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.

| Feb 5, 2020

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.

| May 2, 2019

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 30, 2018

Strong Island becomes a steady stream of revelations perfectly timed to completely transform everything we have just learned.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Oct 10, 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.

| Jul 24, 2018

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

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jul 24, 2018

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

| Original Score: 9.5/10 | Jul 24, 2018

Emotionally gripping.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 23, 2018

Beautifully shot and full of subtle nuances, Strong Island is intriguing throughout.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 14, 2018

An emotionally gut-wrenching film memoir.

| Feb 9, 2018

A film about a systemic injustice that seems all the crueler for how vividly it depicts the personal effect of that injustice.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 3, 2018

Yance Ford has directed a movie about the death of his brother that distills this kind of frustration into something heartbreaking, but that's what makes it a vital and powerful film.

| Jan 24, 2018

Both a personal documentary and a profound meditation on race in America, Strong Island ... takes the viewer on a harrowing journey through crime and lack of punishment.

| Jan 24, 2018

"Strong Island" is both confessional and confrontational.... Yance's storytelling style is particularly shrewd and compelling.

| Jan 12, 2018

The open-ended conclusion to Strong Island represents an ongoing struggle and a wound that cannot possibly heal, but one that leaves a scar to be remembered, respected and ultimately never repeated.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 27, 2017

Only a handful of autobiographical films rise beyond trivia or personal angst to be as powerful as Strong Island...finds context and meaning to tell larger American truth.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Nov 7, 2017

t's a slightly unfocused work... but its rawness is part of its strength.

| Oct 27, 2017

Strong Island is so supreme in its presentation that it immediately grabs your attention and never lets go. You simply can't stop watching, listening, empathizing.

| Oct 11, 2017

One of the most poignant and intimate documentaries I've ever seen. This compelling personal story also takes on institutional racism and the justice system in a way that can't be ignored.

| Sep 24, 2017

The film's central murder carries a potent political subtext about the black experience of the criminal justice system in America, but, more than that, this is a film about loss and irrepressible grief.

| Sep 22, 2017