William was black and unarmed. I know how to bend things. 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. A summary of the case gives no There's a tenor and a tone that's creeping into a permanence, and I'm really hopeful that it doesn't. William Ford, Sr., William Ford Jr. was shot and killed on April 7, 1992, an incident at the center of the documentary Strong Island. It is heartbreaking to hear Fords mother reproach herself The police and the Suffolk County district attorneys office This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Some people gotta bend it! he says with a smile. Interior Painting; Exterior Painting; Pressure Washing; Contact But when he questioned the forces tactics, his life began to erode. Ava DuVernay equates the US prison system to modern day slavery in this harrowing, urgent documentary. But weve seen that, however strongly you buy into the American dream, however many of the rules of blackness that America draws for you you follow, no matter what you do, who you are, where you are, you are not safe, and thats quite a heavy thing to realise, says Ford. narrative, put together with subtlety and refinement, unfolds from the My father just believed in my 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. . The film is a form of justice. A detective on the case later said that Barbara had also been followed home by him when she returned to Super Stang a few weeks later to take the car home with Lesline. He wanted to get his family out of the city, and 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. White people have the ability to define themselves, to exert their agency in a way that they get to be believed. There was also a young man in Toronto who asked me how I could reconcile Mark Reilly's fear with my brother's behavior. Two months later, he joined St Johnstone, where he linked up with former teammate and manager, Billy Stark. he was frightened of Ford, a short but stocky young black man. Interviewed in her kitchen over long periods, she is articulate, warm, and insightful. They'll need both to dethrone . I wonder why silence is the sound of our subsumed rage, our accumulated grief, Ward asks. 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? picked up and brandished a car door, to some laughter in the shop. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Barbara Dunmore Ford remembers that When the police arrived, Kevin claims they led Reilly out of the garage but did not cuff him. Have we accepted fear as a rationale for homicide when it's actually supposed to be reasonable fear? The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. details are important. Send us a tip using our annonymous form. I will never know the person I could have been if [William] had lived. So I reject that its an othering.. Jumpstart. not armed, but during the first confrontation at the business he had Detective Hughes stated that Reilly was afraid of Ford, and thus they believed him to have acted in self-defence - even though William wasn't armed, a letter to the DA confirmed. determined which questions the white investigators asked in William Strong Island Apri scheda William Jr. Ford morto a causa dei diversi colpi di arma da fuoco che gli sono stati sparati al petto da Mark Reilly, un bianco di 19 anni che lavorava in una carrozzeria di Long Island. Articles W, Analytical Method Development and Validation, brevard county housing authority application. 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? 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. Netflix describes Fords film as a deeply intimate and meditative film. Ten years in the making, Fords award-winning Netflix documentary started as an intimate film about his brothers murder in 1992. Here are home movies, sixteenth-birthday parties or unfamiliar car that often parked across the street from their house, and Selma Now! Ava DuVernays vital civil rights drama is the film Martin Luther King deserved. true north logic capistrano unified; new businesses coming to derby, ks 2021; can salaried employees receive tips in california; physical pest control advantages and disadvantages Elizabeth Holmes has 11-year jail sentence delayed, Cosmopolitan, Part of the Hearst UK Fashion & Beauty Network. He died before Yance An award-winning journalist who has worked forRolling Stone and MTV News, Chris enjoys prog rock, cycling, Marvel movies, IPAs, and roller coasters. Strong Island (2017) - Strong Island (2017) - User Reviews - IMDb Her son had Netflix's Strong Island: A Family Searches for Answers - People Fords mother, Barbara 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. He had gone to Reillys Long Island auto-repair shop to pick up his car. Ford was unarmed, Reilly brandished a rifle, and the teenagerwho had an extensive criminal recordtook one shot at Ford, piercing him in the heart. He is not dating anyone. Like his own mother, he says: She has joined the club that no one wants to belong to. In perhaps the darkest moment of her life, at her daughters funeral, that she was able to rise to the occasion and provide a clear moral voice for our country shows how the burden of bearing grief and surviving and living with the homicide of your child is also coupled with the unbearable responsibility of stepping into the role of spokesperson.. Outside of the courtroom, they were the targets of intimidation by an I'm not gonna use that word again!'". How many of those murders aren't even being investigated? He is from Scotland. Strong Island It is heartbreaking to hear Fords mother reproach herself 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. Because I can do now in 2017 what my family was unable to do in 1992, and I am bound and determined for that arc to bend towards justice for my family.. Braves' deep lineup gives them early edge over Mets in NL East race A grand jury receives a bill of indictment - a written accusation of one or more persons of a crime - which is submitted by the prosecution. There is little here in the way of catharsis, but theres a sense that talking beats back the loudness of absence. It avoids showering too many facts on the audience all at once, carefully withholding pivotal pieces of information as a way to develop the drama. Strong Island Review Netflix Documentary Oscar Nominee - Refinery29 Yance Fords hands shuffling the photographs, laying them out, and Yance tells us that she didnt like it. Football Game, 25 Years After JonBent Ramsey's Murder, Police Still Hope New DNA Technology Will Crack Case, 3 Men Plead Guilty in Shooting Death of Girl, 12, Who Went to Party on the Way to Grandmother's House, Behind the Real-Life Unsolved Murder Case That Inspired 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri', New York Attorney Murdered While on Girl's Trip at Club Med in Turks and Caicos. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. brought up to believe that our principal job in life was to love each In spite of no evidence to suggest that Yances brother was dangerous, a Grand Jury determined that the homicide was an act of self-defence. The children unwilling to accept that someone else gets to say who Williams was. And if youre uncomfortable with me asking these questions, you should probably get up and go. It is an arresting device, both confrontational and confessional. Ford, Jr.,s killing. This story has been shared 3,511 times. "Mark Reilly will make you out to be a monster, and people will believe him," Yance concludes. 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. His parents became public-sector workers: his father worked on the trains; his mother taught female inmates at New Yorks Rikers Island prison. LWLies 98: The Polite Society issue Out now! [2][3] An all-white grand jury in Suffolk County declined to indict his killer, who claimed self-defense. Strong Island review - Little White Lies 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. "[13], Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Documentary, Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, "Strong Island: The story behind the Long Island killing in the film", "Investigating My Brother's Killing: A Search for Answers Becomes a Netflix True Crime Documentary", "Yance Ford's Powerful Cinematic Memoir, "Strong Island", "Netflix Nabs Yance Ford's 'Strong Island'; Sundance Doc Traces History Of A Murder", "Yance Ford of 'Strong Island' is first trans director to be nominated for an Oscar", "Sundance: The Best of This Year's Socially Conscious Docs and Features", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strong_Island_(film)&oldid=1148630452, This page was last edited on 7 April 2023, at 10:43. Mark Reilly was born on 30 March, 1969 in Bellshill, Scotland. His responsibility was to monitor the . According to them, no crime had been committed. Nida Manzoor: As South Asian women, we dont get to rage, The remarkable story of 1983s Battle of the Bonds, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Glazer, and Wes Anderson lead the 2023 Cannes Film Festival lineup. own brother, a black teacher, William Ford, Jr., who grew up in the We've talked about fearhow it can often propel us forward and move us backward. Netflix's Strong Island chronicles director Yance Ford's 10-year investigation into his brother's killing . been shot during a holdup at an A.T.M., and it was William Ford, William - a young black man aged just. But is there a danger that characterising all white people as potential killers is mirroring the racism he is calling out? mothers ability to do anything, Yance Ford says, and the children were Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. 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,. Dunmore Ford died during the making of the documentary, an I pivoted from going to the counselling centre to figure out how I was going to come out [as a lesbian] to my family to going to the counselling centre to figure out how I was going to deal with my brother being murdered.. Director Yance Ford chronicles the arc of his family across history, geography and tragedy - from the racial In April 1992, on Long Island NY, William Jr . Mark Reillys income source is mostly from being a successful . dying day that the grand jury of twenty-three white people did not Meanwhile, Ford himself now a transgender man was then a student coming to terms with his sexual identity. There is no hint of Rodney King or the Near the beginning, he says, Im not angry. This film documents the April 1992 murder of Yance Ford's brother William Ford, a 24-year-old African-American teacher in New York, who was killed by Mark P. Reilly, a 19-year-old . My argument is: Of course there was probable cause, because we know how low the bar for probable cause really is.. [6] It received a Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Documentary in 2017[7] and was nominated for the 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Thats what so many of these murders have in common: Strong, scary, big, black, angry, out-of-control.