Today we’d like to introduce you to Tia Williams.
Tia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I found my creative niche while podcasting about entertainment and politics and began blogging about victims of Police brutality. That kind of pain began hard to research daily so I decided to start writing about lighter topics and used my blog Mind of a Black Girl to explore things like dating. The feedback I received for the blog was great and many people requested I film them and turn them into a film or web series. From there, I studied digital filmmaking at the Austin School of Film. While taking the course, we created student shorts that were screened at SXSW and I was hooked.
In 2018 I was offered a role on a feature film that I believed was too big of an opportunity to pass, so I made the decision to leave my position as a Team Lad at a well-known tech company to make my dreams a reality. I jumped.
Has it been a smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road nor did I expect it to be. After taking my leap of faith complications with crew caused filming on the feature to be canceled. It left me lost and in a matter of months, I lost my only source of income, my apartment and my car. I had jumped and now I was falling.
Instead of allowing depression to keep me down I decided to use the time to start production on my latest project Gentrified. Through this, I learned that taking risks are necessary and our dreams are really on the other side of what we fear. The advice I would give is simple, don’t allow anyone to stop you from making your dreams a reality even yourself.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m an indie filmmaker, writer and director. I am most proud of and most known for my latest project Gentrified. Gentrified is a five part narrative web series that follows the lives of three Black millennials and aims to capture the financial and emotional effects of gentrification. Since launching the series we’ve garnished national attention and have helped shed light on an issue that impacts poor Black and Brown people in cities everywhere.
What do you feel are the biggest barriers today to female leadership, in your industry or generally?
Opportunities, women are not given the same opportunities as our counterparts. It’s not that we aren’t qualified or that we lack skill we just aren’t given access.
Contact Info:
- Email: gentrifiedseries@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gentrifiedseries/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GentrifiedSeries/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/gentrifieds
- Other: gf.me/u/vyb66f
Image Credit:
Alana Davis
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