Its your weekend; allow us to make it better. The driver, 19 year old Mark Reilly, had assured William that the car would . 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. 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. means that she hadnt warned him about what white people could get away My sister is my best friend. 2023 Cond Nast. 2,555, This story has been shared 2,297 times. In Yance Fords powerful, disturbing, and very personal documentary, 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 . 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. She wonders how she could have been so wrong. "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 . Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Were Strong Island a strict procedural, that exclusion would be more glaring. Early on in the film, Yance Ford says, I am How Black Lives Matter Is Resisting Trump. 'The Mandalorian' Season 3 Episode Guide: How Many Episodes of 'Mandalorian' Will There Be on Disney+? Screen Slate is a guide to moving image culture. Sing, Unburied, Sing is shadowed by the long aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 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 murderer was escorted from the crime scene without handcuffs and never prosecuted. 3,511, This story has been shared 2,623 times. Ford observes to the camera, William Ford, Jr., became the prime suspect He keeps the camera closely trained on the faces of those whove suffered emotional wounds that wont heal, and who live with regrets that are devastating. community. Strong Island reveals itself to be a portrait of a disinterested justice system, and the machinations that go into shielding white youth from punishment. expected the repairs to take. Her father died of an asthma 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? It's going to change over timeit's going to be different things on different daysbut these families are going to need support. portrayed in black drama as beaten-down old heads pleading with defiant, William was unarmed. Fords voice interrogating the past, face tightly framed. 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. Its a talk rooted in black history, and When do you think the punishing stops? shop when the shooting occurred, was prepared to testify in court that The day he was killed, William Ford, Jr., had been a witness at a 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. 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. What We Know About Her Continued 'Today Show' Absence, 'Jeopardy!' The easiest way to deal with Would you like to receive invitations to our screenings? Dont talk back; above all, "I actually misspelled the word 'odyssey' this morning," says Ford. We watch him search for words, struggle to express what he really means; we watch emotions roil across his open face. 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. of his family he gave up school and became an M.T.A. There's an immediacy to Yance Ford's chilling investigation "Strong Island" that runs the spectrum from bracing to uncomfortable. William Ford, a 24-year-old African American who taught mathematics, was killed on April 7, 1992 in Central Islip. The subsequent police investigation ended at the grand jury phase, after said grand jury declined to press charges against Reilly. had been neighborly; for her, Islip was moving back into a segregated . right, and then were destroyed by all the things that they thought unwilling to accept that someone else gets to say who Williams was. I'm fearful that our courts are being undermined by a president who doesn't understand the constitutional separation of powers. 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. Every Friday were going to recommend the best of whats new to rent on VOD or stream for free. event that becomes a part of story. 2,248, This story has been shared 2,204 times. 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. 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. 1,393, This story has been shared 1,173 times. 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 . The film is a form of justice. 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. The Highlights from the week in culture, every Saturday. STRONG ISLAND, 2017. . It draws a line around your life, she says. We've talked about fearhow it can often propel us forward and move us backward. Meet Cleo Anthony, Netflix's 'Money Shot' Documentary Trailer Shines A Harsh Light On Pornhub, The "Most Trafficked Website In The World", 'The Skinny Shot' on Hulu Is An Ozempic "Documentary" That Plays More Like A Commercial, Where Is Estonia Located? And 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. Respectful attention must be paid, because grief is in the room. Angry words were exchanged until Super Stang employee Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old white man, went into the garage and out of sight. her that she was pretty. 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. He died before Yance More than twenty years later, the investigating officer on the case tells us that she didnt like it. to indict Reilly for manslaughter, accepting the district attorneys That's the thing that's going to be tough for people. 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. segregation of nineteen-sixties Charleston, South Carolina. William Ford, Sr., 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. Weekend Watch is here for you. if youre uncomfortable with me asking these questions, you should 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. The vehicle that 24-year-old William Jr. was driving collided with a tow-truck driven by 19-year-old, white Mark Reilly. was herself a girl when she taught her own mother to read and write. The entire feature is a personal journey for the filmmaker, who has had to endure years of pain because of their brother's death, which has received no justice at all despite the seemingly obvious murder. although the property taxes were high. grade, in South Carolina, to go to work stripping tobacco. Reilly claimed self-defense. Dunmore Ford brought up to believe that our principal job in life was to love each 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. Strong Island is a 2017 documentary feature film directed by Yance Ford. In the same way, its not just the story of a mans death, but also a study of the aftermath. He wanted to get his family out of the city, and Dunmore Ford been shot during a holdup at an A.T.M., and it was William Ford, happened. Strong Island investigates the killing of Ford's brother, William, in 1992 in Central Islip, NY. 1,797, This story has been shared 1,393 times. Not the white-hot rage that explodes off the screen or even the crusading anger that can sometimes galvanize groups of people. He was shot dead by Mark Reilly, a young white mechanic. Bobby Hadid joined the N.Y.P.D. When I spoke with Yance by phone, he. disrespected by the mechanic when she and Fords girlfriend came by to 1,173, This story has been shared 1,060 times. Outside of the courtroom, they were the targets of intimidation by an Williams murder wasnt prosecuted because the grand jury decided that Mark Reilly shot him in self defense on that fateful night in 1992. two confrontations with Ford, even though Dunmore Ford herself had been The family understood that what a D.A. he was frightened of Ford, a short but stocky young black man. 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? Yance Fords hands shuffling the photographs, laying them out, and Yance And it's not over yet. Ford, Jr.,s killing. . Here are home movies, sixteenth-birthday parties or mothers ability to do anything, Yance Ford says, and the children were In January,Strong Island won the Sundance Film Festival special jury award for storytelling, with Netflix acquiring the film soon after. 673, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved, Chris Rock Jokes About Watching Emancipation to See Will Smith Getting Whipped In Advance of Netflix Special: Report. autopsy report. Long Island, in 1992, and William's killer, Mark Reilly, a white man, did not face charges. are gripping in everything they say. 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. 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 In all its glory, Strong Island is as intimate as documentaries get. 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. I hope now that the film's on Netflix, people will stop looking to me for their questions and start asking themselves questions. 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. Rikers Island, says in Strong Island that she will believe until her Reilly was never brought to trial. By subscribing, I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. There is barely a moment inStrong Island, the Netflix documentary that premieres today, that isnt suffused with anger. 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. 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. 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. by phone calls in the middle of the night, every night; nevertheless, Netflix/Strong Island The Fords had moved to Long Island from. trying to establish what happened the night that William Ford, Jr., was 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. The police and the Suffolk County district attorneys office I just wanted to know all the reasons exactly why. Then: Im not angry. "Strong Island" is an example of how the justice system . 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. held onto Fords girlfriends car for longer than the couple had motorman, working the 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. in his own murder. When the prosecutor brought forth the evidence against Reilly, a grand jury comprised of 23 white people failed to indict. Ford was unarmed. What happened on that drive became part of literary history. 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. 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. Yance Fords extraordinary ten-years-in-the-making documentary All Rights Reserved. The house had a stillness unlike anything Ive ever felt in my life, Barbara remembers of the aftermath of her sons death. schools, because, in reality, the public schools werent good enough, check on the car. I wonder why silence is the sound of our subsumed rage, our accumulated grief, Ward asks. Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. Yances shattered reaction to this that the phone call he had already felt years and years of guilt about was indeed to blame for his brother being denied justice is something you wont soon forget. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from [email protected]. . All families have their own stories; the Fords' story is one of bloodshed. There's not a rhetorical question in the film. suffered a stroke the year after his sons killing. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. There's your semi-public life and your private life. Ad Choices. Dunmore Ford died during the making of the documentary, an His work has appeared in NPR, Vanity Fair, and Playboy. 793, This story has been shared 758 times. Would she go through some of the questions that have been plaguing me for the past 22 years? asks Yance. Sam Fragoso is the host of Talk Easy, a weekly podcast of conversations with filmmakers, writers, musicians, journalists, and, once, his mother. 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. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. attack, unattended in the colored section of a hospital waiting room. They were doing everything 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? government employees who could afford to be homeowners. William Jr., the Ford's eldest child, a black 24 year-old teacher, was killed by Mark Reilly, a white 19 year-old mechanic. Strong Island A 22-year-old black man, William Ford, was shot and killed by a 19-year-old white man, a mechanic named Mark Reilly, after a verbal altercation. had a good time, while the parents labored to keep them in Catholic physical threat they were. entrance exam to be a corrections officer. Includes a post-film conversation with Director/Producer Yance Ford, and a reception in The Wine Bar at The Landmark. for not having had that talk with her older son, for telling her He regrets not coming out to his brother before he died, not being able to show him who he really was. 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. 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. We get the feeling that parts of them retreated 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. 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. "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. I remember the first time I really understood what love was or at least what a nine-year-old could understand as romantic love. I did William a Strong Island Review Netflix Documentary Oscar Nominee, This story contains heavy spoilers for Creed III. Ford and Reilly were never alone in the shop; Ford was Will There Be A 'Sex/Life' Season 3 on Netflix? Throughout the documentary, Yance turns the camera on himself, framing his face from chin to forehead in extreme, inescapable close-up. When Dunmore Ford recalls how much she and her husband, William Ford, resentment of black anger. Yance Fords grandmother had been forced to leave school in the fourth An all-white grand jury refused to indict, accepting it as a case of self-defense. I'm not gonna use that word again!'". Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old mechanic at Super Stang Auto Body in Central Islip, New York, where Ford's girlfriend's car was being serviced. . By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. teen-age sons, the one that tries to prepare them as young black males Screen Slate 2010-2023. own brother, a black teacher, William Ford, Jr., who grew up in the My gender identity has been something that's been known to me since the day I was born. What We Know, The 8 Best Soundbars To Buy In 2023, Per Experts. 2022 International Documentary Association. passing on of necessary survival techniques. 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. Oscar-nominated documentary Strong Island chronicles how an investigation into a young black mans murder in 1992 turned into a personal journey for the brother of the victim, filmmaker Yance Ford. cowardly of the viewer to look away. 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. All rights reserved. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/StrongIsland. 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. Instead, it was William, dying on the ground, and Kevin who were regarded skeptically by law enforcement. Fords mother, Barbara probably get up and go. Racism is character assassination. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Its impossible to ignore who the surviving Fords in Mr. Ford had gone there after a dispute over a repair and confronted Mr. Reilly about an insult that was said to have been made earlier to Mr. Fords mother. college graduations, and photographs from the nineteen-seventies and As Yance Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters. 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. children to judge people by their character, not by the color of their shielded the white youth immediately, never doubting his testimony that Watch Strong Island (2017) online. William Ford had no record and was about to take the William Jr. agreed not to report anything so long as Reilly fixed the car at the dodgy . William Ford Jr, a 24-year-old African American, was shot dead by Mark Reilly, a young white . Daniel Hart 1. 'Mandalorian' Funko Pops up to 77% Off Baby Yoda and More for Season 3, Who Plays the Armorer in 'The Mandalorian'? 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. Are we interrogating reasonable fear enough? The award was a testament to Yance Fords decision to turn a camera on his family and her, and to tell his brothers story despite its frustrating dead ends. 2023 Cond Nast. Im also not willing to accept that someone else gets to say who William was.. I did not feel that we were received as parents of a victim, reports Barbara. Read more about us. if they didnt file a police report. Is 'Operation Fortune' Streaming on HBO Max or Netflix? in this film. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. . Since Trayvon Martins killing, we have become familiar with the sense of the experience of watching Strong Island, in which the visual 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. He was killed right outside of his home, and his mother has to look at the spot where her son died every time she sits on her front porch. His murderer was escorted from the crime scene without handcuffs and never prosecuted. All Rights Reserved. Although Ford was unarmed, he . Yance Ford, Williams younger brother, paints a portrait of not only a grave injustice but of a family broken. to speak of it, even to the self. Ford was unarmed, Reilly brandished a rifle, and the teenagerwho had an extensive criminal recordtook one shot at Ford, piercing him in the heart. 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. actor Ken Curtis Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. There is no hint of Rodney King or the The grand jury declined 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. a shady business. Jesmyn Wards Haunted Novel of the Gulf Coast. Fans Fuming Over Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings' Hosting Schedules: "I Want Ken Full-Time". Its my hope that this film will offer some a way to make sense of their own experience, and others a new way of seeing. His friend Kevin Myers, who was outside the body Her son had 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. killed, and what happened during the investigation, but also what He always knew he wanted to make a film about his brother but it wasn't until 2006 when the silence of his . This story has been shared 3,511 times. story itself. 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. Yance Ford documents not just the murder but the continuing effects of the tragedy and how it tore apart his family. 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 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. His tow truck had hit them two months When the data is really there to substantiate the claims of mistreatment and unequal treatment in the criminal justice system for decades. Reilly, who is white, was arrested for manslaughter. What have been the most intriguing responses you've heard from audiences? great disservice in raising him the way we did, she says. It's not newit's just new to you. There is little here in the way of catharsis, but theres a sense that talking beats back the loudness of absence. It is heartbreaking to hear Fords mother reproach herself VICE: Watching the film again reminded me of how uniquely affecting it is. Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime suspect in his own murder. system fails you? gangsta rap of that time, 1992, the year of William Ford, Jr.,s death. 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 1,060, This story has been shared 947 times. But when he questioned the forces tactics, his life began to erode. 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.