The Joshua Johnson Council presents a conversation with award-winning filmmaker, editor, and producer Sam Pollard. Pollard will share insights into his storied career in film and documentary, which has included projects like Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes (2023) and August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand (2015).

This virtual conversation will be livestreamed on the BMA’s Facebook and YouTube pages.

About the Artist

Sam Pollard is an accomplished feature film and television video editor, and documentary producer/director. He recently partnered with his long-time collaborators Geeta Gandbhir and Alisa Payne to form a new film production company, Message Pictures. The company’s mission is to amplify quiet voices, throw light in the shadows, and share stories that dare to be told.

In December 2022 Peacock began streaming Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, a film Pollard co-directed with Gandbhir, which tells the story of the courageous campaign of citizens and activists who faced violence and oppression in the struggle for the right to vote.

Pollard’s two-part documentary, Bill Russell: Legend, about legendary Boston Celtic and civil rights icon premiered on Netflix on February 8.

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes, a film that Pollard co-directed with Ben Shapiro, had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on March 12. The film follows Roach across a rich and complicated life and epic musical journey—from the revolutionary Jazz of the 1940s to the Civil Rights years.

South to Black Power, inspired by The New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s book, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto, was co-directed by Pollard and Llewellyn Smith and will premiere on HBO in fall 2023.

Sam Pollard is represented by Cinetic and The Gersh Agency.