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Sam Pollard

Known For
Directing

Known Credits
2

Gender
Male

Birthday
April 20, 1945 (81 years old)

Place of Birth
Harlem, New York, USA

Sam Pollard

Biography

Samuel D. Pollard (born 20 April, 1945; Harlem) is an American documentary director, producer and editor. His films have garnered numerous awards such as Peabodys, Emmys, and an Academy Award nomination. In 2020, the International Documentary Association gave him a career achievement award. Spike Lee, whose films Pollard has edited and produced, described him as being "a master filmmaker." Henry Louis Gates Jr. characterizes his work in this way: "When I think about his documentaries, they add up to a corpus — a way of telling African-American history in its various dimensions."

Known For

Production

2026Full Circle: The First All Black Everest Ascent...Executive Producer
2026Natchez...Executive Producer
2025Teaching America...Executive Producer
2025The Perfect Neighbor...Executive Producer
2025This Is Not a Drill...Consulting Producer
2025Katrina: Come Hell and High Water...Executive Producer
2024Keeper...Executive Producer
2024Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys...Producer
2024Black Table...Executive Producer
2023Carlos...Producer
2023LIFT...Executive Producer
2023The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools...Producer
2023Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes...Producer
2022Outta the Muck...Executive Producer
2021Hold Your Fire...Consulting Producer
2021A Crime on the Bayou...Consulting Producer
2021Civil War (Or, Who Do We Think We Are)...Executive Producer
2021Black Art: In the Absence of Light...Producer
2021Tiger...Executive Producer
2020Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children...Executive Producer
2020D. Wade: Life Unexpected...Producer
2020Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance...Consulting Producer
2018Wrestle...Consulting Producer
2017Acorn and the Firestorm...Producer
2014Reel Herstory: The Real Story of Reel Women...Executive Producer
2010If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise...Producer
2003The Blues...Producer
2002The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow...Producer
2002Jim Brown: All-American...Co-Producer
2001The Making of 'Bamboozled'...Producer
19974 Little Girls...Producer
1993Goin' Back to T-Town...Producer

Directing

2026The Lorraine...Director
2026Tutu...Director
2025I Was Born This Way...Director
2024Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys...Director
2024Photographer...Director
2023South to Black Power...Director
2023The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools...Director
2023The League...Director
2023Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes...Director
2023Bill Russell: Legend...Director
2022Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power...Director
2022Rise and Rebuild: A Tale of Three Cities...Director
2022Hostages...Director
2021Citizen Ashe...Director
2021Black Art: In the Absence of Light...Director
2020MLK/FBI...Director
2020Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children...Director
2019Why We Hate...Director
2018Mr. SOUL!...Director
2017Maynard...Director
2017Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me...Director
2017Acorn and the Firestorm...Director
2017The Talk: Race in America...Director
2016Two Trains Runnin'...Director
2015August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand...Director
2012Slavery by Another Name...Director
2010Mr. Soul: Ellis Haizlip and the Birth of Black Power TV...Director
2009Chinatown Film Project...Director
2009Love That Movie...Director
2008Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun...Director
2008Marvin Gaye: What's Going On...Director
2006John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend...Director
2002The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow...Director
2001The Making of 'Bamboozled'...Director
1999Independent Lens...Director
1999I'll Make Me a World...Director
1993Goin' Back to T-Town...Director
1988American Experience...Director
1987Eyes on the Prize...Director
1986American Masters...Director
Counting The Ballots...Director
Murder in America: The Lynching of Emmett Till...Director
The Sound of Philadelphia...Director

Editing

2024Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys...Supervising Editor
2022The Picture Taker...Editorial Consultant
2013Remote Area Medical...Editor
2012Venus and Serena...Editor
2012Joe Papp in Five Acts...Editor
2010Gerrymandering...Editor
2010If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise...Editor
2009By the People: The Election of Barack Obama...Editor
2007Pete Seeger: The Power of Song...Editor
2007Lillie & Leander: A Legacy of Violence...Editorial Consultant
2006Inside Man...Additional Editing
2004Isn't This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal...Editor
2001The Chinatown Files...Consulting Editor
2000Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks...Editor
2000Bamboozled...Editor
19974 Little Girls...Editor
1996Girl 6...Editor
1995Clockers...Editor
1994Surviving the Game...Editor
1992Juice...Editor
1991Jungle Fever...Editor
1990Mo' Better Blues...Editor
1988A Vision Shared: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly...Editor
1987Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper...Editor
1985Private Resort...Editor
1984Style Wars...Editor
1983Metropolitan Cats...Editor
1981Body and Soul...Editor
1981Night of the Zombies...Editor
1981Forever Young...Editor
1981The Little Players...Editor
1973Ganja & Hess...Assistant Editor

Writing

2017Maynard...Writer
2017Acorn and the Firestorm...Writer
2009Love That Movie...Writer
2008Marvin Gaye: What's Going On...Writer
2002The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow...Writer
1987Eyes on the Prize...Writer

Acting

2023Subjectas Self
2014Style Wars In The Cutting Roomas Himself / Editor of Style Wars