Filmmaker Spotlight

Filmmaker Zack Williams (Photo: Philadelphia Daily News)

"Zack Williams' big brother, Ray "The Razor" Adams, spent most of his adult life in prison for murder before being shot to death in South Philly in 1999. He was 31.

Williams' uncle, Robert Adams, a pro welterweight boxer who once fought the great Tommy Hearns, was gunned down in 1987 at age 32 by the enraged stepfather of a teenage girl he was romancing.

Williams' sister, Linda Adams, a deeply spiritual woman, moved to Altoona and raised her six children away from the streets of Philadelphia.

Williams' mother, an Army veteran, and his father, a Marine Corps veteran, worked hard all their lives to support their family.

So Williams, 30, who dealt drugs throughout his young adulthood until he dealt his way into a three-year prison sentence, had conflicting family crosscurrents flowing inside him when he entered the State Correctional Institution in Somerset.

As he stood before prison staffers in November 2005, and was asked which trade he wanted to learn during his incarceration, Williams realized that he was standing at the crossroads of the rest of his life.

"They asked if I wanted to learn carpentry, plumbing, masonry, fiber optics or barbershop skills," Williams remembers. "I said, 'Do you have any acting classes, anything like that?' "

He laughed. "They're looking at me like I'm crazy," he said. "They got all these hard-core criminals and I'm talking about, 'Y'all got any acting classes?'

"They said, 'No.' I said, 'Then could I work in the video department?'..."

Article courtesy of Dan Geringer, Philadelphia Daily News

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