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" When I was young, I didn't see anyone who was trans like me anywhere in the movies. "
Yance Ford
Movies
See
Who
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" Black lives are too easy to take in America because we don't want to question why people are so afraid of black and brown people to begin with. And that's what I want 'Strong Island' to do. "
Yance Ford
America
Strong
People
" 'Strong Island' has been a labor of love and dedication on the part of so many people, that it's just an incredible recognition to be honored. And to be the first trans director - and, I believe, the first African-American trans director - to be nominated for an Academy Award is incredibly, incredibly special to me. "
Yance Ford
Me
Strong
People
" White communities - and I exempt poor white communities from this - have power over their representation. White people have the ability to define themselves, to exert their agency in a way that they get to be believed. No one believes black people. No one. Until a white person vouches for them. "
Yance Ford
Way
White
Power
" We have to deal with the way that race influences our criminal justice system. "
Yance Ford
Justice
Criminal Justice
Race
" Our blackness and how to survive being black in America was something that our parents instilled in us extraordinarily well. "
Yance Ford
Survive
America
Black
" Grief, for me, is a moment-to-moment experience. "
Yance Ford
Experience
Grief
Me
" Film festivals are usually unpleasant experiences on some level. The lines are ridiculous, the crowds are ridiculous, or the schedules are impossibly arranged: 'You say that there's a film you really want to see? Try the 8 A.M. show! Oh, it's too bad you didn't get to bed until 2 A.M. the night before.' "
Yance Ford
Say
Night
Festivals
" I'm incredibly proud to be the first trans director to be nominated for an Oscar. "
Yance Ford
First
Be The First
Director
" 'Trumbo' is conventional in its structure, mixing interviews with archival footage. What I enjoyed most about the film was its liberal use of his own personal letters to friends and family, performed dramatically by well-known actors. "
Yance Ford
Friends And Family
Family
Friends
" I have a lot of surrogate parents, but there's no one like your mother. "
Yance Ford
Mother
Your
Lot
" When I use the word 'buzz' in successive sentences, it's clearly time for me to stop writing. "
Yance Ford
Word
Writing
Time
" 'Strong Island' is slang for Long Island, New York. And it really grew out of - what may surprise people, it really grew out of the very vibrant hip-hop scene that, you know, is located and still generates artists out of Long Island. "
Yance Ford
New York
Long
Surprise
" I don't feel like a hero. "
Yance Ford
Like
Hero
Feel
" If I can help one family embrace their child and not displace them and throw them out, I'm happy about that. "
Yance Ford
Help
I Can
Out
" There are people who get to be three-dimensional humans in the United States, and there are people who do not. "
Yance Ford
United
People
Get
" I would hate for people to think that 'Strong Island' is just about a family's grief. It is about a family's grief, yes, but it is also an interrogation of our criminal justice system. "
Yance Ford
Hate
Grief
Family
" My impression is that the Academy is really sincere about moving toward a more inclusive and representative Hollywood. "
Yance Ford
More
Moving
Inclusive
" My brother's death picked up my life and put it down somewhere else. I had an image of myself in my mind as a working artist, and when he died, all of that changed. "
Yance Ford
Death
Myself
Mind
" If my making history makes it easier for a trans kid at home somewhere to feel more at home in their skin, then I'm so excited about that. "
Yance Ford
History
Skin
More
" What little return documentary filmmakers get often comes in the form of recognition by their peers and the critics who influence doc audiences around the country. "
Yance Ford
Peers
Recognition
Country
" There is nothing quite as exciting as watching a master at work. "
Yance Ford
Work
Master
Nothing
" White people get to do that all of the time. They get to engage in bad behavior, even felonious behavior, but they rarely wind up in jail. But as a black person, losing your temper can cost you your life. Or insisting on your rights can cost you your life. "
Yance Ford
People
Black
Time
" It's important that people understand that 'Strong Island' is just as much about this claim of reasonable fear and our need to interrogate reasonable fear as it is about my family's grief. "
Yance Ford
Grief
Strong
Family
" Everyone in the street where I grew up was given the same message: You can be anything; you can do anything. That wasn't extraordinary; that was ordinary for us. My folks didn't believe in black exceptionalism. There's nothing exceptional about 'You can have that, too' - except when it comes to justice. You can't have that. "
Yance Ford
Justice
You
Believe
" I will never understand how so many young women can go out in the freezing cold wearing so little clothing. "
Yance Ford
Women
Understand
Never
" Being nominated is such a tremendous honor. An Oscar win for me and for the 'Strong Island' team would be the cap to an incredible journey. But it would also mean that my brother will not disappear from history. "
Yance Ford
Brother
Team
Strong
" I had a list of 10 rules when we started 'Strong Island,' and one of them was, 'Yance will never appear on camera with sync sound.' "
Yance Ford
Sound
Camera
Island
" Instincts are a really important guide for any artist, but particularly filmmakers because it takes a lot to stay true to your instincts as a storyteller. "
Yance Ford
Stay True
Artist
True
" It would have been tough for anyone to adapt 'Push' - an amazing but wrenching novel by Sapphire - for the screen, and I think director Lee Daniels made interesting choices, particularly with Precious' fantasies. In my view, some of them work and some do not, but they are definitely provocative directorial choices. "
Yance Ford
Think
Work
Amazing
" I hope that audiences understand that there is a precariousness to black lives in this country that we need to address, that there has always been a precariousness to black lives in this country that we need to address. In fact, our country is built on the precariousness of black lives, the disposability of black lives. "
Yance Ford
Hope
Need
Understand