‘Power’ Review: Yance Ford Provides a Detached, Academic Inquiry Into Policing
variety.comSiddhant Adlakha Few issues have defined and divided the United States this decade like policing, and Yance Ford’s “Power” seeks to explore its origins.
With few exceptions, the Netflix documentary/visual essay is more factual than emotional — let alone revelatory in its examinations — but the film covers enough historical ground to function as a contemporary cinematic flashpoint, aimed at a wide audience who isn’t already steeped in its academic analyses (which have become a fixture of social media these last few years).
Ford provides both the interview questions (frequently interspersed with answers from various subjects) as well as the movie’s voiceover, which begins hesitantly and introspectively, warning the viewer about the breadth, scope and disturbing nature of the subject at hand.
It isn’t so much a content warning as it is an act of solace; the filmmaker’s voice is gentle, and he’s ready to guide us through this tumultuous topic.
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