John T. Williams is an award-winning screen-dance filmmaker, director, and music video creator, whose films have been presented at more than 150 film festivals worldwide. His work spans screen-dance, experimental film, narrative filmmaking, and music video.
 

Williams began making dance films in 1985 while studying at San Francisco State University, where he earned a B.A. in Film Production. His work in dance has extended beyond the screen: he wrote, produced, and directed four original stage ballets featuring dancers from San Francisco Ballet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Oakland Ballet.
 

In recent years, Williams has expanded his filmmaking into original music, writing more than 36 country, experimental, and genre-spanning songs and producing them as music videos.
 

His films have received numerous international awards and nominations. Nova was named Best Film of 2026 by DELETE TV, the long-running experimental film and video-art program broadcast through OKTO television in Austria.
 

The Big Race received both the Grand Jury Award and Best Experimental Film at the Underexposed Film Festival. Jilava received eight awards and nominations, including Best Experimental/Avant-Garde Film at the DOTS Christian Film Festival in Kenya, Best of Festival at the Texas Christian Film Festival, and Best Director at the International Christian Film Festival in Orlando.
 

American Overture received Best Film in the Dance Theatre Story competition at the 2nd Dance Theatres Festival “Open Stage” in Poland. 2412 was nominated for Most Innovative Use of Sound at the Light Moves Festival in Ireland and received Best Experimental Film at the Polish International Film Festival. Four Stages of Collapse received Best Experimental Film at Bucharest ShortCut CineFest in Romania and was nominated for Best Dance Film at the International Film Festival North Hollywood.
 

Williams’ work has also entered academic, archival, museum, and educational contexts. His work is represented in the ReelDance Moving Image Collection at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, an archive supporting cultural research and curricula in dance and film studies.
 

His films have been presented in lectures and special exhibitions internationally, including a program examining dance and spirituality at the University of Theology in Graz, Austria, and a museum installation at Museo de Trajes in Bogotá, Colombia.
 

Black Train Is Coming was presented at the joint conference of the Society of Dance History Scholars and Congress on Research in Dance at the University of California, Riverside, as part of the presentation “Bodies Among the Ruins: Dance Films Emerging Legacy.” More than a decade after the film's original release, it continued to be exhibited internationally and was featured in a 2022 educational ciné-dance program at La Briqueterie, a French national center for contemporary dance.

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