Roger Ross Williams

Roger Ross Williams directed and produced Music by Prudence, which won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). He is the first African American to win an Oscar for directing and producing a film, short or feature. Williams began his career producing political satire for Comedy Central and Michael Moore’s Emmy Award-winning series TV Nation. He went on to work as a broadcast journalist for ABC, NBC, MSNBC and CNN. 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, including a NAMIC Vision Award and the National Headliner Award for Best Human Interest Feature Documentary. His latest film, God Loves Uganda, premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in U.S. Documentary Competition. It received rave reviews and won the Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the Dallas International Film Festival and the Ashland Independent Film Festival; the Inspiration Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival; the Pink Peach Award at the Atlanta International Film Festival; and the Youth Jury Award at the Sheffield Documentary Festival. Williams has several projects in development, including Traveling While Black, a transmedia project with ITVS and the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. He is also developing a narrative project about the African-American Baptist church, titled Black Sheep.