Innovative Documentary Storytelling with Sam Green
Session: August 2026
About this Weekend Intensive
For nearly 30 years, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sam Green has been rewriting the rules of nonfiction cinema at the Sundance Film Festival. From his debut short in 1997, to his latest film The Oldest Person in the World in 2026, Green has spent decades pushing the boundaries of documentary filmmaking. Having racked up accolades from the DGA, IDA, Cinema Eye Honors, and beyond, he has mastered the art of turning deep research into transcendent, sensory cinematic experiences.
Now, it’s your turn to tear up the traditional playbook.
In this online weekend intensive, you’ll step inside Sam Green’s creative lab. Moving beyond predictable talking-head conventions, Green will reveal how to transform disparate ideas, raw audio, and forgotten archives into gripping narrative engines. Through dynamic interactive sessions, real-world case studies, and hands-on exercises, you will learn how to navigate the beautiful, messy chaos of real-world storytelling and capture the true emotional core of your film.
By the end of the weekend, you will:
- Master the crucial pre-production steps required to set your shoot up for success without stifling creative spontaneity.
- Gain field-tested production strategies and concepts from a veteran filmmaker.
- Conduct exercises to put Green’s ideas to use.
- Learn how Green defies the traditional documentary form by using experimental techniques, live performance, and immersive soundscapes.
- Get the unfiltered truth on securing funding, the festival circuit, and today’s unpredictable independent distribution landscape.
- Attend peer feedback sessions to learn from both Green and your fellow classmates.
This intensive will:
- Dissect acclaimed documentaries to extract concrete, actionable takeaways for your own films.
- Explore the art of interviewing participants to capture captivating sit-down interviews.
- Examine how to hunt down, license, and creatively use archival footage to build a rich, texture-driven world.
This intensive is ideal for:
- Documentary directors, producers, and visual storytellers ready to break out of creative ruts, challenge the status quo, and inject radical new energy into their work.
- Filmmakers of all experience levels, regardless of whether they have a project currently in production.
Leave this weekend not just with a notebook full of strategies, but with a renewed sense of creative audacity and a clearer vision for your film.
Weekend IntensiveAccessibility
Sundance Collab provides accommodations and support services to participants with disabilities. Accommodations and services are designed to meet the needs of each participant. Please email us at accessibility@sundance.org to arrange for services.
Scholarships
Sundance Collab offers a limited number of need-based, partial and full scholarships. Scholarship applications can be submitted until one week before the registration deadline and do not stack with discounts or promotions, including early registration. Due to the volume of applicants, we are not always able to provide a scholarship, but we may still offer a spot in the course.
Dates and Times
- Introductory Opening Session: 3–5 p.m. PT
- Session 1: 9 a.m.–12 p.m. PT
- Session 2: 1–4 p.m. PT
- Session 3: 9 a.m.–12 p.m. PT
- Session 4: 1–4:30 p.m. PT
Instructor
Sam Green
Sam Green is a New York-based documentary filmmaker. He received his Master’s Degree in Journalism from University of California Berkeley, where he studied documentary with acclaimed filmmaker Marlon Riggs. Green’s most recent projects are the “live documentaries” including A Thousand Thoughts, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and is a live-cinema collaboration with the legendary classical ensemble the Kronos Quartet. His previous film The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller features a live score by the indie band Yo La Tengo. With all of these works, Green narrates the film in-person while musicians perform a live soundtrack.
Green’s 2004 feature-length film, the Academy Award-nominated documentary The Weather Underground, tells the story of a group of radical young women and men who tried to violently overthrow the United States government during the late 1960s and 70s. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was broadcast on PBS, included in the Whitney Biennial, and has screened widely around the world.
Green is also a prolific maker of short documentaries, including: The Rainbow Man/John 3:16, lot 63, grave c, Pie Fight ’69 (directed with Christian Bruno), N-Judah 5:30, and The Fabulous Stains: Behind the Movie (directed with Sarah Jacobson). He has received grants from the Creative Capital, Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts. www.samgreen.to
FAQ
In Sundance Collab’s Intensives, participants attend live, virtual class sessions in a condensed time period. These sessions are led by an instructor and supported by the Sundance Collab courses team.
All members of the Sundance Collab community are welcome to register for Sundance Collab Intensives. Some Intensives require an application. Please review the description and any eligibility requirements to ensure the Intensive is a good fit. If you have any questions, please email collab_courses@sundance.org.
For application-based Intensives, note that space is limited. Applications are considered as they are received and applicants are accepted on a rolling basis until the Intensive is full or the deadline has passed, whichever comes first. If the application window is open, you will see an “Apply” button on the course page.
We send our application acceptance notifications on a rolling basis, starting after the application deadline. You will be notified of your acceptance status no later than three days before the first session. At any point, you can check the status of a course that you have applied to by logging into Sundance Collab and visiting the course page. You’ll see a purple bar there indicating your status.
When reviewing applications for an Intensive, the Sundance Collab team evaluates the needs and expectations of each applicant. We are also looking to convene a diverse group of participants who will work well together and support each other throughout the Intensive. Finally, we will confirm that the applicant can meet the time commitment necessary and has a strong interest and readiness to complete the Intensive and meaningfully contribute to the group process.
We do not offer any combined applications or discounts for Sundance Collab Intensives.
We often offer a limited number of need-based, full or partial scholarships. Check the course description to see if that course currently has scholarships available. Scholarships are prioritized for one per person per year (from the date of issue). Scholarship applications are available up to one week before the registration deadline. To apply for a scholarship, complete the registration form by clicking the REGISTER button and selecting the option to apply for a scholarship, if available.
Applicants will be notified about their scholarship decision prior to the first day of the course. Due to the volume of applicants, we are not always able to provide a scholarship, but we may still offer a spot in the course. In this case, depending on the course, payment plans may be available and can be selected at checkout.
We may offer the option of either a two or three-part payment plan for Intensives. If offered, the first payment will be due at the time of registration and the last payment will be due before the halfway point of the Intensive. Due to the length of Intensives, a payment plan option may not be available closer to the registration deadline. For specific payment plan dates, please reach out to our team at: collab_courses@sundance.org.
Yes, you are welcome to take a live, online Intensive even if you can’t make the live sessions. Recordings of each session are available online within two business days.
All sessions are recorded and usually made available within two business days. The videos will also contain the chat and transcript from the session, viewable in the video playbar.
Participants will have access to the recordings for one year following the last session.
All participants will receive a Certificate of Completion. The certificate will include the name associated with your Sundance Collab account.
You can join a course via a computer or mobile device. All of our Intensives are conducted via Zoom.
Download and set up the Zoom software and make sure you have the latest update. Here are some great resources from Zoom’s Knowledge Base to take a deeper dive into using Zoom:
- Watch Zoom's Video Tutorials or review training materials on the Getting Started page.
- Join a Live Training from Zoom.
If you have any further questions, please email collab_courses@sundance.org.
Sundance Collab provides accommodations and support services to participants with disabilities. Please contact us at (435) 776-7790 or email us at accessibility@sundance.org to ask any questions or to discuss your specific needs after you have been accepted into the course.