Sam Pollard

Nascimento : , Harlem, New York, USA

História

Samuel D. Pollard is an American film director, editor, producer, and screenwriter. 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.”

Filmes

South to Black Power
Director
In his provocative 2021 book, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto, New York Times opinion columnist Charles M. Blow calls for a “reverse Great Migration” of African Americans from the North back to the South to upend today’s political power structures while reclaiming the land and culture they left behind. South to Black Power does more than illustrate Blow’s enlightening ideas; we journey through Blow’s personal story, from his childhood in Louisiana to his role as father to young adult children in New York City, showing us the hard-won truths behind his vision for the future.
Lift
Executive Producer
Lift shines a spotlight on the invisible story of homelessness in America through the eyes of a group of young homeless and home-insecure ballet dancers in New York City and the mentor that inspires them.
Carlos
Producer
Follows Santana's journey from 14-year-old street musician to a 10-time Grammy winning global sensation. Features unseen archival footage and tracks.
Subject
Self
Unpacks the ethics and responsibility inherent in documentary filmmaking by examining well-known documentaries of the past decade, and revealing the impact their commercial success has had on the lives of the onscreen subjects.
Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power
Director
Through first person accounts and searing archival footage, this documentary tells the story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights, but for Black Power in Lowndes County, Alabama.
The Picture Taker
Editorial Consultant
From his Memphis studio, Ernest Withers’ nearly 2 million images were a treasured record of Black history but his legacy was complicated by decades of secret FBI service revealed only after his death. Was he a friend of the civil rights community, or enemy—or both?
Outta the Muck
Executive Producer
Family, football and history come to life in an intimate portrait of the Dean family, longtime residents of the historic town of Pahokee, Florida. We take a journey back home, with filmmaker Ira McKinley, to the land of sugarcane, as he reconnects with his niece Bridget and nephew Alvin and explores their shared family history that spans seven generations. Told through stories that transcend space and time, Outta The Muck presents a community, and a family, that resists despair with love, remaining fiercely self-determined, while forging its own unique narrative of Black achievement.
Cidadão Ashe
Director
Dos aclamados diretores Rex Miller e Sam Pollard. este documentário impactante retrata o legado do grande tenista e célebre apoiador de causas sociais Arhur Ashe.
Hold Your Fire
Consulting Producer
Brooklyn, 1972. Shu'aib Raheem tentou roubar armas para autodefesa, iniciando o mais longo cerco de reféns na história do NYPD. O psicólogo da polícia de Nova York, Harvey Schlossberg, lutou para reformar o uso da violência pela polícia e salvar vidas usando palavras, não armas.
A Crime on the Bayou
Consulting Producer
A Crime on the Bayou is the story of Gary Duncan, a Black teenager from Plaquemines Parish, a swampy strip of land south of New Orleans. In 1966, Duncan tries to break up an argument between white and Black teenagers outside a newly integrated school. He gently lays his hand on a white boy’s arm. The boy recoils like a snake. That night, police burst into Duncan’s trailer and arrest him for assault on a minor. A young Jewish attorney, Richard Sobol, leaves his prestigious D.C. firm to volunteer in New Orleans. With his help, Duncan bravely stands up to a racist legal system powered by a white supremacist boss to challenge his unfair arrest. Their fight goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and their lifelong friendship is forged.
Civil War (Or, Who Do We Think We Are)
Executive Producer
A journey across the United States to explore the story of the Civil War of Americans from President Obama's final year in office through the present.
Arte Negra - Na Ausência da Luz
Producer
Black Art: In the Absence of Light é um documentário americano de 2021, dirigido e produzido por Sam Pollard. O filme segue vários artistas afro-americanos e suas contribuições para o mundo da arte.
Arte Negra - Na Ausência da Luz
Director
Black Art: In the Absence of Light é um documentário americano de 2021, dirigido e produzido por Sam Pollard. O filme segue vários artistas afro-americanos e suas contribuições para o mundo da arte.
MLK/FBI
Director
Based on newly declassified files, the film explores the US government’s surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr.
D. Wade: Life Unexpected
Producer
Por uma década, Dwyane Wade documentou intimamente sua vida e carreira com uma equipe de filmagem. O resultado é um retrato notavelmente sincero de um dos maiores jogadores da NBA de todos os tempos.
Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance
Consulting Producer
The historical ties between Black and Jewish Americans began long before the Civil Rights era. Shared Legacies explores this significant alliance, sharing eyewitness accounts, interviews with civil rights leaders, including the late U.S. Representative John Lewis, and a treasure trove of archival footage. The film is a tribute to the pursuit of what Dr. King called a "coalition of conscience" and a celebration of partnership, as well as an urgent call to action for today.
Mr. SOUL!
Director
On the heels of the Civil Rights Movement, one fearless black pioneer reconceived a Harlem Renaissance for a new era, ushering giants and rising stars of black American culture onto the national television stage. He was hip. He was smart. He was innovative, political, and gay. In his personal fight for social equality, this man ensured the Revolution would be televised. The man was Ellis Haizlip. The Revolution was soul!
Maynard
Writer
Director Sam Pollard constructs a portrait of charismatic trailblazer Maynard Jackson, who became Atlanta’s first black mayor in 1973. The son of pastors raised in the segregated South, Jackson entered college at 14 and took office at 35. During his three-term tenure, he led the city through the traumatic Atlanta child murders scare and triumphantly hosted the 1996 Olympics, all while championing racial equality. Family and colleagues, including Bill Clinton, Andrew Young and Al Sharpton, tell the epic story of a dynamic leader and his legacy of honor and progress.
Maynard
Director
Director Sam Pollard constructs a portrait of charismatic trailblazer Maynard Jackson, who became Atlanta’s first black mayor in 1973. The son of pastors raised in the segregated South, Jackson entered college at 14 and took office at 35. During his three-term tenure, he led the city through the traumatic Atlanta child murders scare and triumphantly hosted the 1996 Olympics, all while championing racial equality. Family and colleagues, including Bill Clinton, Andrew Young and Al Sharpton, tell the epic story of a dynamic leader and his legacy of honor and progress.
Wrestle
Consulting Producer
Jamario, Jaquan, Jailen, and Teague are teammates on the J.O. Johnson High School wrestling team in Huntsville, Alabama. Led by their passionate coach, they are trying to qualify for the State Championships but the pressures outside of the ring – emotional breakdowns, racial profiling by the police, teenage pregnancy – are mounting for each of the young men.
Acorn and the Firestorm
Writer
For 40 years, the community-organizing group ACORN advocated for America’s poorest communities, while its detractors accused it of promoting the worst of liberal policies. Riding high on the momentum of Barack Obama’s presidential victory in 2008, ACORN was at its political zenith when a hidden-camera video sparked a national scandal and brought it crashing down. The story involves voter fraud, a fake prostitute, and the rise of Breitbart.com.
Acorn and the Firestorm
Producer
For 40 years, the community-organizing group ACORN advocated for America’s poorest communities, while its detractors accused it of promoting the worst of liberal policies. Riding high on the momentum of Barack Obama’s presidential victory in 2008, ACORN was at its political zenith when a hidden-camera video sparked a national scandal and brought it crashing down. The story involves voter fraud, a fake prostitute, and the rise of Breitbart.com.
Acorn and the Firestorm
Director
For 40 years, the community-organizing group ACORN advocated for America’s poorest communities, while its detractors accused it of promoting the worst of liberal policies. Riding high on the momentum of Barack Obama’s presidential victory in 2008, ACORN was at its political zenith when a hidden-camera video sparked a national scandal and brought it crashing down. The story involves voter fraud, a fake prostitute, and the rise of Breitbart.com.
Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
Director
A star-studded roster of interviewees (including Jerry Lewis, Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal) pay tribute to the legendary, multi-talented song-and-dance man.
The Talk: Race in America
Director
Documentary about the increasingly necessary conversation taking place in homes and communities across the country between parents of color and their children, especially sons, about how to behave if they are ever stopped by the police.
Two Trains Runnin'
Director
The search of several young, white men for blues singers who have been missing for decades coincides with the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi in the 1960s.
August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
Director
Unprecedented access to Wilson’s theatrical archives, rarely seen interviews and new dramatic readings bring to life his seminal 10-play cycle chronicling a century of African-American life. Wilson won two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama.
Reel Herstory: The Real Story of Reel Women
Executive Producer
Using rare footage and exclusive interviews with filmmakers from all over the globe, "Reel Herstory" corrects the historic notion that women behind the scenes in motion pictures held peripheral careers compared with their male counterparts.
Remote Area Medical
Editor
Amid the nation’s ongoing debate over health care reform, this bracing new documentary examines the everyday realities of Americans who lack access to affordable medical treatment. Filmed during three days in the operation of a “no-cost” clinic set up annually at Bristol, Tennessee’s NASCAR speedway, Remote Area Medical documents the range of medical care the eponymous organization provides to low-income patients in the heart of Appalachia.
Venus and Serena
Editor
Venus and Serena takes an honest and unfiltered look into the remarkable lives of sisters and tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams. Through the prism of one year in their lives, the film tells the untold story of how these two great stars came to be and how they struggle to stay on top.
Joe Papp in Five Acts
Editor
Joe Papp, the founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival and, subsequently, The Public Theater—arguably the most important theatre in North America—is profiled in this documentary that neither sanctifies nor vilifies him. He brought us free Shakespeare in the Park, Hair and A Chorus Line, and nurtured many of America’s greatest playwrights, directors and actors. His complex personality and mercurial behavior are much in evidence and spoken of with frankness through interviews with some of America’s most celebrated artists, including Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Kevin Kline, and James Earl Jones.
Slavery by Another Name
Director
A documentary that recounts the many ways in which American slavery persisted as a practice many decades after its supposed abolition.
Gerrymandering
Editor
Gerrymandering is a 2010 documentary feature film written and directed by Jeff Reichert. The film explores the history and the ethical, moral and racial problems raised by redistricting, i.e., the drawing of boundaries of electoral districts in the United States.Gerrymandering covers the history of the redistricting practice, how it is used and abused, how it benefits the two major major political parties, Democrats and Republicans. The documentary draws on the perspectives from different individuals, reporters, pundits and politicians.
Chinatown Film Project
Director
Chinatown is an evocative place. It exists in our cities, in our imaginations, on our television screens, and in our memories. It is at once a sprawling, vibrant immigrant community and a forgotten strip mall of buffet restaurants.
Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun
Director
Zora Neale Hurston, path-breaking novelist, pioneering anthropologist and one of the first black women to enter the American literary canon (Their Eyes Were Watching God), established the African American vernacular as one of the most vital, inventive voices in American literature. This definitive film biography, eighteen years in the making, portrays Zora in all her complexity: gifted, flamboyant, and controversial but always fiercely original.
Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
Director
When Marvin Gaye died in 1984, he left behind one of the great legacies in American music. More than a superb vocalist and subtle composer, he was a visionary who expressed the tenor of his times. Both radical and romantic, a self-taught singer with a flair for autobiographical revelation, he thrived on confession and loved candor.
Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
Writer
When Marvin Gaye died in 1984, he left behind one of the great legacies in American music. More than a superb vocalist and subtle composer, he was a visionary who expressed the tenor of his times. Both radical and romantic, a self-taught singer with a flair for autobiographical revelation, he thrived on confession and loved candor.
Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
Editor
Interviews, archival footage and home movies are used to illustrate a social history of folk artists Pete Seeger.
John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend
Director
John Ford and John Wayne — a friendship and professional collaboration that spanned 50 years, changed each others’ lives, changed the movies, and in the process, changed the way America saw itself. It was a relationship that reflected all the elements and all the paradoxes of 20th century America — generosity of spirit, abuse of power, a sense of loyalty, and a restless nationalism that didn’t quite know what to do with itself.
O Plano Perfeito
Additional Editing
Assaltantes vestidos com uniformes de pintor invadem um movimentado banco em Nova York e fazem reféns. A polícia chega ao local esperando resolver a situação rapidamente, mas os detetives Frazier e Mitchell se surpreendem com a inteligência e a frieza do líder dos bandidos, Dalton Russell, que parece estar sempre um passo à frente das ações da polícia.
Isn't This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal
Editor
In September of 2004 at the Toronto Film Festival, the Weavers sang together for possibly the last time.
Jim Brown: All-American
Co-Producer
Jim Brown: All-American is a 2002 documentary film directed by Spike Lee. The film takes a look at the life of NFL hall-of-famer Jim Brown. The film delves into his life—past, present and future—focusing on his athletic career, acting and activism. Many people from Hollywood and sports backgrounds were interviewed for the film. Members of Brown's family were also interviewed for the film.
The Chinatown Files
Consulting Editor
This documentary brings to the public, for the first time, a story that was classified as secret by the US government for over four decades. Exploring the roots and legacy of the Cold War on the Chinese American community during the 1950s and the 1960s, it presents first hand accounts of seven men and women's experiences of being hunted down, jailed and targeted for deportation in America.
The Making of 'Bamboozled'
Producer
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Spike Lee's satirical take on the American entertainment industry.
The Making of 'Bamboozled'
Director
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Spike Lee's satirical take on the American entertainment industry.
Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks
Editor
An intimate look at the life and career of Gordon Parks a true Renaissance man who has excelled as a photographer, novelist, journalist, poet, musician and filmmaker.
A Hora do Show
Editor
Executivo negro de rede de televisão, formado em Harvard, fica frustrado quando sua ideia para um programa de humor inteligente é rejeitada e cria um outro programa, racista e primário, para se vingar. Só que o programa é aprovado e vira sucesso.
Quatro Meninas: Uma História Real
Producer
Documentário que relembra um dos piores crimes raciais da história americana. Em pleno apogeu dos movimentos por direitos civis, uma bomba explode em uma igreja do Alabama matando quatro meninas negras.
Quatro Meninas: Uma História Real
Editor
Documentário que relembra um dos piores crimes raciais da história americana. Em pleno apogeu dos movimentos por direitos civis, uma bomba explode em uma igreja do Alabama matando quatro meninas negras.
Garota 6
Editor
A struggling actress in New York City takes a job as a phone sex operator.
Irmãos de Sangue
Editor
Agente que carrega drogas para traficantes é acusado por crime que não cometeu. O irmão, rapaz honesto, confessa o crime. Dois policiais estão encarregados da investigação: um está interessado em uma captura fácil; o outro não descansará enquanto não encontrar o verdadeiro culpado.
Sobrevivendo ao Jogo
Editor
Mason é um morador de rua que tenta suicídio após perder seu velho amigo Hawkins. Cole, um voluntário na missão da rua 7, o salva e lhe oferece uma oportunidade de emprego como guia de sobrevivência em caçadas na floresta. Cole, Burns, Griffin, Wolfe e seu filho Derik chegam ao lugar chamado "Garganta do Inferno", onde o maior pesadelo de Mason começa. Na manhã seguinte, o jogo se inicia e Mason percebe que ele é a caça! Sua única alternativa é correr e tentar sobreviver, pois a sede de caçar destes homens é insaciável.
Goin' Back to T-Town
Producer
Goin’ Back to T-Town tells the story of Greenwood, an extraordinary Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that prospered during the 1920s and 30s despite rampant and hostile segregation. Torn apart in 1921 by one of the worst racially-motivated massacres in the nation’s history, the neighborhood rose from the ashes, and by 1936 boasted the largest concentration of Black-owned businesses in the U.S., known as “Black Wall Street.” Ironically, it could not survive the progressive policies of integration and urban renewal of the 1960s. Told through the memories of those who lived through the events, the film is a bittersweet celebration of small-town life and the resilience of a community’s spirit.
Goin' Back to T-Town
Director
Goin’ Back to T-Town tells the story of Greenwood, an extraordinary Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that prospered during the 1920s and 30s despite rampant and hostile segregation. Torn apart in 1921 by one of the worst racially-motivated massacres in the nation’s history, the neighborhood rose from the ashes, and by 1936 boasted the largest concentration of Black-owned businesses in the U.S., known as “Black Wall Street.” Ironically, it could not survive the progressive policies of integration and urban renewal of the 1960s. Told through the memories of those who lived through the events, the film is a bittersweet celebration of small-town life and the resilience of a community’s spirit.
Uma Questão de Respeito
Editor
Quatro rapazes do Harlem ensaiam para participar de concurso de música. Mas o talento e o esforço do grupo não bastam. Eles também têm de enfrentar os perigos de uma vizinhança violenta e a discriminação e os percalços cotidianos que ameaçam levá-los para atrás das grades. Menos
Febre da Selva
Editor
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.
Mais e Melhores Blues
Editor
Ainda muito jovem, o pequeno Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) era forçado pelos pais a estudar trompete, o que não lhe deixava tempo nenhum para ser criança e brincar com os amigos. Os anos se passaram e finalmente Bleek realiza o sonho de seus pais, tornando-se trompetista profissional. Mas uma forte rivalidade com o saxofonista Shadow Henderson (Wesley Snipes), parece crescer a cada dia, assumindo proporções catastróficas. E, além disso, o estranho Giant (Spike Lee), amigo e empresário de Bleek, é viciado em jogo, causando sérios problemas para todos os músicos da banda.
Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper
Editor
One in a series of 13 documentaries on renowned American poets produced by the New York Center for Visual History. Described by director St. Clair Bourne as “a narrative performance documentary,” this category-defiant film on the life of poet and writer Hughes and the times in which he lived and worked moves from America to Senegal to Paris, from the 1920s Harlem Renaissance to the Black Pride awakening of the 1960s.
Férias do Barulho
Editor
Jack (Johnny Depp) e seu amigo Ben (Rob Morrow) vão para um hotel na Flórida planejando passar cada minuto de sua estadia procurando por lindas garotas. Mas seus planos vão por água abaixo quando eles tentam seduzir a mulher de um ladrão de jóias. Eles vão ter que ser mais espertos do que ele, de um cruel segurança e de um repulsivo escocês se quiserem passar um tempo a sós com as garotas de seus sonhos!
Style Wars
Editor
Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant's PBS documentary tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Body and Soul
Editor
A young man struggles to become a boxing champ, but success blinds him. It is only through the love of his girlfriend that he is brought back to reality.
Night of the Zombies
Editor
Investigators search for soldiers' missing bodies, and hear unbelievable rumors about zombies. Dismissing those rumors they set out to investigate. After two men are found dead, CIA special-agent Nick Monroe is sent to flush out what are suspected to be deserters from the old U.S. Army Chemical Corps unit. Not to be confused with the 1980 Italian film of the same name (in USA).
Biography: Ol’ Dirty Bastard
Co-Director
Biography: Ol’ Dirty Bastard presents viewers with the untold story of the man and the musician who made an immense cultural impact across just a few short years. Having gained exclusive rights to a never-before-seen personal archive shot by his wife alongside access to his closest friends and family, the doc is described by the filmmakers as a culture-defining special that humanizes ODB as a man, a father and a husband like never before.