Martha Williams

Martha Williams

Writer, Director, Consultant, Producer, Idea Machine, Storyteller
BugHouse Media
Full Bio
www.marthawilliams.infobr
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Martha Williams is a Creative Director, Director, Writer, Storyteller, sometimes Performer & Culturalist.br
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By age 14, she reached her current height of 6ft. 4in. and moved to yet another new town (the 6th town to be exact). This means she was a constant outsider working her way into one flimsy cultural paradigm after another. Despite the inkling that life was possibly one big disappointing lie, it was not in her nature to rage against the...nice, loving, preacher-led, ex-marine family machine. Instead, she did as she was told. br
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So, the answer is....yes, I played basketball...all the way through college and for a short while in Turkey. The freak amongst the jocks, she finally hung up her high tops and moved to New York to feel the creative gristle that is always made her write like crazy, dance to the sounds of Xerox machines, feel the rhythm of buildings, watch people too much, question everything.br
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Ms. Williams made 19 long and short form, dance theater, site specific and mixed media dance works in New York and abroad. She performed with a few and made a dance film that toured in the US, Brazil, Hong Kong and Japan. That is when she made the switch to film. This time she put away her dance shoes and went west to CalArts for an MFA in film directing. There she wrote and directed 10 short films and finished writing a feature script. She is now back in New York, founded a story-telling series, called The BugHouse SPIN and is developing several personal projects, including Dream State, a half hour dark comedy. She also works as a freelance Writer and Creative Director, most notably with Intel and NeuroLeadership. br
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She still has an inkling that life is possibly one big disappointing lie, but now tries to play it like an invisible violin, hoping for some answers.
Professional Credits
Writer, Director (Film):
Run for Your Life, 4 episode web series 2018
Forensic Pathology music video 2018
BERENIK, short dance film 2017
Seen, short 2012
The Ruins, short 2011
Pesticide, short 2010
Broken Rose Portal, short dance film 2008

Writer (Film):
29 (in development)
Run for Your Life, (scheduled completion 2017)
Church of Christy, TV dark comedy (in progress)
The Ruins, short 2011
Pesticide, short 2010

Assistant Director:
Homebody
Pearl was Here

Actress:
Miracle Maker, Dr. Kate Marks 2013
She Hate Me, Dir. Spike Lee 2004

Director (Corporate):
Grow, (Intel & NLI) 2016
Decide, (NLI) 2015
Adapt, (NLI) 2015
Connect (NLI) 2014

Dancer/Choreographer/Performance Art
Package Less 2008
Stacked 2007
Broken Rose Portal 2007
Currency Break 2006
The Gates 2005
Burger Nation 2004
Espresso Thyself 2003
High Grounds 2003

Storyteller:
Founder of the BugHouse SPIN, a New York theme-based monthly live storytelling series
Raybanman 2013
Toilet Revolution 2013
Madhouse 2014
Twin Pimps 2014
Dark State 2015
Dumb Domme 2016
Industry Awards
NYWIFT Outstanding Creator of a New York Series Award 2018, New York Television Festival 2018, Copenhagen Film Festival 2018, Pilotlight Film Festival 2018, London Film Awards 2014, Knoxville Film Festival, September 2013, CalArts Film Directing Showcase, May 2012, CalArts Film/Video Grant for Rwanda Documentary, West Fest, May 2011, South Street Seaport Cultural Association, 2007, Gershwin Hotel, 2008, Jumping Frames Festival, Hong Kong, 2008, Negotiations with Propeller TV in UK, Meet the Composer Creative Connections, for a new composition and workshop, 2008, Danca em foco International Festival of Video and Dance, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2007, Field Artist Residency, Summer 2006 & 2003
Writer's Group works
Church of Chirsty
TV Movie (Comedy, Teleplay (TV script), Drama)
Log Line:
In current time/altered reality, a gang of multi-generational NYC ladies preach the interarchy (integration of patriarchy & matriarchy) while battling the dark side of their good intentions and the underground forces who want to go back to the “fine order” of the patriarchy. Church of Christy is Terry Gilliam meets Veep.
Synopsis:
Stu Smith, in Idaho, feeds the dog while in the news there’s a local bird break and in national news….the interarchy proposes more offset structures. Stu grunts in disapproval, shuts off the TV. Christy Church and Melody Smith (Stu’s daughter), partners in the Church of Christy in New York City, prepare to interview millennial social media guru types. Before starting, Melody rambles on about dodo birds while folding origami cranes. Christy rails against the discovery that Debra Lynne Foster, the “mother of the interarchy,” is starting the Center for the Interarchy. Despite trying to be inclusive, Melody melts down from fast-talking Kim Kardashian meets valley girl OMG-AMAZING sounds of these young men and women interviewees. Melody: “That ‘like oh my god’ sound is a fucking omnipresent death-star.” It doesn’t help that her nemesis, Patty Lang, produces the same noxious sounds and that she stole both her fiancé and her lead in Broadway show Pantomime, The Musical. Meanwhile we meet Drake Sanache, a member of the counter-interachist group the Swatters, who sniffs out Christy. Bri, one of the social media applicants, promotes a launch party for her new app Wear Where while also devising a strategy for attention...at Melody’s expense. Bri: “I’ll splay myself out on the highway like a spread eagle slut inf no one comes.” Over a phone call, Stu shares that there’s a wild parrot on his property. But Melody can’t hear because of city noise and agitation. At the Pantomime theater Melody secretly replaces Patty’s birth control with placebos and then paints her mime face one last time at which point she has a real meltdown. Desperate to find harmony with these ladies, and with Franco’s help she hobbles together a reconciliation song called Welcome to the Interarchy. Christy is not impressed with the sonic rhapsody. She would rather forge ahead and find young blood for the company. Christy, Melody and Franco crash Bri’s app launch, where they have to face the very thing that irks them. Bri convinces Melody to get her face painted. Except Melody doesn’t know it’s being painted like a beautiful colorful pussy. Bri immediately tweets a time-lapse video of pantomime to #pussyface. Bri’s vindictiveness is a punch in the stomach, especially since Melody thought she’d discovered some acceptance. But after making out with a clown in the elevator and having a heart to heart with a millennial, Melody turns it around by tweeting as Christy Church: Tweet: “What’s wrong with wearing the center of human creation on your face. Better yet, Melody Smith, I wish you multiple face orgasms.” A dance party pulses to the song Welcome to the Interarchy… Melody: “I guess the dodos have united and the songbirds sing.” Drake sees the video; a plan brews. Stu cages the parrot who won’t stop squawking. Despite Bri’s transgression, Christy hires Bri on the spot. Melody can’t believe it. Then the mother of the interarchy, Debra Lynne Foster, retweets #pussyface. Christy repeats “but I’m the mother of the interarchy.”
View Excerpt
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