David's Reverie

NEIL CREQUE WILLIAMS (DIRECTOR) received his MFA from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He has directed original content for 20th Century Fox, Duke University and USC Athletics. As an undergraduate, he attended Duke University, where his short film, “Super Size Me and Copyright Law”, was a finalist in the International Duke Law/Full Frame Documentary Festival’s Moving Image Contest. Neil later directed a documentary on Durham’s Black Wall Street, “The Silver Rights Movement”, that screened at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies. This film received a Mary Duke Biddle Foundation Grant, The John Hope Franklin Award and the Edward H. Benenson Art Award. At USC, he edited a documentary, “Polar Opposites” (on pole dancing and feminism), that was screened on the Documentary Channel. He also produced a short narrative film, “Red”, that has received various awards, including a Jury Award at the Directors Guild of America Student Film Awards.

Neil most recently wrote and directed his short film, “David’s Reverie”, about a jazz musician struggling to prevent his epilepsy diagnosis from derailing his emerging career. The film features Brandon Fobbs (“The Wire”, “Pride”, “The Walking Dead”) and is a narrative film with heavy use of jazz and jazz-inspired dance numbers. “David’s Reverie” is currently on the film festival circuit and has been the recipient of several awards and nominations. It is a Panavision New Filmmakers Grant recipient, Best Narrative Short Nominee at the Pan African Film Festival, Best Narrative Short (3rd Place) at the North Carolina Black Film Festival, Indiewire “Project of the Month” (June 2014) and Nominee for IndieWire “Project of the Year” in 2014. Neil is a former President of the African-American Cinema Society at USC and currently serves on the board of Working Films, a non-profit organization that links non-fiction film with cutting-edge activism. He is a native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.