Sam Pollard is an accomplished feature film and television video editor, and documentary producer/director whose work spans almost thirty years. His first assignment as a documentary producer came in 1989 for Henry Hampton's Blackside production "Eyes On The Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads." For one of his episodes in this series, he received an Emmy.
Eight years later, he returned to Blackside as Co-Executive Producer/Producer of Hampton's last documentary series "I'll Make Me A World: Stories of African-American Artists and Community." For the series, Mr. Pollard received The George Peabody Award.
Between 1990 and 2010, Mr. Pollard edited a number of Spike Lee's films: "Mo' Better Blues," "Jungle Fever," "Girl 6," "Clockers," and "Bamboozled." Mr. Pollard and Mr. Lee co-produced a number of documentary productions for the small and big screen: "Spike Lee Presents Mike Tyson," a biographical sketch for HBO for which Mr. Pollard received an Emmy.
"Four Little Girls," a feature-length documentary about the 1963 Birmingham church bombings was nominated for an Academy Award and "When The Levees Broke," a four part documentary won numerous awards, including a Peabody and three Emmy Awards.
Five years later in 2010, he co-produced and supervised the edit on the follow up to Levees, "If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise." Since 2012, Mr. Pollard has completed as a producer/director "Slavery By Another Name "a 90-minute documentary for PBS that was in competition at the Sundance Festival, "August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand" a 90-minute documentary in 2015 for American Masters, "Two Trains Runnin’" a feature length documentary in 2016 that premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival also in 2017 "The Talk: Race in America" for PBS and CPB. His latest film "Sammy Davis Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me" for American Masters premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.