Sam is a documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles.
She admires many things,
such as neat rocks, her dog, a good story, curious people, soft light filtering through and off of plants, and generally time spent in the outdoors — where she can engage with all of the above. This impetus to get out and about, to see and appreciate, is a throughline to her filmmaking.
As the world becomes increasingly isolated and divided, she is delighted by and drawn to the people and the communities that are the antithesis to society’s loneliness. In her filmmaking, this has brought Sam into the wonderful worlds of small restaurants, pickleball courts, college classrooms, and more.
Compassion, curiosity and care guide these characters of Sam’s films, as well as her own filmmaking practice.
Before finding documentary film to be her thing in this life, Sam spent five years in brand marketing within the technology sector, creating for campaigns for organizations like NerdWallet. The New School is the home that helped pivot her career in storytelling to one rooted in social change with documentary filmmaking — the best medium of our time for enacting impact. Recipient of the President Scholarship Award, Sam graduated in 2021 from The New School’s Documentary Media Studies graduate program.
Let’s make some art together.
In addition to her own independent documentary projects, Sam collaborates around the world on stories that inspire and empower social change and inclusion. She works with nonprofits, foundations, brands, and other independent folks as a creative partner in casting, producing, directing and editing.
Her collaborative work has explored universal basic income with mothers in Alabama, access to safe drinking water on an Indigenous reservation in Oregon’s high desert, affordable housing initiatives in San Francisco, the history of break dancing in Philly, and more.
She holds a BA in Global Studies from UCLA and is a proud member of the Documentary Producer’s Alliance.