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Mark D. Williams is an award-winning Choctaw filmmaker from Shawnee, Oklahoma. Having never been to film school, Mark was
self-taught using friends and family for his first few projects. His first short film premiered at the Red Fork
Film Festival in Tulsa in 2006. He would go on to write, direct, produce and edit more short films until 2012 when he
made his first feature length film, The Unrest (winner of the BEST FILM award at the Mvskoke Film Festival). In 2016, his
second feature film, "Violet" won 12 awards in the US and overseas with 29 award nominations overall.
In 2016, he began focusing on Native American sport and athletes's stories with his first documentary titled Beans (Best
Documentary at the Fort Worth Indie Film Showcase). It was followed by another award-winning boxing documentary titled, "Shiloh"
which can be found on Amazon Prime. He followed up Shiloh with another boxing film, "Knifechief".
In 2020, his short film, "Warrior Coach", won 2 awards (Bare Bones International Film Festival and Best Director
at LA Skins Fest).
Mark began freelancing as a filmmaker in 2016 working on mainstream projects and making cultural films for Tribal companies,
citizens and Nations. His first feature
length documentary, "Tvshka Nowvt Aya", covered Oklahoma Choctaw stickball and won Best Film in 2018 at the
NatiVisions Film Festival in Arizona. His second
documentary with the Choctaw Nation, "Ikhaiyanala" (I Will Remember) won three awards (NatiVisions Film Festival,
LA Skins Fest, Will Rogers International Film Festival).
Mark's latest film, "The Journey of Tiak Hikiya Ohoyo", a sports documentary about Mississippi Choctaw Stickball
was released in August 2022 in Film Festivals and
has won several awards since. In February of 2023 Mark was inducted into the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall
of Fame for Media.
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