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.

About The Team

Yance Ford is an artist working in film based in New York City.

His debut film Strong Island won a Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize and the Gotham Award for Best Documentary. Strong Island was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 90th Academy Awards, where Ford made history as the first openly transgender director nominated for the Oscar. In 2018 Strong Island won the Primetime Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking.

Ford is a MacDowell fellow, a Sundance Institute Fellow and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019.