Samantha (Sam) Knowles is an award-winning Brooklyn-based filmmaker. Her film “How We Get Free” on HBO has most recently been shortlisted for a 2024 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film, and highlights the incredible work of Elizabeth Epps to abolish cash bail and end the criminalization of poverty. She has been listed on the DOC NYC 40 Under 40 List for 2023, which honors and celebrates emerging talent in the documentary world. She won a Cinema Eye Honors Award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Series, the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Documentary Series, and the Gracie Award for Best Director of a National TV Program for the HBO docuseries “Black and Missing”, which brings attention to black and missing persons cases that are routinely neglected by the police and the media. She was also nominated for a Black Reel Award for Outstanding Documentary for “Black and Missing”. The series also won the 2022 Television Academy Honors Award, an Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Series, and an AAFCA TV Award for Best Documentary.

In 2021, she partnered with Hewlett - Packard to direct “Generation Impact: The Coder”, which was featured in the inaugural “Brand Storytelling” event at Sundance Film Festival. This short documentary is a winner of the NYICFF Grown Up Short Award, and is about Jay Jay Patton who was only 13 when she created a mobile app to help kids communicate with incarcerated parents, and is now on a mission to help 10,000 women of color to code. As a 2020 winner of Queen Latifah’s Queen Collective program, Samantha worked with Tribeca Studios and Queen Latifah to direct and produce “Tangled Roots”, a documentary that follows Attica Scott, the only black woman in the Kentucky State Legislature as she fights to dismantle a system of discrimination against black people for their hair. The film aired on BET, was broadcast on Showtime and OWN, and was an official selection in the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. BET described her as a director ”who has turned a personal crusade into a work of art.”

In 2018, she directed “The Blue Line” which examined the controversy that erupted when a small town painted a blue line on the street in support of police in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, was featured in NBC’s Meet The Press Film Festival, and is now part of the prestigious New York Times Op-Doc series. Samantha also directed and produced the award-winning short documentary “Why Do You Have Black Dolls?” which is inspired by a question asked of an 8-year old girl and examines the history and significance of the black doll. The Huffington Post called it “more than just a look at black dolls and doll collectors - it begs deeper questions of identity and invites a really important conversation.” The film received a NY City Council Citation, and is a winner of the Spirit Award at the Reel Sisters at the Diaspora Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the WAM Film Festival. It has been an official selection in numerous film festivals and featured on NPR, the NY Daily News, USA Today, Jet Magazine, the Huffington Post, Ebony Magazine, TheGrio, BET.com, and more.

Samatha has been working in documentary film for the past decade on documentaries for HBO, Netflix, The New York Times, ESPN, the Discovery Channel, PBS, Showtime, and BET. She is a Dartmouth College alum(cum laude) with dual degrees in Film and Psychology, and is currently directing a forthcoming documentary series for Disney and Imagine.

         

“How We Get Free” (HBO) Shortlisted for Best Documentary Short Film 2024 Academy Awards

DOC NYC 40 Under 40 List 2023

Winner, Cinema Eye Honors Award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Series. “Black and Missing” (HBO)

Winner, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Documentary Series, “Black and Missing” (HBO)

Winner, 2022 Television Academy Honors Award, “Black and Missing” (HBO)

Winner, Independent Spirit Award for Best New Documentary Series, “Black and Missing” (HBO)

Winner, Gracie Award for Best Director (TV-National), “Black and Missing” (HBO)

Winner, AAFCA TV Award for Best Documentary, “Black and Missing” (HBO)

Nominee, Black Reel Award for Outstanding Documentary, “Black and Missing” (HBO)