Dad stars in autism film

Mohammed Williams serves as the executive producer and lead actor for a new short film titled 'Love Zurri.' The project earned two Telly Awards, one for directing and one for social impact. The movie centers on a family raising a daughter with autism.

Williams based the narrative on his own household experiences. He stated that he created the film to address a gap in how autism stories are told. He noted that fathers are frequently excluded from these discussions.

"A lot of these stories when they're told, you never really see it from the dad's perspective. You always see it from the mom's perspective … the moms, they have like mom groups, they have all these support groups that I just didn't see for dads," Williams said.

The production included a sequence where Williams runs as his character, Zurri, appears to be missing. This moment mirrors an event from his real life. The emotional intensity of the scene required a pause in filming.

"That scene is exactly what happened and the tears that were coming up, it was just really me being back in that same space and the director Okima T. Moore had to actually pull me back and we had to stop production," Williams said.

Williams described his experience raising his daughter as a process of personal growth. He said he is learning patience and better listening skills from her. "I feel like I'm learning so much more from her than she is learning from me … I'm learning how to be patient, learning how to just like listen a little bit more," he said.

Zurri is now 10 years old and has seen the finished film. She was present on set during filming. "She thinks it's cool, you know, she was on set … yelling cut, yelling action … I feel like, you know, at some point Zurri might have a future in the arts. She's extremely creative," Williams said.