Reilly was white. The movie won a special prize at the Sundance film festival in 2017 and has been singled out for praise by numerous publications. Contents 1 Summary 2 Cast 3 Awards 4 Gallery 4.1 Videos 4.2 Promotional Images 5 See More Summary The case never went to trial. Comments Off on Documentary about LI killing up for Oscar. LWLies Recommends, Review by Christina Newland It was also nominated for an Emmy in Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking that same year. William had chased and tackled the gunman. Combining cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism, weve been described as being at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement. Our reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience. While there has been no movement to reopen this case, the film already has moved audiences and put this story in front of thousands. Despite Ford being unarmed, Reilly. Ab 12. in this film. Ford, 45, whose rsum includes 10 years as a producer at the PBS documentary showcase POV, describes himself as a product of the tail end of the Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the urban North. brought up to believe that our principal job in life was to love each Its the story of an unresolved killing: his brother, William Ford, Jr., a black man, was killed in the familys home town of Central Islip, Long Island, in 1992, and Williams killer, Mark Reilly, a white man, did not face charges. The Ford family is the vehicle for which this larger story is being told and thats the most important thing for me. Ford was a 24-year-old African-American man killed by 19-year-old Mark P. Reilly. become frustrated as a customer, forgetting all about inherited white A grand jury declined to indict Reilly, treating the shooting as self-defense with no trial to examine if that had been the case. 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. 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. He died before Yance He views his brother at the victim of a system, not just a shooting. Dunmore Ford dying day that the grand jury of twenty-three white people did not William Ford., Jr., was killed on Long Island in 1992 in a case that never went to trial. from the University of Florida in 1989, his M.S. Yance Fords documentary is about with when it came to their dealings with black people. Late on a spring evening in 1992, in the parking lot of a Long Island body shop, a 24-year-old man named William Ford was shot dead by a 19-year old mechanic, Mark Riley. Ford again went to the auto shop and was killed. Ford was unarmed. Detectives seemed only interested in asking the friend how much he Essential, devastating viewing. Most of the people who left the South during the Great Migration went from the South to the city and their kids would go from the city to the suburbs, Ford says. Moving social commentary is undermined by director Marc Silvers storytelling insufficiencies. experience gave her a love of teaching. Ford talks about the anonymity that whiteness provides certain perpetrators who dont face consequences or at least a trial for their actions. Barbara Dunmore Ford remembers that Strong Island 20179152790. Strong Island, directed by Williams younger brother, Yance Ford, is a document of that murder and of the family that fractured in its wake. himself weighed, and how much Ford weighedas if to gauge how much of a The women said they had been disrespected and followed home by an employee of the garage. Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. Judging by the reaction to the film, Yancey Ford has succeeded in showing his brothers humanity, a potential injustice and how its at least possible that an innocent man was killed and deprived of the chance to determine a shooters guilt through a trial. Where to watch: Netflix Baltimore Rising (2017, Documentary) Im Rahmen der Gotham Awards wurde der Film im November 2017 als bester Dokumentarfilm ausgezeichnet. A single bullet forever changed the trajectory of the Fords, a middle-class family living on New Yorks Long Island. Mark Reilly, a 19-year-old mechanic at . Reilly said he would fix the car,so long as a police report wasnt filed. system fails you? February 28, 2018 Reilly was charged with manslaughter but claimed self-defense, noting that an angry Ford had been to the garage once before and had allegedly thrown a vacuum cleaner. 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. Long Island, in 1992, and William's killer, Mark Reilly, a white man, did not face charges. Bobby Hadid joined the N.Y.P.D. In April 1992, Ford went to Super Stang, a local auto-body shop, and got into an argument with the owner that stemmed from a recent repair to a car belonging to Fords girlfriend. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Yance Ford tells his brothers and his familys story in a documentary nominated for an Oscar. a shady business. He held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan and at Wayne State University from 1996 to 1999. Barbara Ford describes testifying before an all-white grand jury that, she said, seemed uninterested in her story. They were doing everything His parents originally hailed from Charleston, South Carolina, where they left the Jim Crow South and worked their way up to the middle class suburbs of New York. autopsy report. in his own murder. Copyright 2023 Newsday. The awards will be announcedMarch 4, potentially shining an even brighter spotlight on the case, the story and the film. I cant help but ask the litmus test question, Ford said in a recent interview. He wanted to get his family out of the city, and Shed always avoided instilling fear or doubt about race into her kids. L ate on a spring evening in 1992, in the parking lot of a Long Island body shop, a 24-year-old man named William Ford was shot dead by a 19-year old mechanic, Mark Riley. In the spring of 1992, William Ford Jr. was murdered by a young white mechanic named Mark Reilly. More than twenty years later, the investigating officer on the case Reilly had Strong Island is an American 2017 true-crime documentary film directed by Yance Ford.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. Berlinale vorgestellt. high-profile trial. She never asked them to be mindful or cautious of other peoples racism. The film is a form of justice. Yance Ford, 2017, 97 min. The shooting death of William Ford, a 24-year-old schoolteacher from Central Islip, is the focus of Strong Island, an emotionally charged documentary made by one of Fords younger siblings. I will die believing that they didnt care because my son was a young man of color. findings that, afraid for his life, he had shot Ford in self-defense. Yance and Williams mother, Barbara a lifelong educator is in many ways the emotional anchor of the film. Fords mother, Barbara All rights reserved. before, and a deal was struck whereby the auto shop would fix the damage of his family he gave up school and became an M.T.A. 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. Jesmyn Wards Haunted Novel of the Gulf Coast. Race played a huge role in that decision, Yance believes. by phone calls in the middle of the night, every night; nevertheless, William Ford had no record and was about to take the But when he questioned the forces tactics, his life began to erode. Strong Island is the story of a black family that could not sustain An all-white grand jury declined to indict his killer, who claimed self-defense. check on the car. Distribudo pela Netflix, segue o processo judicial de investigao do assassinato do irmo do cineasta Ford. I did William a great disservice raising him the way we did, Barbara says. determined which questions the white investigators asked in William attack, unattended in the colored section of a hospital waiting room. A festival hit that won a special Jury Award at Sundance and also screened at the New Directors/New Films series in Manhattan, Strong Island begins streaming on Netflix and opens theatrically in Manhattan Friday. Washington a thing to say. 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. There is no hint of Rodney King or the theyd left behind in black history. Her son had We believe in Truth & Movies. Join Facebook to connect with Mark P Reilly and others you may know. portrayed in black drama as beaten-down old heads pleading with defiant, Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. The second time he returned, Reilly killed him. Ford, Jr.,s killing. William Ford Jr. was shot and killed on April 7, 1992, an incident at the center of the documentary Strong Island. Something deep inside his family also died that night, and Yance Ford, one of Williams siblings and the films director, explores that loss, exposing a grief that is profound and agonizing. 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 narrative of the scary, black man who is out of control, who needed to be shot in order to save your life, is a narrative thats as old as our country, Yance said. It arrives at a moment of renewed tensions over race and racism in America, but Fords film isnt a journalistic expos of a flawed legal system or an attempt to retry a particular case. Strong Island is different from most films regarding killings,asthe killer remains faceless. by Mark Reilly, a nineteen-year-old auto-body-shop employee. Reilly, who is white, was arrested for manslaughter. View the profiles of people named Mark P Reilly. The fact that Reilly was never indicted was, if not remarkable, not a given in such situations. Yance Ford, Williams brother, has lived with not only the knowledge that his brother was killed, but the fact that his brotherwas essentially blamed for his own death without a trial for the person who acknowledged killing him. He always knew he wanted to make a film about his brother but it wasn't until 2006 when the silence of his . This feature-length Oscar-nominated documentary tells the true story of the 1992 murder of William Ford, 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 filmmakers intensive study of the case, the result of a minor dispute, unfolds both the latter-day state of racial relations on Long Island and its historical roots, which emerge in Barbaras account of the family storythe move from Charleston, South Carolina, to Brooklyn, and then to the suburbs. As Yance tries to make sense of the unfathomable, he becomes both filmmaker and subject, eyes brimming with determination and pain. narrative, put together with subtlety and refinement, unfolds from the return a true bill because her son was a black man. Ford said he wanted to make his brother a three dimensional person rather than simply a statistic or a caricature. Later in the day, Reillys tow truck had hit and damaged Fords car. Those are real-estate developers in Central Islip were looking for black Strong Island is a 2017 documentary feature film directed by Yance Ford. been shot during a holdup at an A.T.M., and it was William Ford, he was frightened of Ford, a short but stocky young black man. The movie, co-produced by Danny Glovers Louverture Films, also presents information thatsuggests William Ford could have been a victim in a case where a self-defense claim was not fully tested. 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 . Since Trayvon Martins killing, we have become familiar with the . other. William and Yances younger sister Lauren Ford remembers how 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. It is heartbreaking to hear Fords mother reproach herself . passing on of necessary survival techniques. Mark Reilly, a young white man. Yance Ford's "Strong Island" Is a Form of Justice By Darryl Pinckney September 19, 2017 On April 7, 1992, in Central Islip, a Long Island suburb of New York City, William Ford, Jr., a. it cuts across class lines. motorman, working the dont run. community. The loss suffered by his mother is immeasurable. He had gone to Reilly's Long Island. The grand jury proceedings are sealed, so he cant get access to information from that process. Selma Now! Ava DuVernays vital civil rights drama is the film Martin Luther King deserved. tells us that she didnt like it. The family understood that what a D.A. After that exchange, William saw the man who had followed his mother and girlfriend home, stepped around a corner to speak to him, and was shot in the chest by Reilly, Yance said. After an argument over the delays, Ford, who is transgender, also is breaking new ground in that regard with this nomination. Ford had been hailed as a hero for pursuing and tackling the shooter. If the roles were reversed, where would my brother be today? 2023 Cond Nast. I will always believe that., As for Reilly, Ford was unable to find him, even with the help of a private investigator. The garage had offered to repair the vehicle for free if the woman agreed to not file an insurance claim. Reilly, who is white, was arrested for manslaughter but he claimed self-defense in the altercation at the shop with Ford, who was black. sense of the experience of watching Strong Island, in which the visual This is something youre going to be interested in, Ford says. 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