Samara Rosenbaum is a documentary filmmaker and arts educator based in Los Angeles and Detroit.
Her work is driven by a belief in storytelling as a way to bring about understanding and connection and a commitment to equity. She works in close collaboration with individuals and communities to share stories that are important to them. Samara constantly reimagines her role as an artist and examines how art is part of, perpetuates and disrupts systems of oppressions.
Recent Work
Samara is currently co-directing her first feature documentary about the public education school system in Detroit in partnership with local educators, students, families and activists. The film received generous grants from FORD Foundation and is Executive Produced by actor/activist Danny Glover. The film is repped by Endeavor Content. Samara has over ten years of experience producing and directing documentary films. Her films have taken her all over the world. She has worked on both long and short form projects for HBO, Participant Media, Discovery+, Wondros, Los Angeles County, Harvard Graduate School of Education, ACLU, Public Counsel, LAHSA, and United Way. Samara combined her love for the arts and education as a fellow at The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University, where she used film to think of new ways to design and implement curriculums for undergraduate English courses.
Samara currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
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M.Ed., Arts in Education, Harvard University, 2017
B.A., Sociology and Film, University of Michigan, 2010
Awards and Grants
FORD Foundation, JustFilms Grant (2021)
Los Angeles Area Emmy, Information LA County Close Up – Paula’s Story NOMINATION (2021)
Los Angeles Area Emmy, Informational Series (More than 50% Remote) LA County Close Up – Homeless Series WINNER (2020)
FORD Foundation, JustFilms Grant (2019)
Exhibitions + Panels
Love in the Time Of Cambridge, MA (2017)
Literacy is A Fundamental Right: Lessons From Detroit Cambridge, MA (2017)
Films
Calvert / Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office Director/Co-Producer
Paula's Story / Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office Director/Co-Producer
Project Roomkey / United Way Director/Co-Producer
Street Medicine / Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office Director/Co-Producer
Supportive Housing / Los Angeles County, Office of Diversion and Reentry Director/Co-Producer
Covid Response / Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Director/Co-Producer
Animal Care and Control / Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office Director/Co-Producer
Arts In Education Anniversary Film / Harvard Graduate School of Education Producer/Co-Director
DREAMERS (Dulce) / Public Counsel Director/Co-Producer
DREAMERS (Miriam) / Public Counsel Director/Co-Producer
SAT / Public Counsel Director/Co-Producer
“The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roasts through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.”
James Baldwin - The Creative Process