US director Yance Ford talks to producer Joslyn Barnes about his new feature doc Power, which looks at the origins of police power in the US and asks why American citizens have allowed cops to hold so much sway over their lives for so long. The film, which is sure to be a strong contender in the upcoming awards season, screens on Netflix. Click on video below.
Ford and Barnes worked together on his Strong Island which won the 2017 Sundance U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award, the Gotham Award for Best Documentary, and the Black Film Critics Circle Award for Best Doc.
“It’s been seven or eight years now since we made Strong Island together,” opens Barnes. “And I remember back then when we spoke about policing during the making of that film. I’d love for you to talk about why you decided to make this film Power and also what changes you’ve seen in policing since we made that film.”
“I’ve been thinking about police since that moment in Strong Island when there were detectives in my parents’ house explaining to them why the young man who shot and killed my brother wasn’t going to be charged with a crime,” Ford answers.
“Everybody has a first awareness of when something that seems personal is actually an institution,” he adds. “And I think that that for me was the moment where I was, wait a minute, hold on a second. This is not about a simple crime. This is about something greater than the act of one person. And so I’ve been thinking a lot about policing as an institution since that point, but I was tipped into making Power in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. Witnessing his murder and his death was horrific. But I think equally horrific for me was the response of police around the country and around the world to people who came out to the streets to protest his death.”
Ford continues: “It was almost as if police, the ones that I witnessed, were angry that people were in the streets protesting. There was a visceral kind of force that seemed different to me in that moment than what I had seen on the streets in New York City before. And I’ve seen a lot in New York City in terms of policing civil disobedience and protests. So when things were happening at this, what felt like, such an intensified level, I started asking again this set of questions. Is this what policing is for? Is this thing that I’m seeing now what policing is for? And that’s really what started the process of the film.”
