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. An all-white grand jury in Suffolk County declined to indict his killer, who claimed self-defense.
The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Worldwide rights were acquired by Netflix. It received a Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Documentary in 2017 and was nominated for the 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It was also nominated for an Emmy in Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking that year.
This film is current for today’s climate on race and injustice.
