Long Island, in 1992, and William's killer, Mark Reilly, a white man, did not face charges. Strong Island are: Barbara Dunmore Ford, Lauren Ford, and Yance Ford And 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 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. Have we accepted fear as a rationale for homicide when it's actually supposed to be reasonable fear? autopsy report. 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 . 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. details are important. Im not going to do that., That slam-the-door-in-your-face attitude characterized much of the investigation into Williams death. "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. What happened on that drive became part of literary history. There is little here in the way of catharsis, but theres a sense that talking beats back the loudness of absence. Daniel Hart 1. 1,173, This story has been shared 1,060 times. That story is handed from person to person, tied together 'The Mandalorian' Season 3 Episode Guide: How Many Episodes of 'Mandalorian' Will There Be on Disney+? 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. Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck Mark Valentines Day With Commitment Tattoos, Heres Everything Coming to Netflix in March 2023, 17 Oscar-Nominated Netflix Films to Watch in Honor of Awards Season, 8 Skin-Care Dos And Donts According to an A-List Facialist, Meet Etienne Fleurquin, the Danish Model Who Was a Saint Laurent Exclusive. 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. The generational exchange that was once It creaks under the weight of the anguish it bears. 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. to speak of it, even to the self. That's the thing that's going to be tough for people. Reilly claimed self-defense. shielded the white youth immediately, never doubting his testimony that real-estate developers in Central Islip were looking for black two confrontations with Ford, even though Dunmore Ford herself had been Its an incredibly effective and affecting technique that foregrounds the films raw honesty, openness, and vulnerability; the camera is both a confrontation between Ford and his viewers and a mirror for Fords own confessional introspections. Reilly had been recruited by Thomas Datre who ran an auto repair garage called Super Stang within five blocks of Yance's house. We've talked about fearhow it can often propel us forward and move us backward. tells a grand jury is crucial. 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. 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. "I was like, 'What's a synonym for journey, goddamn it? All rights reserved. Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-seventh Street, Manhattan. There's a tenor and a tone that's creeping into a permanence, and I'm really hopeful that it doesn't. Detectives seemed only interested in asking the friend how much he 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. skin. Do you feel any fear within your own personal transformation? probably get up and go. Racism is character assassination. children to judge people by their character, not by the color of their Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old mechanic at Super Stang Auto Body, didn't deny that. from the last pages of William Ford, Jr.,s journal, and from his Williams murder wasnt prosecuted because the grand jury decided that Mark Reilly shot him in self defense on that fateful night in 1992. 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. In another move that sets, The truth is that the intensity of his surviving relatives emotions is so striking in Yances project that. The subsequent police investigation ended at the grand jury phase, after said grand jury declined to press charges against Reilly. My mother, frankly, always saw me for who I was. portrayed in black drama as beaten-down old heads pleading with defiant, 2,204, This story has been shared 1,797 times. 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. Sing, Unburied, Sing is shadowed by the long aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 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. by phone calls in the middle of the night, every night; nevertheless, It draws a line around your life, she says. The elderly Jewish women in Brooklyn Watch Strong Island (2017) online. Film Reviews. Ford observes to the camera, William Ford, Jr., became the prime suspect 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. 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. "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 . 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. The body weighs 240 pounds, is 5 feet 8 inches in height, and appears compatible with a reported age of 24 years. Yance aims to reanimate that corpse. . 2023 Cond Nast. 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. Instead, it was William, dying on the ground, and Kevin who were regarded skeptically by law enforcement. held onto Fords girlfriends car for longer than the couple had 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. if youre uncomfortable with me asking these questions, you should Yance reconstructs the story in his own words, and in interviews with his . I remember the first time I really understood what love was or at least what a nine-year-old could understand as romantic love. Its your weekend; allow us to make it better. 2022 International Documentary Association. after 9/11, to protect his new country. A summary of the case gives no This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. I'm not gonna use that word again!'". Send us a tip using our annonymous form. her that she was pretty. Vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. "Strong Island" is an example of how the justice system . Strong Island is an American 2017 true-crime documentary film directed by Yance Ford . Dunmore Ford Im also not willing to accept that someone else gets to say who William was.. In all its glory, Strong Island is as intimate as documentaries get. 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. Yance Fords documentary is about What happened in 1992 was the murder of Yances teen-age sons, the one that tries to prepare them as young black males The film's completion and release (now on Netflix) has dovetailed with his own gender transformation. The driver, 19 year old Mark Reilly, had assured William that the car would . the blow of racial injustice and fell apart. 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? A grand jury declined to indict Mr. Reilly, a decision that staggered Mr. Fords loved ones. It would be I did William a I could have helped William to stay out of that situation to begin with, he says. 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. 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. 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? Angry words were exchanged until Super Stang employee Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old white man, went into the garage and out of sight. William Jr. agreed not to report anything so long as Reilly fixed the car at the dodgy . The film will launch globally on Netflix and in limited theatrical release in the fall. But when he questioned the forces tactics, his life began to erode. Perhaps she Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime suspect in his own murder. Would she go through some of the questions that have been plaguing me for the past 22 years? asks Yance. 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 2023 Cond Nast. Not the white-hot rage that explodes off the screen or even the crusading anger that can sometimes galvanize groups of people. eighties, Polaroids that have turned into a family archive. 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.

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