In­ward Hunger: The Sto­ry of Er­ic Williams is a pi­o­neer­ing doc­u­men­tary se­ries that re­veals Er­ic Williams in un­prece­dent­ed breadth and depth, in the con­text of the his­to­ry, so­ci­ety, re­gion and world that shaped him; the forces to which he at times suc­cumbed, and those he fought to change. Dr. Er­ic Eu­stace Williams is a com­plex and con­tro­ver­sial Caribbean fig­ure best known for lead­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go to In­de­pen­dence in 1962. This year, the 100th an­niver­sary of his birth, comes a new doc­u­men­tary se­ries that ex­plores the fas­ci­nat­ing per­son­al and po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry of the coun­try's first Prime Min­is­ter. In­ward Hunger: The Sto­ry of Er­ic Williams is a pro­duc­tion of SA­VANT Ltd, cre­ators of The Soli­tary Al­chemist and The In­sa­tiable Sea­son. This ground-break­ing doc­u­men­tary se­ries was di­rect­ed by Mariel Brown. On Re­pub­lic Day, Sep­tem­ber 24th, at 3:00pm, GISL Chan­nel 4 airs this 3-part se­ries on the com­pelling and con­tra­dic­to­ry life of an icon­ic Caribbean leader.

Hero and an­ti-hero, neme­sis and fa­ther-fig­ure, Er­ic Williams means dif­fer­ent things to dif­fer­ent peo­ple. Over more than 25 years as po­lit­i­cal leader, he came to sym­bol­ise both the hopes and dis­ap­point­ments of many West In­di­ans. Yet in many ways Williams was an enig­ma – a pub­lic fig­ure who re­mained vir­tu­al­ly un­known; an in­tense­ly pri­vate man. In­ward Hunger: The Sto­ry of Er­ic Williams is a com­pre­hen­sive and ground-break­ing doc­u­men­tary se­ries that takes us in­to the life of Er­ic Williams from his fam­i­ly and up­bring­ing, to his ex­pe­ri­ences as a top stu­dent in the British colo­nial ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem. We fol­low his ca­reer as a pro­fes­sor at Howard Uni­ver­si­ty and as an in­ter­na­tion­al civ­il ser­vant with the Caribbean Com­mis­sion - re­veal­ing the am­bi­tions and con­flicts that drove him in­to pol­i­tics. We as­sess Williams' role in the rise and fall of West In­di­an Fed­er­a­tion; feel the charis­ma and lead­er­ship that in­spired a na­tion­al move­ment, and the ac­com­plish­ments and chal­lenges of hold­ing po­lit­i­cal of­fice.

Af­ter In­de­pen­dence, we see how Williams dealt with chal­lenges from the wider so­ci­ety, like the Black Pow­er Move­ment of 1970, and rum­blings with­in the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment, the par­ty he helped cre­ate. We track the wealth, de­vel­op­ment and cor­rup­tion of the oil-boom years, fol­lowed by Williams' in­creas­ing with­draw­al, pri­vate ill­ness and dis­turb­ing death. This his­toric doc­u­men­tary se­ries takes an un­flinch­ing look at Williams' strengths and weak­ness­es, his dra­mat­ic show­downs and po­lit­i­cal mood swings. It al­so shows a per­haps un­ex­pect­ed side of Williams: as a man of great hu­mour, de­vot­ed friend­ships, in­tense loves and pri­vate heart­break - a man of lone­li­ness and long­ing, a fel­low hu­man be­ing.

In­ward Hunger: The Sto­ry of Er­ic Williams is an hon­est and re­veal­ing por­trait of a politi­cian, but al­so of the peo­ple, so­ci­ety, world and his­to­ry that shaped him and that he fought to change.

The se­ries in­cludes rare archival footage, as well as in­ter­views with his daugh­ter, Er­i­ca Williams-Con­nell and oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers, Williams' for­mer po­lit­i­cal col­leagues such as Ka­malud­din Mo­hammed and Fer­die Fer­reira, and schol­ars such as Prof. Sel­wyn Ryan, Prof. Col­in Palmer, Prof. Brins­ley Sama­roo and oth­ers. In­ward Hunger is a pro­duc­tion of SA­VANT Ltd, di­rect­ed by Mariel Brown; a project of First Cit­i­zens, in part­ner­ship with the Gov­ern­ment In­for­ma­tion Ser­vices Lim­it­ed (GISL), with ad­di­tion­al fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Film Com­pa­ny (TTFC). Email Mariel Brown at mariel@sa­vant­media.tv for more in­for­ma­tion, or call 222 0913.