Todd Williams, Filmmaker-Activist. Todd was born in Santa Ana, Michigan where he witnessed at an early age the racism in America and more specifically in the justice system that would sculpt him into the person that he is today. He was raised in one of richest counties in America, Orange County, California. Todd was walking with friends from Foothill High School and one day he heard one of them say to the other, “Everyone up here drives a Mercedes, but you hardly ever see a black guy in one” (and the two white friends laughed). As he graduated from High School, he noticed that the real world was not like High School. He also noticed that a lot of black people were dying and especially young black men. This inspired him to create a film production company that catered to them entitled “Endangered Species”. Todd produced his first independent feature film entitled “Tha Westside”.
As Todd witnessed more injustice in conservative Orange County this continued to shape his views. With Todd’s views continuing to lean more left, you could understand the conflict that he would have with America’s and Orange County’s justice system. Todd helped many defendants in the Orange County Jail by helping them expose the confidential informants within that the police and district attorney’s were using against them in their cases. Todd understood that he was not an attorney and should not be practicing law, but he looked at it as if it was his 1st Amendment right to tell defendants how to exercise their constitutional rights. He also looked at it as If “the defense attorneys were doing their jobs then the defendants would not be asking Todd for advice”. Todd created a company called Fight Injustice, in order to defendants exercise their constitutional rights. Todd is currently producing a film on the late rapper entitled “Nipsey Hussle God Will Rise” and has been a KPFK listener since 2017.
|