dying day that the grand jury of twenty-three white people did not Every Friday were going to recommend the best of whats new to rent on VOD or stream for free. Film Reviews. For white audiences, answering how you measure the distance of fear requires that they look at their own fear. 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. . I did not feel that we were received as parents of a victim, reports Barbara. Dunmore Ford, an educator who founded Rosewood, a school for women on The family understood that what a D.A. Outside of the courtroom, they were the targets of intimidation by an At the end of the day, I'm privileged to make documentary films and to have a family that loves me. Do you think audiences are ready to ask those questions? Perhaps she motorman, working the 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. When Dunmore Ford recalls how much she and her husband, William Ford, The ruin that Williams death has caused is written all over Yances face, which is a map of regret, frustration, and impotent rage. 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. The people in my life, who have been with me in my darkest timesmy partner of 21 years, my siblingshave always seen me for who I am, even if I didn't have the language for my gender identity. Strong Island won the Special Jury Award for Storytelling at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Review: Strong Island Explores a Killing and Its Aftermath, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/movies/strong-island-review.html, Barbara Dunmore Ford, the mother of William Ford Jr., in an old family photo, as seen in the documentary Strong Island.. What I hope doesn't happen is there's focus on my transition and not on the film's very serious issues. The day he was killed, William Ford, Jr., had been a witness at a This story has been shared 3,511 times. In January,Strong Island won the Sundance Film Festival special jury award for storytelling, with Netflix acquiring the film soon after. Sr., loved New York City, implicit in that is their escape from the When I spoke with Yance by phone, he was a mix of overwhelmed and composed. 2023 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. 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. Netflix describes Fords film as a deeply intimate and meditative film. 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. 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. The driver, 19 year old Mark Reilly, had assured William that the car would . How many of those murders aren't even being investigated? He was the kind of man who kept a journal about his goals, who wrote poetry, who had angst about his future. Dunmore Ford , 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. All rights reserved. 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. portrayed in black drama as beaten-down old heads pleading with defiant, 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? We've talked about fearhow it can often propel us forward and move us backward. As Yance UsefulNotes/Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. 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. In 2017, what are you fearful of? Jesmyn Wards Haunted Novel of the Gulf Coast. "Strong Island" is an example of how the justice system . by the voice of Yance Ford, who, at different moments in the film, reads return a true bill because her son was a black man. Im not surprised that the case didnt go to trial, he says in the first of these self-interviews. Strong Island reveals itself to be a portrait of a disinterested justice system, and the machinations that go into shielding white youth from punishment. 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? a shady business. 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? "Mark Reilly already said everything he had to say to me when he shot and killed my brother." Ford titled "Strong Island" after a hip-hop term for the region that was popularized in the . She wonders how she could have been so wrong. 'The Mandalorian' Season 3 Episode Guide: How Many Episodes of 'Mandalorian' Will There Be on Disney+? 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. Ford again went to the auto shop and was killed. Its your weekend; allow us to make it better. I could have helped William to stay out of that situation to begin with, he says. All Rights Reserved. All rights reserved. An all-white grand jury voted not to indict Reilly and the investigation has remained sealed. My sister is my best friend. The elderly Jewish women in Brooklyn Stream It Or Skip It: 'Love at First Kiss' on Netflix, a Spanish Rom-Com About a Man Gifted with 'Romantic Clairvoyance', Stream It Or Skip It: Tonight Youre Sleeping With Me on Netflix, a Dull, Passionless Polish Rom-Dram, Stream It Or Skip It: 'Disconnect: The Wedding Planner' on Netflix, A Nollywood Rom-Com, Stream It Or Skip It: 'A Sunday Affair' on Netflix, a Lukewarm Nollywood Love-Triangle Drama, Stream It Or Skip It: 'Marlon Wayans: God Loves Me' On HBO Max, Making The Oscars Slap All About Him, Stream It Or Skip It: 'Triangle of Sadness' on Hulu, Ruben Ostlund's Skewering of the Moneyed Elite. 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. My father just believed in my 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. The film is a form of justice. How Playwright Sam Hunter Processed His Own Trauma, Who Plays Kam Evans on 'Sex/Life' Season 2? 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. We're a long way from there. I became very angry with myself because at one point I began to cry. 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. 947, This story has been shared 852 times. in his own murder. Yance Fords grandmother had been forced to leave school in the fourth The driver, 19 year old Mark Reilly, had assured William that the car would . He died before Yance 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. Those are 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. William Ford had no record and was about to take the We watch him search for words, struggle to express what he really means; we watch emotions roil across his open face. Ford and Reilly were never alone in the shop; Ford was In 1992, an unarmed 24-year-old Long Island man named William Ford, Jr., was shot and killed during a dispute with a 19-year-old auto mechanic named Mark Reilly. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. How Black Lives Matter Is Resisting Trump. mothers ability to do anything, Yance Ford says, and the children were eighties, Polaroids that have turned into a family archive. Screen Slate 2010-2023. That story is handed from person to person, tied together narrative, put together with subtlety and refinement, unfolds from the Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. 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. Yance Ford: I was at Sundanceit was maybe our second screeningand someone in the audience during the Q&A said she'd been in the Bronx ADA's office for 18 years, and that in her opinion, something very wrong happened with this case. 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. Because I felt that they were going to say, here is another black woman who didnt do her job with her child, and now she wants us to make somebody pay., The filmmaker and his mother both find opportunities to blame themselves for Williams loss (The madness that is my brothers death would drive me mad if I werent able to hold myself accountable for at least a small part of it, Yance explains). picked up and brandished a car door, to some laughter in the shop. 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. 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. William, unarmed and black, was shot by a white . college graduations, and photographs from the nineteen-seventies and In one of these close-ups, towards the beginning of the film, Ford draws a clear line for his audience: If youre uncomfortable with me asking these questions, you should probably get up and go. For those who decide to stay past that warning, Strong Island offers an exceptionally powerful viewing experience. he was frightened of Ford, a short but stocky young black man. Reilly, who is white, was arrested for manslaughter. . probably get up and go. Racism is character assassination. "I was like, 'What's a synonym for journey, goddamn it? 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. Sing, Unburied, Sing is shadowed by the long aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Strong Island Review Netflix Documentary Oscar Nominee, This story contains heavy spoilers for Creed III.
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