Sam Green

The Oldest Person in the World

A decade-long global journey chronicles the ever-changing record holders of the title of oldest person alive. What begins as a portrait of longevity becomes a meditation on the passage of time, the randomness of fate, and the joy and profound human experience of being alive.

The Weather Underground

The remarkable story of The Weather Underground, radical activists of the 1970s, and of radical politics at its best and most disastrous.

32 Sounds

Explores the elemental phenomenon of sound and its power to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world around us.

Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans

The true story of the neighborhood that inspired David Simon's fictional HBO television series "Tremé", from slave revolts and underground free black antebellum resistance through post-Katrina rebuilding, set to a fabulous soundtrack of New Orleans music through the ages.

A Thousand Thoughts

Filmmaker Sam Green, in collaboration with writer and editor Joe Bini, takes the stage with the legendary classical-music group Kronos Quartet to create a "live documentary" that chronologically unfolds the quartet's groundbreaking, continent-spanning, multi-decade career. Wildly creative and experimental in form, A Thousand Thoughts is a meditation on music itself-the act of listening closely to music, the experience of feeling music deeply, and the power that music has to change the world. Green narrates the piece live onstage while the Kronos Quartet performs the score, and a rich blend of archival footage, photos, and interviews with members of the Kronos Quartet – as well as longtime collaborators like Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Terry Riley, Tanya Tagaq, and Steve Reich – unspools on screen.

Clear Glasses

Short doc surrounding Paul Rudd's clear glasses that came to Sam's door from a time when the world was different.

The Making of Ladies and Gentlemen, Fabulous Stains

A documentary look at the 'making of' and cult success of the troubled Lou Adler directed film "Ladies And Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains" starring Diane Lane.

Lot 63, Grave C

The mystery behind the man who died at Altamont.

Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall

A tour of the world's largest shopping mall, located near Guangzhou, China.

Pie Fight '69

Opening night of the 1969 San Francisco International Film Festival on the steps of City Hall. A who's who of SF high society is suddenly ambushed by a cadre of independent filmmakers armed with pies.

(Commissioned) Portrait of Las Vegas

I’ve been to Las Vegas many times and have always experienced a familiar roller coaster of reactions to the city, from being fascinated and seeing it as a profound expression of grand historical forces and liberatory impulses to just seeing it as a totally fucking depressing place. I don’t think I’ve ever had such strong reactions to a city. This film is an expression of much of that and weaves together several elements: a visual portrait of Las Vegas; informal, verite-ish interviews with a wide range of interesting people we came across while shooting; archival images of the city from the 1950s and 60s; along with some first-person voice-over musings about the city and its history. My hope is that this film does justice to the endlessly fascinating, spectacularly libidinous, and deeply disturbing nature of Las Vegas and its history. —Sam Green

A Cinematic Study of Fog in San Francisco

A Cinematic Study of Fog in San Francisco showcases a visually compelling experience of fog and the rich feelings it evokes.

Julius Caesar Was Buried in a Pet Cemetery

A short documentary portrait of the greatest pet cemetery in the world.

The Rainbow Man/John 3:16

Millions of Americans have seen Rollen Frederick Stewart, a.k.a. "Rainbow Man", who achieved notoriety during the late 70's by appearing in the crowd at thousands of televised sporting events wearing his trademark rainbow-colored afro wig. Later—after he became a born-again Christian—he added a sign reading "John 3:16". Over the years, grabbing the attention of the media became an obsession for Stewart. He abandoned his home and marriage to roam the country living out of his car, studying TV Guide each week in a never-ending quest to stay televised...with tragic consequences.

This is What the Future Looked Like

This Is What the Future Looked Like is a documentary about the work of architect and futurist Buckminster Fuller, using his geodesic domes as the visual environment.

Don’t Call Me Gay Zelig

“Don’t Call Me Gay Zelig” is a 30 minute live cinema portrait that debuted at the Whitney Biennial in August 2019. The film is about gay activist Jim Fouratt who played central roll in the Stonewall uprising.

The Measure of All Things

Documentarian Sam Green interprets our collective fascination with the Guinness Book of World Records as a profound need to try and make some sense of who we are by calibrating human experience and marveling at its outer contours. Green himself travels to various reaches of the Earth to collect original footage of record-holding people, places, and things-the tallest man, the woman with the longest name, the oldest living thing on the planet. He weaves into these original portraits a rich assembly of archival footage, his own live narration, and an evocative live soundtrack from the chamber group yMusic to create an indelible rumination on fate, human endeavor, and the nature of our existence on Earth.

The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller

The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller traces the career of twentieth-century futurist, architect, engineer, inventor, and author R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983). An early proponent of environmental stewardship, Fuller spoke persuasively about contemporary design and architecture’s ability to tackle issues of sustainability and conservation, and to stimulate radical societal change. At every screening, Green narrates the film in person and cues images from a laptop while Yo La Tengo performs their original score. The performance is a follow-up to Green’s internationally-acclaimed live film Utopia in Four Movements, which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. This new work features the same unique combination of film clips and live music, as Green’s in person cinematic narration draws inspiration equally from old travelogues, the Benshi tradition, and TED talks.

N Judah 5:30

A melancholy train ride filled with small, rich moments.

7 Sounds

How can a sound make you cry, or make your hair stand on end? Can sound be political?

Annea Lockwood: A Film About Listening

Sam Green's intimate portrait of Annea Lockwood shares with us a glimpse into the enthralling world of sound that she has been exploring and creating for many years. It is a touching and personal story of imagination and love.

The Universal Language

The Universal Language is a new documentary from Academy Award-nominated director Sam Green (The Weather Underground). This 30-minute film traces the history of Esperanto, an artificial language that was created in the late 1800s by a Polish eye doctor who believed that if everyone in the world spoke a common tongue, humanity could overcome racism and war. Fittingly, the word “Esperanto” means “one who hopes.” During the early 20th century, hundreds of thousands of people around the world spoke Esperanto and believed in its ideals. Today, surprisingly, a vibrant Esperanto movement still exists. In this first-ever documentary about Esperanto, Green creates a portrait of the language and those who speak it today that is at once humorous, poignant, stirring, and ultimately hopeful.

Utopia in Four Movements

Throughout human history, people have had giddy dreams and fantastic notions about what the future would bring. Today the future has become more of a threat than a promise-a knot of intractable problems looming menacingly on the horizon. With a powerful sense of poetry, Utopia in Four Movements uses the collective experience of cinema to explore the battered state of the utopian impulse at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

And with Him Came the West

Wyatt Earp, one of the most famous lawmen and gamblers of the Old West, is the inspiration behind decades of Hollywood Westerns. This documentary, written by director Plante along with Sam Green and Tim Kirk, highlights the influence of Earp’s legacy on cinema and our perception of the wild, wild West.

The Ultimate Guide

An Informative documentary series about our world.