Churning out 10 to 12 articles a week, boasting an impressive list of celebrities he has held conversations with, and one of the few black reviewers on popular site Rotten Tomatoes, Kam Williams’ career as a film reporter happened seemingly by accident.
A resident of Princeton, New Jersey, Williams was charged with the opportunity to write film reviews by an editor who was fed up with her current film reviewer that often took two-week vacations; leaving an empty space where his review would have been.
“She said, I know you like movies would you like to go in for a couple. I said yeah I’ll do that,” Williams explained. “I liked it so much that I said can you keep me and they did.”
Building an impressive resume of critical reviews and engaging interviews with stars such as Kerry Washington and even President Jimmy Carter, Williams decision to join Caribbean Life was also because of that same editor.
“She said to me, ‘you’re really good why don’t you try getting into other papers, so long as they weren’t in the same region and aren’t any of our competitors you can sell your review,’” he explained.
From that point on, Williams began expanding and landed on Caribbean Life newspaper through relatives who live in New York. Proud of his roots in the Caribbean — both sets of grandparents were from the islands including Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Croix —writing for the publication was like a home coming of sorts.
“I feel a special connection to the paper because of my Caribbean roots, even though as a child I had a Caribbean accent growing up in St. Albans, Queens and I used to be teased by friends for it,” he explained.
The proud father, who maintains a low profile despite much of his high profile success, has much to brag about as far as his writing experiences are concerned.
One particular event that occurred about a year ago includes him being quoted, something that has happened in the past, for a review written about Denzel Washington and the Antoine Fuqua-directed film “The Equalizer.” Following his interview with both Washington and Fuqua, he nudged that he be quoted in the promotional materials and to his shock he was.
“As a critic you like to get that, so I asked if he would blurb me on this film,” he explained. “I was watching ‘Saturday Night Live’ a year ago and they went to the first commercial. I heard the commercial for ‘The Equalizer’ come on and then you heard the deep voice guys say ‘Denzel is better than he is on Training Day’ — something that my quote was.”
Williams continues to digest multiple films and dutifully craft quality pieces for Caribbean Life — something he hopes himself and future writers continue to do.
“I hope the paper continues to flourish and do the great job that it does,” he said.
