In this engaging episode of The Ajyal Show, filmmaker and educator Marco Williams reflects on a life shaped by cinema that found him. He grew up without a television, and it was only later, in a Hitchcock class at university, that he first fell for the moving image. Fiction may have drawn him in, but the classroom pushed him toward documentary and experimental work, and that unexpected turn became the beginning of his journey.

Marco recalls the moment he knew he had to make his own work while wiping melted chocolate off a child actor's hands on a commercial set. From that small, absurd scene came ‘In Search of our Fathers’, which began as a simple wish to meet his father for the first time and slowly grew into a ten-year documentary about family, absence, and the pull to understand where you come from. Making much of the film alone, he carried the camera, the sound, and the responsibility, and found that the limitations he worked within became the source of the film's quiet intimacy.

When it reached Sundance and travelled the world, Marco learned that the more specific a story is, the more deeply it can move strangers. Later, ‘Two Towns of Jasper’ pushed him further, capturing race and authorship through two filmmakers, two communities, and one shared frame. In Qatar, he approaches teaching as listening across cultures. His advice for young storytellers is patient and clear. Filmmaking is a marathon, and you must make work you care about, and use it to make a difference.

To learn more about Doha Film Institute's initiatives, workshops and funding that help support Qatar’s creative community, visit our website here.