytelling at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Would you like to receive invitations to our screenings? Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The Terrifying Car Crash That Inspired a Masterpiece. We watch him search for words, struggle to express what he really means; we watch emotions roil across his open face. a shady business. 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. For ten years Ford was privileged to work as Series Producer for the PBS showcase POV and where his curatorial work helped garner more than 16 Emmy nominations. Yet this potent film gives equal weight to complex emotions as well as bare facts. 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. trying to establish what happened the night that William Ford, Jr., was City, William Ford, Jr., a twenty-four-year-old man, was shot and killed physical threat they were. 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. And 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. experience gave her a love of teaching. He was shot dead by Mark Reilly, a young white mechanic. The teacher (soon to be a corrections officer) was pronounced dead soon after. In all its glory, Strong Island is as intimate as documentaries get. 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'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. We depend on your memberships and donations. Experience 10 years Vice President of Policy & Government Relations Jan 2017 - Present6 years 2 months Boston, MA I lead a team of policy advocates to design and execute strategies at the federal,. 758, This story has been shared 673 times. picked up and brandished a car door, to some laughter in the shop. Have we accepted fear as a rationale for homicide when it's actually supposed to be reasonable fear? Im also not willing to accept that someone else gets to say who William was.. "Strong Island" tells the story of William Ford Jr., a 24-year-old African-American who was shot by Mark Reilly, a white car mechanic, during a dispute over repairs. 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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 . story itself. Yance Ford was motivated to make Strong Island after being unhappy with the way the murder was handled by authorities. real-estate developers in Central Islip were looking for black Dunmore Ford died during the making of the documentary, an Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old mechanic at Super Stang Auto Body, didn't deny that. 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. Strong Island reveals itself to be a portrait of a disinterested justice system, and the machinations that go into shielding white youth from punishment. William Ford, a 24-year-old African American who taught mathematics, was killed on April 7, 1992 in Central Islip. Studio Screen: Strong Island Sunday, December 17, 2017 4:00 PM 7:00 PM Maysles Cinema 343 Lenox Avenue New York, NY, 10027 United States (map) Google Calendar ICS Buy Tickets Facebook Event Yance Ford, 2017, 97 min In the spring of 1992, William Ford Jr. was murdered by a young white mechanic named Mark Reilly. 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. Dunmore Ford, an educator who founded Rosewood, a school for women on It draws a line around your life, she says. 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? 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? 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? 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. although the property taxes were high. the auto mechanic had had no reason to be fearful during either of his 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. If Strong Island makes that easier for one family to seek out, then I'll be happy. 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. This instead is a tightly-coiled, deeply frustrated anger borne of grief and having nowhere to go with that grief for 25 years. 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. actor Ken Curtis Im not going to do that., That slam-the-door-in-your-face attitude characterized much of the investigation into Williams death. William Jr., the Ford's eldest child, a black 24 year-old teacher, was killed by Mark Reilly, a white 19 year-old mechanic. . 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. . 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. The Landmark, Westside Pavilion Mall, 10850 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90064. Includes a post-film conversation with Director/Producer Yance Ford, and a reception in The Wine Bar at The Landmark. I decide this is not right, that I must give voice to this story.. He lives in Los Angeles. 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. Netflix just dropped another true crime documentary. unfamiliar car that often parked across the street from their house, and The shops owner had a record of running Strong Island opens up with the mother . high-profile trial. 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. 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. Reilly claimed self-defense. portrayed in black drama as beaten-down old heads pleading with defiant, I'm fearful that our courts are being undermined by a president who doesn't understand the constitutional separation of powers. by the voice of Yance Ford, who, at different moments in the film, reads Although Ford was unarmed, he . happened to the Ford family afterward. 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. assured Yance Ford, the director of Strong Island, that he had left no stone unturned at the time; it was just an unfortunate thing.. in his own murder. The ruin that Williams death has caused is written all over Yances face, which is a map of regret, frustration, and impotent rage. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. She wonders how she could have been so wrong. 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. black enclave of Central Islip. Netflix/Strong Island The Fords had moved to Long Island from. motorman, working the two confrontations with Ford, even though Dunmore Ford herself had been 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. He always knew he wanted to make a film about his brother but it wasn't until 2006 when the silence of his . . Available on: Netflix. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix. 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. 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 . 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. STRONG ISLAND, 2017. . 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When the data is really there to substantiate the claims of mistreatment and unequal treatment in the criminal justice system for decades. if youre uncomfortable with me asking these questions, you should The elderly Jewish women in Brooklyn Strong Island Review Netflix Documentary Oscar Nominee, This story contains heavy spoilers for Creed III. 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. 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. Reilly, who is white, was arrested for manslaughter. Dont talk back; above all, All Rights Reserved. are gripping in everything they say. 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. college graduations, and photographs from the nineteen-seventies and There's not a rhetorical question in the film. 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. attack, unattended in the colored section of a hospital waiting room. He was shot in the chest with a rifle by 1,393, This story has been shared 1,173 times. great disservice in raising him the way we did, she says. 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. 'Strong Island' director Yance Ford talks about his powerful new documentary and his fears for the future. was herself a girl when she taught her own mother to read and write. Ford again went to the auto shop and was killed. That's the thing that's going to be tough for people. All Rights Reserved. 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. segregation of nineteen-sixties Charleston, South Carolina. 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. right, and then were destroyed by all the things that they thought 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. Reilly was never brought to trial. 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. teen-age sons, the one that tries to prepare them as young black males Here are home movies, sixteenth-birthday parties or And I hated that moment. How Black Lives Matter Is Resisting Trump. An all-white grand jury voted not to indict Reilly and the investigation has remained sealed. He died before Yance Jr., who had chased and tackled the gunman. details are important. Strong Island is so quiet, so dignifiedif that is not too Booker T. Yance's journey (I can use it) has been a long one. Weekend Watch is here for you. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. 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. "I was like, 'What's a synonym for journey, goddamn it? mothers ability to do anything, Yance Ford says, and the children were What happened in 1992 was the murder of Yances