About the Filmmaker

Hezekiah L. Lewis III (director), a native Californian, is a graduate of UCLA's prestigious film school with his MFA in Directing. While attending UCLA, Lewis completed two second year films, Curtain Call and Memoirs of a Smoker, which went above and beyond the requirements for the MFA program. Lewis also went the extra mile for his thesis film, Warrior Queen, which he filmed on location in Ghana, Africa. The film tells the story of Yaa Asantewaa, a Ghanaian queen who led her people in a courageous battle for freedom against the British in the early 1900s.

Before entering UCLA's film school Lewis attended Villanova University on a football scholarship. He was a three-year starter and co-captain, receiving all-conference and all-academic honors from 1995-2000. He was the co-founder and artistic director of the Villanova Television Station. He also directed a documentary about Leroy Jones entitled The Life and Mind of Leroy Jones and a short narrative entitled Me. Lewis then received a Presidential Fellowship to attend Villanova's graduate school and completed a Master's degree in Theatre in 2002. He played many roles in various theatrical productions including: Peter in "Passion of the Christ," Storyteller/Snake in "Children of Eden" and Papa Ge in "Once on This Island," for which he was nominated for the Irene Ryan Award for Best Actor.

He is the co-founder of Ekiah Productions as well as Umoja Productions, the company with which he produced and starred in Athol Fulgard's "Blood Knot" at Philadelphia's Walnut Street Studio 5. Within the Philadelphia community, Hezekiah has been a workshop leader and actor for the Philadelphia Young Playwrights where he taught children how to develop stage plays. He also co-founded C.A.T.S. (Community Action Through Sports), a youth organization created to help children formulate positive goals in life. He is currently a film professor at Villanova University, his alma mater