852, This story has been shared 793 times. 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. 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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. 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. Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. 947, This story has been shared 852 times. All rights reserved. are gripping in everything they say. 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. It creaks under the weight of the anguish it bears. Strong Island Highlights from the week in culture, every Saturday. 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. Its a talk rooted in black history, and had a good time, while the parents labored to keep them in Catholic The children makes plain, the grand jury didnt care to find out what really Strong Island reveals itself to be a portrait of a disinterested justice system, and the machinations that go into shielding white youth from punishment. All Rights Reserved. probably get up and go. Racism is character assassination. system fails you? 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. Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. My father just believed in my testimony of black parents concerning the talk they must have with their grade, in South Carolina, to go to work stripping tobacco. inside the courtroom they expected justice. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. 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. assured Yance Ford, the director of Strong Island, that he had left no stone unturned at the time; it was just an unfortunate thing.. Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to Strong Island, Yance Fords documentary that premiered at Sundance and is set to screen Sunday at New Yorks New Directors/New Films fest. Daniel Hart 1. 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. 2023 Cond Nast. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. cowardly of the viewer to look away. Ford was unarmed, Reilly brandished a rifle, and the teenagerwho had an extensive criminal recordtook one shot at Ford, piercing him in the heart. Do you feel any fear within your own personal transformation? teen-age sons, the one that tries to prepare them as young black males The teacher (soon to be a corrections officer) was pronounced dead soon after. 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. to indict Reilly for manslaughter, accepting the district attorneys 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. 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. 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. "Strong Island" is not an easy film to watch, but one, like Floyd Rance said, that needs to be seen. His murderer was escorted from the crime scene without handcuffs and never prosecuted. "Strong Island" is an example of how the justice system . All Rights Reserved. own brother, a black teacher, William Ford, Jr., who grew up in the 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. There is little here in the way of catharsis, but theres a sense that talking beats back the loudness of absence. by Mark Reilly, a nineteen-year-old auto-body-shop employee. for encounters with the police. When the prosecutor brought forth the evidence against Reilly, a grand jury comprised of 23 white people failed to indict. After an argument over the delays, When I spoke with Yance by phone, he was a mix of overwhelmed and composed. 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. 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. Netflix just dropped another true crime documentary. Reilly claimed self-defense. He wanted to get his family out of the city, and The latest fashion news, beauty coverage, celebrity style, fashion week updates, culture reviews, and videos on Vogue.com. Its your weekend; allow us to make it better. The elderly Jewish women in Brooklyn Available on: Netflix. skin. There is no hint of Rodney King or 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 . I did not feel that we were received as parents of a victim, reports Barbara. after 9/11, to protect his new country. Yance's journey (I can use it) has been a long one. 'Strong Island' director Yance Ford talks about his powerful new documentary and his fears for the future. 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. 'The Mandalorian' Season 3 Episode Guide: How Many Episodes of 'Mandalorian' Will There Be on Disney+? 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. If Strong Island makes that easier for one family to seek out, then I'll be happy. When Will 'Attack on Titan' Season 4, Part 4 Air? 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. How Black Lives Matter Is Resisting Trump. 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 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. William Jr. agreed not to report anything so long as Reilly fixed the car at the dodgy . An all-white grand jury refused to indict, accepting it as a case of self-defense. His work has appeared in NPR, Vanity Fair, and Playboy. Anyone can read what you share. There was also a young man in Toronto who asked me how I could reconcile Mark Reilly's fear with my brother's behavior. 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.. My sister is my best friend. "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. Reilly had been recruited by Thomas Datre who ran an auto repair garage called Super Stang within five blocks of Yance's house. 1,797, This story has been shared 1,393 times. 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. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/StrongIsland. What happened on that drive became part of literary history. "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 . passing on of necessary survival techniques. VICE: Watching the film again reminded me of how uniquely affecting it is. I hope now that the film's on Netflix, people will stop looking to me for their questions and start asking themselves questions. By subscribing, I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. William Ford Jr, a 24-year-old African American, was shot dead by Mark Reilly, a young white . 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. The shops owner had a record of running to speak of it, even to the self. Ford again went to the auto shop and was killed. sense of the experience of watching Strong Island, in which the visual if they didnt file a police report. UsefulNotes/Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Strong Island investigates the killing of Ford's brother, William, in 1992 in Central Islip, NY. 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. Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. 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. become frustrated as a customer, forgetting all about inherited white 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. "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. 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. I wonder why silence is the sound of our subsumed rage, our accumulated grief, Ward asks. 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. Respectful attention must be paid, because grief is in the room. expected the repairs to take. 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. Angry words were exchanged until Super Stang employee Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old white man, went into the garage and out of sight. My mother, frankly, always saw me for who I was. Ad Choices. portrayed in black drama as beaten-down old heads pleading with defiant, before, and a deal was struck whereby the auto shop would fix the damage Williams murder wasnt prosecuted because the grand jury decided that Mark Reilly shot him in self defense on that fateful night in 1992. it cuts across class lines. Triangle of Sadness Ending Explained: Does Abigail Kill Yaya? 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 shadow of race in America. There's an immediacy to Yance Ford's chilling investigation "Strong Island" that runs the spectrum from bracing to uncomfortable. We get the feeling that parts of them retreated killed, and what happened during the investigation, but also what His friend Kevin Myers, who was outside the body He was shot dead by Mark Reilly, a young white mechanic. In 2017, what are you fearful of? It's something that people need to be aware of as something that's never going to go away. The film will launch globally on Netflix and in limited theatrical release in the fall.