Amie Williams is the executive director of the nonprofit film/video production company Bal Maiden Films/DSG Productions, based in Los Angeles. The company specializes in film and video for community groups, labor unions and related organizations.
In addition to No Sweat, Williams is currently producing two feature documentary films: View Through a Grain of Sand, about women refugees in Afghanistan, directed by Meena Nanji; and Eye of the Storm: The Story of the Longshore Lockout, commissioned by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
Previously, Williams has produced and directed four feature-length documentaries: Fallon, NV: Deadly Oasis (2003), about a childhood leukemia cluster in a small military town in Nevada; Stripped and Teased: Tales From Las Vegas Women (2001); One Day Longer: The Story of the Frontier Strike (2002); and Uncommon Ground: From Los Angeles to South Africa (1994). These films have won numerous awards, including the International Documentary Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Media Grant, the SONY/Streisand Award for emerging female filmmakers, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Peace Grant, the A.F.I. Independent Film and Videomakers Award, and a National Arts Council grant to tour Japan and Singapore to show her work.
Williams's other work includes numerous public service announcements and political ads. She directed award-winning spots for Cruz Bustamante, the first Latino lieutenant governor of California, and for many candidates running for California state senate and assembly. She earned a B.A. in English and theater from Yale University in 1985 and an M.F.A. in film from UCLA in 1992.