Yance Ford

Yance Ford is a Black transgender American documentary filmmaker known for Strong Island (2017), a devastating personal documentary about the death of his brother William Ford Jr. -- shot through the heart on April 7, 1992, by a 19-year-old white mechanic who was never charged after a grand jury declined to indict -- and about race, grief, and the failure of American justice. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature, making Ford the first openly transgender person ever nominated for an Academy Award in any category. Ford didn't encounter the word "transgender" until 1995, but has said his brother's final phone call to him in 1992 spoke to a recognition of who he was, even before either of them had the language for it. He has spoken about the importance of trans people telling their own stories and about the intersection of Black and trans identity.