Biography

Oscar Williams, has been teaching intermediate film production at the University of Southern California for the past few years. As a student, I took his class in the fall semester of 1998. He has a passion for Japanese cinema, especially the films of Akira Kurosawa. Oscar is a knowledgable filmmaker and, more importantly, a good teacher. His enthusiasm and love for the art of cinema is contagious, and I have found that I've learned a great deal from him.
- IMDb mini biography by: Brant Jones

Oscar S. Williams was a motion picture director, writer, and producer of Afro-Caribbean heritage. He learned filmmaking in the US Army in the late 1960s. He later attended San Francisco State College and went on to produce his first full-length motion picture, "The Final Comedown," starring Billy Dee Williams, at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Williams represented an early wave of Black filmmakers who, after the achievements of the civil rights movement, successfully challenged the existing power structure in Hollywood to get more images of people of African descent onto the big screen. Although "Five on the Black Hand Side" was not about a West Indian man and his family, he represented the stereotypical Caribbean man, according to Williams. With his Crucian heritage in tow, Williams gave voice to what he remembered hearing during the adult conversations as he was growing up on St.Croix. Williams was helpful to Danny Glover, the late Ja'Net DuBois, and Ayuko Babu to bring into existence the (Los Angeles) Pan African Film Festival, which, thirty years later, is the 'largest Black film and arts festival and Black History Month activation in the United States. Hollywood was his "stomping grounds" for more than five decades. He brought six full-length films and other projects to the screen while pursuing his dream of teaching film to the youth and conducting workshops in and around South Central Los Angeles and the Compton area. He taught cinema for 14 years at the University of Southern California Film School. Through his many endeavors, Williams earned a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, he attended the 50-year Anniversary at the American Film Institute In Los Angeles, surrounded by many of his peers, colleagues, and former classmates. Williams' son David lives and works in Qatar on the continent of Asia. At the request of David, Williams traveled to Qatar in late 2022 and lived with his son until his passing on January 30. "Oscar Williams was also a father and a connoisseur of good food and fine clothing. He was an admirer of art and music. He used art to express the Afro-Caribbean consciousness and as a means to depict the struggle, lives, and loves of Black people of the Diaspora. As such, he was a man, a Black man who cherished his Afro-Caribbean ancestry," David Williams said.
- IMDb mini biography by: Elisa McKay via St Thomas Source