Strong Island

9/25/2026

When African-American William Ford Jr. was murdered in New York's affluent Suffolk County in 1992, a grand jury declined to indict the nineteen year old man who was accused of the crime. The victim's brother Yance, a film-maker, spends the next couple of hours trying to establish whether this all-white jury (in a area where 85%+ of the population are white/white Hispanic) determined not to charge the accused because he, too, was white. Unfortunately, what he delivers instead is a collection of melancholic video eulogies of this young man from his family that border on the dull. Of course, they are hurting as many - especially his mother - firmly believe that race played a defining part in the decision not to prosecute the alleged criminal, but Vance is simply too close to this topic to be