A new film built around a Georgia courtroom case nearly a century old is coming to Williamsburg on Saturday, when EFFIE screens at the Kimball Theatre followed by a live conversation with the people who made it. The 6 p.m. showing tells the story of a Black woman accused and ultimately convicted of killing her husband through what the film frames as a deeply inequitable judicial process. It's set in rural Georgia and draws on a real case.
According to einpresswire.com, the screening runs from 6 to 8 p.m. at the historic Kimball Theatre and will be followed by a live audience conversation with filmmaker Bryan G. Thompson and writer and executive producer Ted Knight. That Q&A is billed as a chance to dig into the real-life case behind the film, sort out which story elements are drawn from actual events, and hear how those events were adapted for the screen, according to Williamsburg Families. The conversation is also expected to touch on the development of a related project, KINDNESS – The Effie Williams Story.
The film describes itself as an examination of the courage, compassion, and perseverance of people confronting a system that appears determined to deny them justice, per the same einpresswire.com account. Thompson, who is both a filmmaker and the founder of the Virginia Black Film Festival, said he wants audiences to walk away believing that hope, perseverance, and human decency can prevail in the face of injustice — a reminder he said people need in 2026 as much as they did in 1920.
A Real Georgia Case Behind the Script
The underlying case has a documented legal paper trail. A 1930 opinion in Williams v. State, reviewed via CourtListener, shows the matter originated as a murder indictment in Pulaski Superior Court that ended in a manslaughter conviction, which was ultimately affirmed on appeal. The same opinion noted that the evidence presented at trial was conflicting enough that the jury could have returned a verdict of murder, voluntary manslaughter, or justifiable homicide. The court record does not spell out every detail the film dramatizes, and the broader historical identity of Effie Williams beyond that opinion and the film's own description has not been independently verified.
Knight, who serves as EFFIE's writer and executive producer, framed the project in broader terms. He said the film is an American story that moves beyond race and politics, affirming that faith, dignity, truth, and the human spirit endure. Thompson's résumé backs up the scale of the undertaking: his directing career spans 13 feature films across multiple genres, according to einpresswire.com.
A Festival Founder With Regional Ties
Thompson's work in Williamsburg follows his role building up the Virginia Black Film Festival, which he founded. Per Hampton University, the festival's 2025 edition featured more than 60 films in competition and was presented in partnership with the City of Hampton and Hampton University. Proceeds from that year's festival supported scholarships for HBCU students through the Black Arts Foundation, the university noted.
Saturday's event at the Kimball Theatre stands on its own as a single screening paired with audience conversation, distinct from the festival circuit Thompson built in Hampton Roads. The evening pairs a film wrestling with a century-old injustice with a conversation in which the two people most responsible for bringing it to the screen answer questions about where the history ends and the dramatization begins.
