Strong Island

Play trailer

2:04

Strong Island

2017

1h 47m

Documentary

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

100%

Tomatometer

47 Reviews

57%

Popcornmeter

500+ Ratings

When filmmaker Yance Ford investigates the 1992 murder of a young black man, it becomes an achingly personal journey since the victim, 24-year-old William Ford Jr., was the filmmaker's brother.

Critics Consensus

Strong Island uses one family's heartbreaking tragedy to offer a sobering picture of racial injustice in modern America.

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Robert Abele

Los Angeles Times

07/24/2018

Ford's building blocks are familiar, but this is no call-to-action film or how-to guide for getting answers and moving on.

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Christy Lemire

What the Flick?!

07/24/2018

9/10

It's deceptively simple, but it does so much so well. It's heartbreaking by the end...It's just really, really powerful.

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Alonso Duralde

What the Flick?!

07/24/2018

9.5/10

Ford is so gifted at taking old photographs and interviews and making a movie that is always beautiful to look at.

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Craig Hubert

Hyperallergic

02/05/2020

What Ford is trying to do with Strong Island is make his family's history visible once again, to give it the clarity and focus that were taken away. Through this process, the wounds of the past might be healed.

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Matthew Eng

Tribeca Film

05/02/2019

One of the rare films to embrace the full literary possibilities of the cinematic medium, in which the images conjured inside the mind can be just as vivid as the ones seen by the naked eye.

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Tomas Trussow

The Lonely Film Critic

10/30/2018

4/5

Yance [uses] the contours of the memoir to finally give his brother the justice that he was denied all those years ago. Therein lies its undeniable power.

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Bee C

@RT93242226 May 2

This was a horrible documentary. I have no idea how anyone would nominate this for an Oscar. The mother and sibling came across as wanting people to feel sorry for them by playing the victim card. Besides that, there was no real material to work with so the director just filled the time with boring stuff that just seemed thrown in a very haphazardly way. Those are 107 minutes I won't get back.

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12/19/2021

This was terrible. So boring. Point was never made. Very clearly one sided and left out a lot. It took me 3 attempts to even finish this because it was so slow. Don't waste your time.

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01/09/2021

Slow, slow, slow. Don't bother. Made it 3/4 of the way and finally told the wife I couldn't watch any more. She said "thank god" and we went to bed.

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11/25/2020

Surprised to see such high ratings for something I found meandering and aimless for most of its running time. I fast lost interest and this overly long preamble to nowhere near pulled me back in again. Still not sure what it was hoping to impart but I came away none-the-wiser.

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georgan g

@RT98616417 09/11/2020

Took twice as long as it needed to tell a complicated story.

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07/18/2020

It is always difficult to rate sensitive movies. This one is longer than it should and sadly is very one sided, which doesn't allow us to see the full picture

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Yance Ford

Director

Yance Ford

Actor

Harvey Walker

Actor

Kevin Myers

Actor

Lauren Ford

Actor

David White

Actor

Strong Island: Clip - Intimidation

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Strong Island: Trailer 1

2:04

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Synopsis

When filmmaker Yance Ford investigates the 1992 murder of a young black man, it becomes an achingly personal journey since the victim, 24-year-old William Ford Jr., was the filmmaker's brother.

Director: Yance Ford
Producer: Yance Ford, Joslyn Barnes, Esther Robinson
Distributor: Netflix
Production Co: Final Cut for Real, Louverture Films
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 15, 2017, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 15, 2017
Runtime: 1h 47m