James Williams is the son of a preacher. The Dorsey High alum is also the creative director for Raking Leaves Productions Films in Beverly Hills. He began his professional career in civil engineering at the Port of Long Beach but transitioned to personal security protection out of love for service to others.
These experiences led him to a different calling: to produce films of passion and content—relevance and purpose.
“Back in the day, my wife and I attended a gathering of friends in Beverly Hills,” he recalled. “A woman approached us and said these words to me, ‘The Word is telling you to rake your own leaves. Don’t let anyone rake your leaves. Rake your own.’
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“Today, my company is called Raking Leaves Productions,” he explained, “because it’s independent of mainstream production machines. Our mission is ‘Life creates film, creates life.’ We hope to produce films that are thought-provoking.”
Williams was unaware that filmmaking was even in his future until a daddy-daughter journey to Santa Catalina Island piqued his interest.
“I enjoyed the entire process—from filming to editing,” he recounted. Later, my wife and I adopted a little boy who came to us with only a trash bag in his hands. She said, “If anything, you should do a film about that.”
Williams entered “Palms” at the 2012 International Family Film Festival in Los Angeles and won for Best Short Film. It is the story of a foster child searching for a forever family who is holding his heart in their hands.
“I got casting from a director I connected with during the [2023] writer’s strike,” he said, “plus, support from my church. Others I had built relationships with lent me their homes and businesses to shoot the film for free. We’ve received five million views on YouTube. That’s independent filmmaking.”
An independent film is a feature or short film produced outside the major film studio system, produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, and made with considerably lower budgets than major studio films.
Williams entered “Palms” into other film festivals that embrace indie work, like the Pan African Film Festival, “Because these are the smaller venues where the little guys are still able to communicate their stories from their own houses before smaller audiences with like passions,” he said.
The 25th Annual Beverly Hills Film Festival will occur in the spring of next year. The BHFF was established in 2000 in the backyard of the “Entertainment Capital of the World” and is considered among the most exclusive and influential film festivals globally. Will he enter?
“The current film I’m working on now is called ‘Emmanuel,’” Williams announced, “which follows the one we just completed, ‘Mosaic Symphony.’ We’ve been accepted into the Idylwild and Silicon Beach Film Festivals, and film festivals in Atlanta, Seattle, Vegas, New York, and Florida. Some we already won, and others are under consideration—including BHFF.
“My dad was a preacher,” he beamed. “His name was also James Williams. He’d say, “You gonna be a preacher like your dad?” Like I wasn’t already getting enough pressure from other folks! Dad said, “Son, you’re already a preacher and your films are your pulpit. Whatever you do in life, speak from that pulpit.”
“So, what I do in my films,” he concluded, “is communicate things that create life as I perceive it to be—and pray that it stays congruent and continual with blessing the Lord at all times. Let his praise continually be in my mouth.”
To learn more, visit https://www.rlpfilms.com/.
