25 best critically acclaimed movies on Netflix

5. Strong Island (2017)

Director: Yance Ford

Strong Island premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 and was nominated for best documentary at last years Academy Awards.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a documentary as personal as this one. So many times, docs are stories of history or memoirs of a famous person but not this one. Not only is this film about the director’s life, but she speaks directly into the camera to tell a story many of us would want to run away from for the rest of our lives.

Strong island tells the story of Director Yance Ford’s brother William who was murdered in April of 1992. He was only 24 years old. The incident that led to his death was an argument gone wrong, but with the person behind the trigger being a white male, and the person in front of the trigger is a black male, racial overtones overshadowed what actually happen that night.

Years have passed since the incident, and now Ford is digging into the history of her family as it relates to her brother and the conflict that eventually took his life. She reveals that she is no longer upset about the incident, but what she won’t allow is for her brother to be remembered anyway people want to remember him.

As I stated, this doc is hugely personal, and if you have siblings or anyone in your life that you view as a brother or sister – or family period, then this film will be a punch to the gut. It’s a visceral piece about the aftermath that senseless killing can have on a family.