Yance Ford

Yance Ford (/ˈjænsi/) is an African-American transgender producer and director.^[1][2]

Yance Ford
Yance Ford at the 2017 Montclair Film Festival
Alma mater	Hamilton College
Occupation(s)	Director, film producer

Life and career

Ford graduated from Hamilton College in 1994.

Beginning in 2002 he worked as a series producer at PBS for ten years.^[3][4][5][6]

In 2011 he was named one of Filmmaker magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film.^[5] He also received the 2011–2012 Fledgling Fund Fellowship at MacDowell.^[4]

In 2017 he was #97 on The Root 100, an "annual list of the most influential African Americans, ages 25 to 45."^[7]

Strong Island and other works

In 2018, he and Joslyn Barnes were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature^[8][9] for producing and directing Strong Island.^[10][11] As such, he became the first openly transgender man to be nominated for any Academy Award, and the first openly transgender director to be nominated for any Academy Award.^[12] Also in 2018, he and Barnes were awarded an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking for producing Strong Island, which made him the first openly transgender man and the first black openly transgender person to win an Emmy award, as well as the first openly transgender filmmaker to win a Creative Arts Emmy also for^[13][14][15] Strong Island about the murder of his brother William Ford, which occurred in 1992.^[11]

He has also received a Creative Capital Award, and a Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellowship.^[6]

Ford directed an episode of the 2020 documentary series, Trial By Media, titled "Blago!", about the media furor over the court case against Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich.

See also

• List of LGBT firsts by year
• List of LGBT Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of transgender film and television directors

References

1. "Yance Ford on Family Photographs in His Film "Strong Island"". 1World1Family.me. September 6, 2017. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
2. ""Strong Island": Trans Filmmaker Yance Ford Searches for Justice After His Brother's Racist Murder". DEMOCRACY NOW!. January 24, 2018. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
3. Bloom, Ryan (September 25, 2017). "Yance Ford '94 Screens "Strong Island"". Hamilton. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
4. Martin, John (March 16, 2012). "Q&A with 2012 Fledging Fund Fellow and Documentary Filmmaker Yance Ford". MacDowell. Archived from the original on 2018-01-25. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
5. "Yance Ford; 25 NEW FACES OF INDEPENDENT FILM". FILMMAKER. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
6. "QUEER ART PRIZE 2017 RECENT WORK FINALIST STRONG ISLAND (2017) BY YANCE FORD". QUEER ART. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
7. "The Root 100 Most Influential African Americans 2017 | TheRoot.com". Interactives.theroot.com. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
8. 2018|Oscars.org
9. "Icarus" wins Best Documentary Feature - Oscars on YouTube
10. Reynolds, Daniel (January 23, 2018). "Yance Ford Becomes First Transgender Director of an Oscar-Nominated Film". The Advocate. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
11. Jummy Olabanji; Sander Siegel (January 23, 2018). "'Strong Island' Director From LI Makes Oscars History". NBC New York. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
12. Withers, Rachel (January 23, 2018). "The 2018 Oscar Nominees Include a Number of Historic Firsts". Slate. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
13. "INTO: A Digital Magazine for The Modern Queer World". Intomore.com. 10 September 2018. Retrieved 2018-09-17.
14. "Nominees/Winners | Television Academy". Emmys.com. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
15. Dino-Ray Ramos (September 9, 2018). "'Strong Island's Yance Ford Makes History As First Openly Trans Filmmaker To Win At Creative Arts Emmys". Retrieved 2018-09-09.

External links

• Yance Ford at IMDb