Years active 1995–present Name Roger Williams | Role Television Director | |
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Occupation Film directorScreenwriterFilm producer Movies God Loves Uganda, Music by Prudence, The Remembrance Awards Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject Similar People Elinor Burkett, David Shenk, Julie Goldman Profiles | ||
Education Easton Area High School | ||
Roger ross williams the first black oscar winning director on life animated oscarssowhite
Roger Ross Williams (born September 16, 1973) is an American television news, documentary and entertainment director, producer and writer. He directed most notably Music by Prudence that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject), about a 21-year-old Zimbabwean singer-songwriter Prudence Mabhena, who was born severely disabled and has struggled to overcome poverty and discrimination. All other seven members of Prudence's band "Liyana" are also disabled. Williams's film God Loves Uganda, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival to enormous critical acclaim. It was shortlisted for a 2014 Academy Award, has won over a dozen awards and screened at over 60 film festivals worldwide. His latest film Life, Animated was nominated for the 2017 Academy Award.
Contents
- Roger ross williams the first black oscar winning director on life animated oscarssowhite
- Roger ross williams life animated the inner world of young man with autism close up with thr
- Life and career
- Director
- Producer
- Screenwriter
- Awards
- References
Roger ross williams life animated the inner world of young man with autism close up with thr
Life and career
Williams is the first African American director to win an Academy Award in his category of Documentary Shorts, and the first ever African American director to win an Academy Award for directing and producing a film, short or feature. He is a member of a Gullah family from South Carolina, and has lived and worked in New York City for the past twenty-five years. Williams attended Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and New York University in New York, NY.
Williams began his career producing political satire for Comedy Central and Michael Moore’s Emmy Award-winning series TV Nation. He has also produced and directed numerous primetime specials for PBS, ABC, CBS, Sundance Channel and New York Times Television. He has won numerous awards for his TV work including a NAMIC Vision Award and the National Headliner for Best Human Interest Feature documentary.
He started working in 1985 and has since worked for ABC News, NBC News, MSNBC, BBC, CNN and has produced work for Comedy Central, Food Network, TLC, VH1 He has directed prime-time reality (for ABC and CBS) and produced a documentary series for Discovery Networks and a lifestyle series: Sheila Bridges Designer Living, for Scripps Networks.
Roger Ross Williams has several projects in development including a transmedia project with PBS called Traveling While Black, a feature documentary about the prison industrial complex for CNN Films and the BBC, and a feature documentary about the legendary Apollo Theater.
Currently Williams serves on the board of Docubox Kenya, a documentary fund and mentorship program based in Nairobi that supports African filmmakers. Williams serves on the alumni advisor board of None On Record, the alumni advisory board of the Sundance Institute, and the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Recently, Williams became the trustee of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa; the first major museum in Africa dedicated to contemporary art. He splits his time between upstate New York and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.