Strong Island


Yance Ford

Artist Bio

Strong Island examines the violent death of the filmmaker’s brother 25 years ago, and the judicial system that allowed his killer to go free. The film calls us to bear witness to the reality rather than the abstraction of injustice, going beyond interviews into the homes of those left behind, into profound crises of civic faith. Strong Island interrogates murderous fear, racialized perception, and re-imagines the wreckage in catastrophe’s wake, challenging us to change. Strong Island was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2018.


Award Year
2012
Status

Completed

01_Headshot_Netflix Gallery 2017 1362v2 by Jason Bell

Yance Ford

Jackson Heights, NY

Director and Producer Yance Ford was one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 2011 25 New Faces of Independent Film. He was nominated for Best Documentary Feature by the Academy for his Creative Capital project, Strong Island. He is a Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellow, recipient of a 2012 Creative Capital Award & Theo Westenberger Award and a MacDowell Colony Fellow. From 2002 to 2012 Ford was Series Producer of POV where his work curating the acclaimed documentary garnered 16 Emmy Nominations. Yance is a graduate of Hamilton College and the Production Workshop at Third World Newsreel.



Events