Roger Ross Williams
Roger Ross Williams (born 13 April 1973) is an American TV and film director. For the documentary Music by Prudence, he won an Oscar in 2010.
Life
Williams comes from a Gullah - speaking family from South Carolina. Since 1985 he lives and works in New York.
Williams worked as a producer and director, among others for the television networks ABC, CBS and Comedy Central, and was for TV series such as Life 360 (2002), Sheila Bridges: Designer Living ( 2005), Undercover Boss (2010 ) and the Emmy -winning news show TV Nation by Michael Moore worked. Also for numerous news programs such as ABC News, NBC News, BBC and CNN he worked. Reality shows and numerous documentaries for Discovery Channel about were also part of his repertoire. He also produced some television movies, for which he was awarded a NAMIC Vision Award for Moroccan style and a National Headliner Award for the film New York Underground.
For his documentary Music by Prudence from 2010, which tells the story of 21 -year-old singer Prudence Mabhena from Zimbabwe, Williams won jointly with co-producer Elinor Burkett at the Oscar ceremony 2010 Oscar for Best Short Documentary. Thus, Williams is the first African American to win a prize for best director or production. At Williams ' acceptance speech, there was a small scandal when Burkett also took the stage and interrupted him. Burkett felt also responsible for the film, as she had the idea for it; However, it had been a year earlier relieved of their duties on the project due to differences.
More prices, the film won at the Florida Film Festival, the Africa World Documentary Film Festival and the Film Festival DocuWest