Education
He received his master"s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied documentary with filmmaker Marlon Riggs.
He received his master"s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied documentary with filmmaker Marlon Riggs.
His most recent projects are “live documentaries” in which he narrates a film in-person while musicians perform a live soundtrack. His 2012 project Buckminster Fuller featured a live score by the band Yo Louisiana Tengo. Green was raised in East Lansing, Michigan and is a graduate of East Lansing High School.
He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
The film premiered at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, where director of programming Trevor Groth described it as "a parable about alienation, the media, and the meaninglessness that often defines American life." Green"s feature-length documentary film The Weather Underground focused on the group of young radicals of the same name, who during the late 1960s and "70s attempted to violently overthrow the United States government. The award winning film interweaves extensive archival material with modern-day interviews to explore the story of the Weather Underground.
The New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell called the documentary a "terrifically smart and solid piece of film-making." Sam Green"s documentary Utopia in Four Movements (2010) also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, in the category entitled "New Frontiers." In this "live" documentary, Green narrates the 75-minute film while a live band performs the soundtrack. The film examines various topics, including an American exile in Cuba, the world"s largest shopping mall (located in China), the treatment of mass graves, and the history of the man-made language Esperanto.
Green’s 2012 live documentary, Buckminster Fuller, is a portrait of the theorist and designer Buckminster Fuller and features a live soundtrack by the band Yo Louisiana Tengo.
The piece combines in-person narration and live music alongside projected film clips and photographs. lieutenant was commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival in May 2012. Green’s most recent live documentary, entitled The Measure of All Things, is based very loosely on the Guinness Book of World Records.
The piece premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and is screened with live scores by the chamber group yMusic and a trio made up of Brendan Canty (Fugazi), T. Griffin, and Catherine McRae.
Filmography The Measure of All Things (with the chamber music group yMusic and a trio made up of Brendan Canty (Fugazi), T. Griffin, and Catherine McRae, 2014) Love Letter to the Fog (2013) The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller (with the band Yo La Tengo, 2012) The Universal Language (2011) (Commissioned) Portrait of Las Vegas (2011) Utopia in Four Movements, directed with Dave Cerf, (2010) Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall, co-directed with Carrie Lozano (2009) Clear Glasses (2008) Lot 63, Grave C (2006) N-Judah 5:30 (2004) The Weather Underground (2003) Pie Fight '69, co-directed with Christian Bruno (2000) The Fabulous Stains: Behind the Movie, co-directed with Sarah Jacobson (1999) The Rainbow Man/John 3:16 (1997).