A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Alias:
Samuel D. Pollard
Samuel Pollard
Birthplace:
Harlem, New York, USA
Born:
April 20, 1945
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."
Additional Editing:
2006 Inside Man
Co-Producer:
2002 Jim Brown: All-American
2006 Inside Man
Consulting Editor:
2001 The Chinatown Files
2002 Jim Brown: All-American
2006 Inside Man
Consulting Producer:
2001 The Chinatown Files
2002 Jim Brown: All-American
2006 Inside Man
2018 Wrestle
2020 Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance
2021 A Crime on the Bayou
2021 Hold Your Fire
Director:
1993 Goin' Back to T-Town
2001 The Chinatown Files
2001 The Making of 'Bamboozled'
2002 Jim Brown: All-American
2006 Inside Man
2006 John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend
2008 Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
2008 Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun
2009 Chinatown Film Project
2009 Love That Movie
2010 Mr. Soul: Ellis Haizlip and the Birth of Black Power TV
2012 Slavery by Another Name
2015 August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
2016 Two Trains Runnin'
2017 Acorn and the Firestorm
2017 Maynard
2017 Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
2017 The Talk: Race in America
2018 Mr. SOUL!
2018 Wrestle
2020 MLK/FBI
2020 Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance
2021 A Crime on the Bayou
2021 Black Art: In the Absence of Light
2021 Citizen Ashe
2021 Hold Your Fire
2022 Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power
2023 Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
2023 South to Black Power
2023 The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools
2023 The League
2024 Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys
???? Counting The Ballots
???? I Was Born This Way
???? Murder in America: The Lynching of Emmett Till
???? The Sound of Philadelphia
Editor:
1981 Body and Soul
1981 Forever Young
1981 Night of the Zombies
1981 The Little Players
1983 Metropolitan Cats
1984 Style Wars
1985 Private Resort
1987 Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper
1990 Mo' Better Blues
1991 Jungle Fever
1992 Juice
1993 Goin' Back to T-Town
1994 Surviving the Game
1995 Clockers
1996 Girl 6
1997 4 Little Girls
2000 Bamboozled
2000 Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks
2001 The Chinatown Files
2001 The Making of 'Bamboozled'
2002 Jim Brown: All-American
2004 Isn't This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal
2006 Inside Man
2006 John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend
2007 Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
2008 Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
2008 Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun
2009 By the People: The Election of Barack Obama
2009 Chinatown Film Project
2009 Love That Movie
2010 Gerrymandering
2010 Mr. Soul: Ellis Haizlip and the Birth of Black Power TV
2012 Joe Papp in Five Acts
2012 Slavery by Another Name
2012 Venus and Serena
2013 Remote Area Medical
2015 August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
2016 Two Trains Runnin'
2017 Acorn and the Firestorm
2017 Maynard
2017 Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
2017 The Talk: Race in America
2018 Mr. SOUL!
2018 Wrestle
2020 MLK/FBI
2020 Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance
2021 A Crime on the Bayou
2021 Black Art: In the Absence of Light
2021 Citizen Ashe
2021 Hold Your Fire
2022 Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power
2023 Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
2023 South to Black Power
2023 The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools
2023 The League
2024 Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys
???? Counting The Ballots
???? I Was Born This Way
???? Murder in America: The Lynching of Emmett Till
???? The Sound of Philadelphia
Editorial Consultant:
1981 Body and Soul
1981 Forever Young
1981 Night of the Zombies
1981 The Little Players
1983 Metropolitan Cats
1984 Style Wars
1985 Private Resort
1987 Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper
1990 Mo' Better Blues
1991 Jungle Fever
1992 Juice
1993 Goin' Back to T-Town
1994 Surviving the Game
1995 Clockers
1996 Girl 6
1997 4 Little Girls
2000 Bamboozled
2000 Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks
2001 The Chinatown Files
2001 The Making of 'Bamboozled'
2002 Jim Brown: All-American
2004 Isn't This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal
2006 Inside Man
2006 John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend
2007 Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
2008 Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
2008 Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun
2009 By the People: The Election of Barack Obama
2009 Chinatown Film Project
2009 Love That Movie
2010 Gerrymandering
2010 Mr. Soul: Ellis Haizlip and the Birth of Black Power TV
2012 Joe Papp in Five Acts
2012 Slavery by Another Name
2012 Venus and Serena
2013 Remote Area Medical
2015 August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
2016 Two Trains Runnin'
2017 Acorn and the Firestorm
2017 Maynard
2017 Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
2017 The Talk: Race in America
2018 Mr. SOUL!
2018 Wrestle
2020 MLK/FBI
2020 Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance
2021 A Crime on the Bayou
2021 Black Art: In the Absence of Light
2021 Citizen Ashe
2021 Hold Your Fire
2022 Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power
2022 The Picture Taker
2023 Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
2023 South to Black Power
2023 The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools
2023 The League
2024 Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys
???? Counting The Ballots
???? I Was Born This Way
???? Murder in America: The Lynching of Emmett Till
???? The Sound of Philadelphia
Executive Producer:
1981 Body and Soul
1981 Forever Young
1981 Night of the Zombies
1981 The Little Players
1983 Metropolitan Cats
1984 Style Wars
1985 Private Resort
1987 Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper
1990 Mo' Better Blues
1991 Jungle Fever
1992 Juice
1993 Goin' Back to T-Town
1994 Surviving the Game
1995 Clockers
1996 Girl 6
1997 4 Little Girls
2000 Bamboozled
2000 Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks
2001 The Chinatown Files
2001 The Making of 'Bamboozled'
2002 Jim Brown: All-American
2004 Isn't This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal
2006 Inside Man
2006 John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend
2007 Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
2008 Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
2008 Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun
2009 By the People: The Election of Barack Obama
2009 Chinatown Film Project
2009 Love That Movie
2010 Gerrymandering
2010 Mr. Soul: Ellis Haizlip and the Birth of Black Power TV
2012 Joe Papp in Five Acts
2012 Slavery by Another Name
2012 Venus and Serena
2013 Remote Area Medical
2014 Reel Herstory: The Real Story of Reel Women
2015 August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
2016 Two Trains Runnin'
2017 Acorn and the Firestorm
2017 Maynard
2017 Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
2017 The Talk: Race in America
2018 Mr. SOUL!
2018 Wrestle
2020 MLK/FBI
2020 Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance
2021 A Crime on the Bayou
2021 Black Art: In the Absence of Light
2021 Citizen Ashe
2021 Civil War (Or, Who Do We Think We Are)
2021 Hold Your Fire
2022 Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power
2022 Outta the Muck
2022 The Picture Taker
2023 Lift
2023 Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
2023 South to Black Power
2023 The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools
2023 The League
2024 Black Table
2024 Keeper
2024 Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys
2025 The Perfect Neighbor
???? Counting The Ballots
???? I Was Born This Way
???? Murder in America: The Lynching of Emmett Till
???? The Sound of Philadelphia
Producer:
1981 Body and Soul
1981 Forever Young
1981 Night of the Zombies
1981 The Little Players
1983 Metropolitan Cats
1984 Style Wars
1985 Private Resort
1987 Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper
1990 Mo' Better Blues
1991 Jungle Fever
1992 Juice
1993 Goin' Back to T-Town
1994 Surviving the Game
1995 Clockers
1996 Girl 6
1997 4 Little Girls
2000 Bamboozled
2000 Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks
2001 The Chinatown Files
2001 The Making of 'Bamboozled'
2002 Jim Brown: All-American
2004 Isn't This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal
2006 Inside Man
2006 John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend
2007 Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
2008 Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
2008 Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun
2009 By the People: The Election of Barack Obama
2009 Chinatown Film Project
2009 Love That Movie
2010 Gerrymandering
2010 Mr. Soul: Ellis Haizlip and the Birth of Black Power TV
2012 Joe Papp in Five Acts
2012 Slavery by Another Name
2012 Venus and Serena
2013 Remote Area Medical
2014 Reel Herstory: The Real Story of Reel Women
2015 August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
2016 Two Trains Runnin'
2017 Acorn and the Firestorm
2017 Maynard
2017 Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
2017 The Talk: Race in America
2018 Mr. SOUL!
2018 Wrestle
2020 D. Wade: Life Unexpected
2020 MLK/FBI
2020 Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance
2021 A Crime on the Bayou
2021 Black Art: In the Absence of Light
2021 Citizen Ashe
2021 Civil War (Or, Who Do We Think We Are)
2021 Hold Your Fire
2022 Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power
2022 Outta the Muck
2022 The Picture Taker
2023 Carlos
2023 Lift
2023 Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
2023 South to Black Power
2023 The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools
2023 The League
2024 Black Table
2024 Keeper
2024 Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys
2025 The Perfect Neighbor
???? Counting The Ballots
???? I Was Born This Way
???? Murder in America: The Lynching of Emmett Till
???? The Sound of Philadelphia
Supervising Editor:
1981 Body and Soul
1981 Forever Young
1981 Night of the Zombies
1981 The Little Players
1983 Metropolitan Cats
1984 Style Wars
1985 Private Resort
1987 Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper
1990 Mo' Better Blues
1991 Jungle Fever
1992 Juice
1993 Goin' Back to T-Town
1994 Surviving the Game
1995 Clockers
1996 Girl 6
1997 4 Little Girls
2000 Bamboozled
2000 Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks
2001 The Chinatown Files
2001 The Making of 'Bamboozled'
2002 Jim Brown: All-American
2004 Isn't This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal
2006 Inside Man
2006 John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend
2007 Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
2008 Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
2008 Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun
2009 By the People: The Election of Barack Obama
2009 Chinatown Film Project
2009 Love That Movie
2010 Gerrymandering
2010 Mr. Soul: Ellis Haizlip and the Birth of Black Power TV
2012 Joe Papp in Five Acts
2012 Slavery by Another Name
2012 Venus and Serena
2013 Remote Area Medical
2014 Reel Herstory: The Real Story of Reel Women
2015 August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
2016 Two Trains Runnin'
2017 Acorn and the Firestorm
2017 Maynard
2017 Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
2017 The Talk: Race in America
2018 Mr. SOUL!
2018 Wrestle
2020 D. Wade: Life Unexpected
2020 MLK/FBI
2020 Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance
2021 A Crime on the Bayou
2021 Black Art: In the Absence of Light
2021 Citizen Ashe
2021 Civil War (Or, Who Do We Think We Are)
2021 Hold Your Fire
2022 Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power
2022 Outta the Muck
2022 The Picture Taker
2023 Carlos
2023 Lift
2023 Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
2023 South to Black Power
2023 The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools
2023 The League
2024 Black Table
2024 Keeper
2024 Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys
2025 The Perfect Neighbor
???? Counting The Ballots
???? I Was Born This Way
???? Murder in America: The Lynching of Emmett Till
???? The Sound of Philadelphia
Writer:
1981 Body and Soul
1981 Forever Young
1981 Night of the Zombies
1981 The Little Players
1983 Metropolitan Cats
1984 Style Wars
1985 Private Resort
1987 Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper
1990 Mo' Better Blues
1991 Jungle Fever
1992 Juice
1993 Goin' Back to T-Town
1994 Surviving the Game
1995 Clockers
1996 Girl 6
1997 4 Little Girls
2000 Bamboozled
2000 Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks
2001 The Chinatown Files
2001 The Making of 'Bamboozled'
2002 Jim Brown: All-American
2004 Isn't This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal
2006 Inside Man
2006 John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend
2007 Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
2008 Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
2008 Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun
2009 By the People: The Election of Barack Obama
2009 Chinatown Film Project
2009 Love That Movie
2010 Gerrymandering
2010 Mr. Soul: Ellis Haizlip and the Birth of Black Power TV
2012 Joe Papp in Five Acts
2012 Slavery by Another Name
2012 Venus and Serena
2013 Remote Area Medical
2014 Reel Herstory: The Real Story of Reel Women
2015 August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
2016 Two Trains Runnin'
2017 Acorn and the Firestorm
2017 Maynard
2017 Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
2017 The Talk: Race in America
2018 Mr. SOUL!
2018 Wrestle
2020 D. Wade: Life Unexpected
2020 MLK/FBI
2020 Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance
2021 A Crime on the Bayou
2021 Black Art: In the Absence of Light
2021 Citizen Ashe
2021 Civil War (Or, Who Do We Think We Are)
2021 Hold Your Fire
2022 Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power
2022 Outta the Muck
2022 The Picture Taker
2023 Carlos
2023 Lift
2023 Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
2023 South to Black Power
2023 The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools
2023 The League
2024 Black Table
2024 Keeper
2024 Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys
2025 The Perfect Neighbor
???? Counting The Ballots
???? I Was Born This Way
???? Murder in America: The Lynching of Emmett Till
???? The Sound of Philadelphia
Director:
1986 American Masters
1987 Eyes on the Prize
1988 American Experience
1999 I'll Make Me a World
1999 Independent Lens
2002 The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
2019 Why We Hate
2020 Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children
2022 Hostages
2023 Bill Russell: Legend
2024 Photographer
Editor:
1986 American Masters
1987 Eyes on the Prize
1988 American Experience
1999 I'll Make Me a World
1999 Independent Lens
2002 The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
2010 If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise
2019 Why We Hate
2020 Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children
2022 Hostages
2023 Bill Russell: Legend
2024 Photographer
Executive Producer:
1986 American Masters
1987 Eyes on the Prize
1988 American Experience
1999 I'll Make Me a World
1999 Independent Lens
2002 The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
2010 If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise
2019 Why We Hate
2020 Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children
2021 Tiger
2022 Hostages
2023 Bill Russell: Legend
2024 Photographer
???? Katrina: Come Hell and High Water
Producer:
1986 American Masters
1987 Eyes on the Prize
1988 American Experience
1999 I'll Make Me a World
1999 Independent Lens
2002 The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
2003 The Blues
2010 If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise
2019 Why We Hate
2020 Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children
2021 Tiger
2022 Hostages
2023 Bill Russell: Legend
2024 Photographer
???? Katrina: Come Hell and High Water
Writer:
1986 American Masters
1987 Eyes on the Prize
1988 American Experience
1999 I'll Make Me a World
1999 Independent Lens
2002 The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
2003 The Blues
2010 If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise
2019 Why We Hate
2020 Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children
2021 Tiger
2022 Hostages
2023 Bill Russell: Legend
2024 Photographer
???? Katrina: Come Hell and High Water
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.