BEAUMONT, Texas — A jack of all trades in Southeast Texas prides himself in helping the community thrive in content creation.
Gordon S. Williams can be found doing anything from television production, to salsa dancing, to hosting film screening events.
"My life is about love and creativity, and there's love in my creativity. There's creativity in my love," Williams said.
But out of all the things he does, creating content is his specialty.
"There's so much talent in this area, and I feel like it's important for us to kind of unify and be able to hopefully, professionalize what we're doing," Williams said.
Williams' belief compels him to pour everything he knows into the upcoming industry leaders through his production classes at Lamar University.
"I credit Lamar as far as the education that helped me be able to be the content creator that I am, and I'm wanting to make sure I pass on those skills to the students that I work with today," William said.
Williams credits his students and those around him with many of his successes.
"I think it's important for them to see me working just as hard besides them. When they see me achieve, I hope they realize they can achieve," Williams said.
Hard work is definitely paying off for Williams.
Williams wrote, produced and directed the award-winning short film "The Example," which is set during the 1943 Beaumont, Texas race riot.
"The Example" has been accepted into over 35 festivals and venues across the United States and Canada.
"I think there's a through line of all those themes, from The Example, to the Charlton-Pollard Project because that is about community," Williams said.
Highlighting the history of Beaumont's Black community is especially important to Williams.
"I have never seen a group of people love an area and love the space. There's a sense of pride from their origins of being built on education, to have the businesses thrive and the artists that came through in a chitlin circuit like James Brown," Williams said. "All these incredible performers. It's history, period. I don't think you need a descriptive word in front of it and I hope people take this month to realize."
Williams will continue to work tirelessly to encourage people to do so.
"Some people literally rest on their laurels. I don't want to be that person. For me, it's about being able to move to the next project," Williams said.