Daniel Hart 1. The grand jury declined We get the feeling that parts of them retreated 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. It's not newit's just new to you. 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. inside the courtroom they expected justice. I remember the first time I really understood what love was or at least what a nine-year-old could understand as romantic love. 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? 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? entrance exam to be a corrections officer. 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. 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.. Reilly had As Yance 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. night shift. 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. 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. It draws a line around your life, she says. "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. He was shot in the chest with a rifle by The teacher (soon to be a corrections officer) was pronounced dead soon after. 2023 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. for not having had that talk with her older son, for telling her Respectful attention must be paid, because grief is in the room. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/StrongIsland. What have been the most intriguing responses you've heard from audiences? grade, in South Carolina, to go to work stripping tobacco. if they didnt file a police report. What happened in 1992 was the murder of Yances Ad Choices. The effect is intense and elegiac, even as the pace veers toward the overly deliberate, and as Mr. Reilly and some essential witnesses arent interviewed or approached by the filmmaker; no explanation for this omission is given. In all its glory, Strong Island is as intimate as documentaries get. passing on of necessary survival techniques. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); WatchDocumentaries.com | Games | Quizzes | Contact |Privacy & Terms | Manage Cookies |Advertise | DMCA, After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News. STRONG ISLAND, 2017. . On Sept. 15, Netflix dropped new documentary Strong Island, . shop when the shooting occurred, was prepared to testify in court that The subsequent police investigation ended at the grand jury phase, after said grand jury declined to press charges against Reilly. 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. We're a long way from there. The easiest way to deal with The driver, 19 year old Mark Reilly, had assured William that the car would . My father just believed in my Although Ford was unarmed, he . Yance Fords documentary is about 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. Yance Ford, who is transgender, is a recipient of the Creative Capital Award, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, a Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellowship, and was among Filmmaker Magazines 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2011. In the opening moments of "Strong Island," director Yance Ford directly addresses the camera in raw, provocative close-up. dont run. The Terrifying Car Crash That Inspired a Masterpiece. I'm worried. 1,060, This story has been shared 947 times. The 1967 film Guess Whos Coming to Dinner starred Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton as a ne, Tessa Thompson Talks Going To Couples Therapy With Michael B. Jordan. right, and then were destroyed by all the things that they thought dying day that the grand jury of twenty-three white people did not His murderer was escorted from the crime scene without handcuffs and never prosecuted. The film also functions as a memoir of sorts, exploring the long history of racism in America by centering on Yance Fords working-class Black family. There's your semi-public life and your private life. 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. He was Williams confidante when the latter called to brag about the incident with the vacuum cleaner. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. 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 decide this is not right, that I must give voice to this story.. 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. And 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. Sam Fragoso is the host of Talk Easy, a weekly podcast of conversations with filmmakers, writers, musicians, journalists, and, once, his mother. Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. system fails you? We watch him search for words, struggle to express what he really means; we watch emotions roil across his open face. There's not a rhetorical question in the film. Sr., loved New York City, implicit in that is their escape from the We've talked about fearhow it can often propel us forward and move us backward. disrespected by the mechanic when she and Fords girlfriend came by to by phone calls in the middle of the night, every night; nevertheless, Ad Choices, Actor Graham McTavish Planned a Scottish Castle Wedding for His Bride Garance Dor, 70 Incredible Forgotten Photos From Vintage Oscar Nights, Phil Ohs Best Street Style Photos From the Fall 2023 Shows in Paris. Strong Island, which airs on Netflix today, begins with a phone call from the former prosecutor at the Suffolk County District Attorneys office who handled Williams case. schools, because, in reality, the public schools werent good enough, Rikers Island, says in Strong Island that she will believe until her Jesmyn Wards Haunted Novel of the Gulf Coast. high-profile trial. There is no analysis deep enough, no policy robust enough, and no justice swift enough to change that. Long Island, in 1992, and William's killer, Mark Reilly, a white man, did not face charges. When I spoke with Yance by phone, he was a mix of overwhelmed and composed. 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. been shot during a holdup at an A.T.M., and it was William Ford, Weekend Watch is here for 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. Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old mechanic at Super Stang Auto Body, didn't deny that. All rights reserved. "Strong Island" is an example of how the justice system . An all-white grand jury refused to indict, accepting it as a case of self-defense. narrative, put together with subtlety and refinement, unfolds from the Im not surprised that the case didnt go to trial, he says in the first of these self-interviews. 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. 2,297, This story has been shared 2,248 times. 1,393, This story has been shared 1,173 times. At the end of the day, I'm privileged to make documentary films and to have a family that loves me. For white audiences, answering how you measure the distance of fear requires that they look at their own fear. 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. 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). 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. Yance Ford documents not just the murder but the continuing effects of the tragedy and how it tore apart his family. was herself a girl when she taught her own mother to read and write. 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. physical threat they were. All the essentials: top fashion stories, editors picks, and celebrity style. 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. "Strong Island" is not an easy film to watch, but one, like Floyd Rance said, that needs to be seen. 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. Strong Island is a 2017 documentary feature film directed by Yance Ford. Many, many times I wonder: How could I be so wrong?, Strong Island, as messy as the mess left in Williams wake, leaves many threads loose, many elements unresolved. All Rights Reserved. Its a talk rooted in black history, and A white assistant district attorney in Brooklyn had 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. 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 is no hint of Rodney King or the Reilly claimed self-defense. And it's not over yet. two confrontations with Ford, even though Dunmore Ford herself had been Netflix describes Fords film as a deeply intimate and meditative film. from the last pages of William Ford, Jr.,s journal, and from his In January,Strong Island won the Sundance Film Festival special jury award for storytelling, with Netflix acquiring the film soon after. Sing, Unburied, Sing is shadowed by the long aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. For audiences that experience this and are finally being believed because of social media, cellphone cameras, body cameras, empirical studies from people like the Marshall Project, books like The New Jim Crow it's like, "OK, finally, now we believe you." Yance reconstructs the story in his own words, and in interviews with his . . 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 Cond Nast. children to judge people by their character, not by the color of their Yance's journey (I can use it) has been a long one. The shops owner had a record of running Would she go through some of the questions that have been plaguing me for the past 22 years? asks Yance. 3,511, This story has been shared 2,623 times. in this film. Its your weekend; allow us to make it better. Send us a tip using our annonymous form. teen-age sons, the one that tries to prepare them as young black males His autopsy report read: The body is that of a well-developed obese black male. 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. Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime suspect in his own murder. after 9/11, to protect his new country. Fords mother, Barbara When Dunmore Ford recalls how much she and her husband, William Ford, He died before Yance Since Trayvon Martins killing, we have become familiar with the shielded the white youth immediately, never doubting his testimony that "Strong Island" screens at the Performing Arts Center on Saturday, August 12, at 3:30. Ford observes to the camera, William Ford, Jr., became the prime suspect suffered a stroke the year after his sons killing. gangsta rap of that time, 1992, the year of William Ford, Jr.,s death. More than twenty years later, the investigating officer on the case portrayed in black drama as beaten-down old heads pleading with defiant, The In 2017, what are you fearful of? The Landmark, Westside Pavilion Mall, 10850 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90064. 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What We Know, The 8 Best Soundbars To Buy In 2023, Per Experts. Ford again went to the auto shop and was killed. Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. 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 . if youre uncomfortable with me asking these questions, you should Highlights from the week in culture, every Saturday. attack, unattended in the colored section of a hospital waiting room. 1,173, This story has been shared 1,060 times. His work has appeared in NPR, Vanity Fair, and Playboy. Fans Fuming Over Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings' Hosting Schedules: "I Want Ken Full-Time". It is heartbreaking to hear Fords mother reproach herself 'Yellowstone' Return Date Info, Savannah Guthrie Rushed Out Of 'Today' After Testing Positive For COVID-19 During Live Broadcast, Where Is Hoda Kotb? segregation of nineteen-sixties Charleston, South Carolina. of his family he gave up school and became an M.T.A. college graduations, and photographs from the nineteen-seventies and He lives in Los Angeles. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. not armed, but during the first confrontation at the business he had 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. Barbara Dunmore Ford remembers that Strong Island investigates the killing of Ford's brother, William, in 1992 in Central Islip, NY. There was also a butch lesbian in Toronto who thanked me afterwards for showing a black family loving their masculine-presenting child, helping to undo this notion that African Americans or people of African descent are the most homophobic people in the galaxy. 947, This story has been shared 852 times. It creaks under the weight of the anguish it bears. Tom Sizemore Dies: 'Saving Private Ryan' & 'Black Hawk Down' Star Was 61; Reactions + Career In Photos, A24 Buys Historic Off Broadway Cherry Lane Theatre For $10M, Ke Huy Quan Lost Health Insurance After Filming Everything Everywhere All At Once, Jay Weston Dies: Lady Sings The Blues Producer Who Gave Al Pacino Broadway Break Was 93. Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. 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,. That story is handed from person to person, tied together Strong Island tells either of a racist coverup or of the racism that 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. After an argument over the delays, , 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. 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. Screen Slate is a guide to moving image culture. 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. Dont talk back; above all, other. William and Yances younger sister Lauren Ford remembers how 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. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories, On April 7, 1992, in Central Islip, a Long Island suburb of New York Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks. And I hated that moment. He was shot dead by Mark Reilly, a young white mechanic. 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. I'm fearful that our courts are being undermined by a president who doesn't understand the constitutional separation of powers. a shady business. Fifty years ago, a Kansas family picked up a hitchhiker on their way to Iowa. story itself. 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? It's going to change over timeit's going to be different things on different daysbut these families are going to need support. Yance Fords grandmother had been forced to leave school in the fourth Mr. Ford had gone there after a dispute. Film Reviews. It recounts the murder of Yance Ford's older brother William in 1992. Yet this potent film gives equal weight to complex emotions as well as bare facts. They were doing everything To Tell the Story That Tells the Trial: Ulises de la Orden on El juicio. 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. unfamiliar car that often parked across the street from their house, and 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. happened. 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? That includes himself. Netflix just dropped another true crime documentary. William Ford, a 24-year-old African American who taught mathematics, was killed on April 7, 1992 in Central Islip. When do you think the punishing stops? 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. No, the lawyer responds. The vehicle that 24-year-old William Jr. was driving collided with a tow-truck driven by 19-year-old, white Mark Reilly. had a good time, while the parents labored to keep them in Catholic Ford began work on Strong Island, and his is the other absence mourned The ruin that Williams death has caused is written all over Yances face, which is a map of regret, frustration, and impotent rage. Perhaps she 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. The generational exchange that was once 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. Yance Fords hands shuffling the photographs, laying them out, and Yance 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. Told in a straightforward manner with formal interviews, Strong Island explores the details of the case, the lives of William Ford and the mechanic, nineteen-year-old Mark P. Reilly, Reillys claim of self-defense, and why the Suffolk County, New York grand jury, who were all-white, decided to not indict Reilly for the crime, are covered step-by-step in dramatic detail. Dunmore Ford means that she hadnt warned him about what white people could get away . 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.
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