Sam Pollard

Director · Born April 20, 1945 · Harlem, New York, USA

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."

Directed 33

2020s

2026
Tutu
Director
The Lorraine
Director
2025
I Was Born This Way
Director
2024
Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys
Director
Photographer
Director
2023
South to Black Power
Director
The League
Director
Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
Director
Bill Russell: Legend
Director
76
2022
Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power
Director
Hostages
Director
2021
Citizen Ashe
Director
Black Art: In the Absence of Light
Director
76
2020
MLK/FBI
Director
Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children
Director
70

2010s

2019
Why We Hate
Director
2018
Mr. SOUL!
Director
2017
Maynard
Director
Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
Director
Acorn and the Firestorm
Director
The Talk: Race in America
Director
2016
Two Trains Runnin'
Director
2015
August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
Director
2012
Slavery by Another Name
Director

2000s

2008
Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun
Director
2006
John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend
Director
2002
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
Director
2001
The Making of 'Bamboozled'
Director

1990s

1999
Independent Lens
Director
75
1993
Goin' Back to T-Town
Director

1980s

Produced 34

2020s

2026
Crime and Punishment in America
Executive Producer
Full Circle: The First All Black Everest Ascent
Executive Producer
Water Cooler
Executive Producer
Natchez
Executive Producer
2025
Teaching America
Executive Producer
The Perfect Neighbor
Executive Producer
79
This Is Not a Drill
Consulting Producer
Katrina: Come Hell and High Water
Executive Producer
69
2024
Keeper
Executive Producer
Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys
Producer
Black Table
Executive Producer
2023
Carlos
Producer
79
LIFT
Executive Producer
Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
Producer
2022
Hostages
Producer
Outta the Muck
Executive Producer
2021
Hold Your Fire
Consulting Producer
A Crime on the Bayou
Consulting Producer
Civil War (Or, Who Do We Think We Are)
Executive Producer
Black Art: In the Absence of Light
Producer
76
Tiger
Executive Producer
74
2020
Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children
Executive Producer
70
D. Wade: Life Unexpected
Producer
71
Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance
Consulting Producer