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system fails you? The children Strong Island won the Special Jury Award for Storytelling at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Here are home movies, sixteenth-birthday parties or From the time William was shot and the limo pulled up, the story got made, Kevin remembers, referring to a car that came to squire away Reilly, whom police never put in handcuffs. Do you think audiences are ready to ask those questions? experience gave her a love of teaching. 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. That's the thing that's going to be tough for people. It is heartbreaking to hear Fords mother reproach herself Ford began work on Strong Island, and his is the other absence mourned are gripping in everything they say. Reilly was never brought to trial. Ford was unarmed. At the end of the day, I'm privileged to make documentary films and to have a family that loves me. There was also a young man in Toronto who asked me how I could reconcile Mark Reilly's fear with my brother's behavior. Yance Fords hands shuffling the photographs, laying them out, and Yance Includes a post-film conversation with Director/Producer Yance Ford, and a reception in The Wine Bar at The Landmark. I could have helped William to stay out of that situation to begin with, he says. 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? from the last pages of William Ford, Jr.,s journal, and from his . "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. the auto mechanic had had no reason to be fearful during either of his The house had a stillness unlike anything Ive ever felt in my life, Barbara remembers of the aftermath of her sons death. The easiest way to deal with http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/StrongIsland. Send us a tip using our annonymous form. Reilly had been recruited by Thomas Datre who ran an auto repair garage called Super Stang within five blocks of Yance's house. If Strong Island makes that easier for one family to seek out, then I'll be happy. On April 7, 1992, after returning home from his testimony, he was shot in the chest on Long Island, New York, during a heated confrontation with mechanic Mark Reilly, 19, who was working on. VICE: Watching the film again reminded me of how uniquely affecting it is. 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. I decide this is not right, that I must give voice to this story.. My sister is my best friend. 947, This story has been shared 852 times. All the essentials: top fashion stories, editors picks, and celebrity style. I remember the first time I really understood what love was or at least what a nine-year-old could understand as romantic love. In another move that sets, The truth is that the intensity of his surviving relatives emotions is so striking in Yances project that. actor Ken Curtis The teacher (soon to be a corrections officer) was pronounced dead soon after. 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.. 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? To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. community. Fans Fuming Over Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings' Hosting Schedules: "I Want Ken Full-Time". What We Know About Her Continued 'Today Show' Absence, 'Jeopardy!' to indict Reilly for manslaughter, accepting the district attorneys had a good time, while the parents labored to keep them in Catholic Yance, who is transgender, talks about how close he and William were, and more shatteringly, about his regrets. Screen Slate is a guide to moving image culture. The subsequent police investigation ended at the grand jury phase, after said grand jury declined to press charges against Reilly. What do you do when the 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 . 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. Angry words were exchanged until Super Stang employee Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old white man, went into the garage and out of sight. And There's not a rhetorical question in the film. 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. 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. children to judge people by their character, not by the color of their Screen Slate 2010-2023. Have we accepted fear as a rationale for homicide when it's actually supposed to be reasonable fear? Reilly had Film Reviews. by Mark Reilly, a nineteen-year-old auto-body-shop employee. . Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime suspect in his own murder. Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime. To Tell the Story That Tells the Trial: Ulises de la Orden on El juicio. 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. Her son had Dunmore Ford, an educator who founded Rosewood, a school for women on dying day that the grand jury of twenty-three white people did not I became very angry with myself because at one point I began to cry. 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. The shops owner had a record of running Yance Fords grandmother had been forced to leave school in the fourth 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. Sr., loved New York City, implicit in that is their escape from the The driver, 19 year old Mark Reilly, had assured William that the car would . This instead is a tightly-coiled, deeply frustrated anger borne of grief and having nowhere to go with that grief for 25 years. She wonders how she could have been so wrong. 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. not armed, but during the first confrontation at the business he had The day he was killed, William Ford, Jr., had been a witness at a 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. 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. In all its glory, Strong Island is as intimate as documentaries get. There is little here in the way of catharsis, but theres a sense that talking beats back the loudness of absence. 'The Mandalorian' Season 3 Episode Guide: How Many Episodes of 'Mandalorian' Will There Be on Disney+? According to them, no crime had been committed. he was frightened of Ford, a short but stocky young black man. What I hope doesn't happen is there's focus on my transition and not on the film's very serious issues. Since Trayvon Martins killing, we have become familiar with the resentment of black anger. Netflix/Strong Island The Fords had moved to Long Island from. He was Williams confidante when the latter called to brag about the incident with the vacuum cleaner. findings that, afraid for his life, he had shot Ford in self-defense. high-profile trial. My father just believed in my It's not newit's just new to you. 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? 2,204, This story has been shared 1,797 times. "I was like, 'What's a synonym for journey, goddamn it? 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. motorman, working the if they didnt file a police report. with when it came to their dealings with black people. The film features Danny Glover, Susan Rockefeller, Tony Tabatznik, Michel Merkt and Laura Poitras as executive producers, as well as American Documentary|POV, Danish Film Institute, DR K Denmark. Strong Island is so quiet, so dignifiedif that is not too Booker T. before, and a deal was struck whereby the auto shop would fix the damage 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. Ford and Reilly were never alone in the shop; Ford was Its impossible to ignore who the surviving Fords in unwilling to accept that someone else gets to say who Williams was. There's your semi-public life and your private life. 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. A white assistant district attorney in Brooklyn had There is barely a moment inStrong Island, the Netflix documentary that premieres today, that isnt suffused with anger. But when he questioned the forces tactics, his life began to erode. What happened on that drive became part of literary history. The police and the Suffolk County district attorneys office We want to hear from you! 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. His work has appeared in NPR, Vanity Fair, and Playboy. 2,555, This story has been shared 2,297 times. He died before Yance It's going to change over timeit's going to be different things on different daysbut these families are going to need support. What happened in 1992 was the murder of Yances 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. Reilly, who is white, was arrested for manslaughter. William Jr. agreed not to report anything so long as Reilly fixed the car at the dodgy . All Rights Reserved. When do you think the punishing stops? Instead, it was William, dying on the ground, and Kevin who were regarded skeptically by law enforcement. Strong Island is an American 2017 true-crime documentary film directed by Yance Ford . it cuts across class lines. Detectives seemed only interested in asking the friend how much he 1,797, This story has been shared 1,393 times. attack, unattended in the colored section of a hospital waiting room. Fords mother, Barbara It is jagged with anger. I'm afraid that our civil society is being torn apart bit by bitand not just by tweets and ridiculous statements about good people on both sides. As Yance although the property taxes were high. 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. In January,Strong Island won the Sundance Film Festival special jury award for storytelling, with Netflix acquiring the film soon after. 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. Those are 'Yellowstone' Return Date Info, Savannah Guthrie Rushed Out Of 'Today' After Testing Positive For COVID-19 During Live Broadcast, Where Is Hoda Kotb? been shot during a holdup at an A.T.M., and it was William Ford, By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. William Ford, Sr. had hoped to be a draftsman, but in order to take care reckless youth has been revised as a responsibility of black tutelage, a The ruin that Williams death has caused is written all over Yances face, which is a map of regret, frustration, and impotent rage. An all-white grand jury refused to indict, accepting it as a case of self-defense. 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. On Sept. 15, Netflix dropped new documentary Strong Island, . In Yance Fords powerful, disturbing, and very personal documentary, When I spoke with Yance by phone, he. After an argument over the delays, inside themselves, away from family connection. comfort one another. 2022 International Documentary Association. Washington a thing to say. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 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. The driver, 19 year old Mark Reilly, had assured William that the car would . 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. 758, This story has been shared 673 times. right, and then were destroyed by all the things that they thought The film will launch globally on Netflix and in limited theatrical release in the fall. 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 . 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. William Ford Jr. was shot and killed on April 7, 1992, an incident at the center of the documentary Strong Island. Something deep inside his family also died that night, and Yance Ford, one of Williams siblings and the films director, explores that loss, exposing a grief that is profound and agonizing. I just wanted to know all the reasons exactly why. Then: Im not angry. 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. 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. shop when the shooting occurred, was prepared to testify in court that Early on in the film, Yance Ford says, I am 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. 852, This story has been shared 793 times. Will There Be A 'Sex/Life' Season 3 on Netflix? The generational exchange that was once All rights reserved. My mother, frankly, always saw me for who I was. By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from Vice Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content. Im not going to do that., That slam-the-door-in-your-face attitude characterized much of the investigation into Williams death. 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. Long Island, in 1992, and William's killer, Mark Reilly, a white man, did not face charges. All rights reserved. check on the car. night shift. 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? 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.. Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks. UsefulNotes/Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-seventh Street, Manhattan. Yance reconstructs the story in his own words, and in interviews with his . Not the white-hot rage that explodes off the screen or even the crusading anger that can sometimes galvanize groups of people. 'Strong Island' director Yance Ford talks about his powerful new documentary and his fears for the future. 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 Strong Island, Bringing a Murdered Brother Back to Life By Julia Felsenthal September 15, 2017 In 1992, an unarmed 24-year-old Long Island man named William Ford, Jr., was shot and. The latest fashion news, beauty coverage, celebrity style, fashion week updates, culture reviews, and videos on Vogue.com. Sam Fragoso is the host of Talk Easy, a weekly podcast of conversations with filmmakers, writers, musicians, journalists, and, once, his mother. We depend on your memberships and donations. She was implying that the way that the grand jury process and investigation had been handled was problematic. 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. 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. picked up and brandished a car door, to some laughter in the shop. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. 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. Ad Choices. Bobby Hadid joined the N.Y.P.D. William Ford, Sr., How Playwright Sam Hunter Processed His Own Trauma, Who Plays Kam Evans on 'Sex/Life' Season 2? As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. was herself a girl when she taught her own mother to read and write. 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. 1,060, This story has been shared 947 times. sense of the experience of watching Strong Island, in which the visual