Samantha Davidson Green is a film+theater director/educator based in Plainfield, NH. In her collaborative approach to storytelling, Samantha seeks to build art through community and community through art.
Samantha’s directing career began in a Mississippi classroom, led her to KQED TV9 Public Television, and eventually to UCLA Graduate School of Film, TV & Digital Media where she earned her MFA in Film Directing. Her award-winning short films have played in festivals worldwide, including Tribeca Film Festival (Winner, Best Student Film Award). Her first feature film, THRASHER ROAD (2019), took home Best Feature (Austin Revolution), Best First Feature (WorldFest-Houston), and Spirit of Independent Filmmaking (Stony Brook) awards . She recently taught Film Directing and Production in the Film and Media Studies Department at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. After serving as President of the Board of Directors for White River Indie Films (WRIF) in White River Junction, VT, Samantha joined CATV (Community Access Television) as Executive Director, leading the organization to a repositioning and rebranding as JAM – Junction Arts & Media, an innovative non-profit community media arts center for the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Raised in the mountains of New Hampshire, Samantha headed west to Stanford University where she earned her BA in English with Humanities Honors with a gap year teaching English in Japan and backpacking through rural China. Back in the US, Samantha discovered her passion for collaborative storytelling on stage+screen as a process for awakening empathy, building teams across lines of difference, addressing injustice, and inspiring visions of positive change while teaching in rural Mississippi through the Mississippi Teacher Corps, during which she also earned her MA in Secondary Education (University of Mississippi).
Returning to the Bay Area, Samantha joined the team at KQED TV9, San Francisco’s PBS station, to launch the KQED Media Education Project and Independent Film Initiative in her roles as Educational Services Coordinator and New Program Development Director. Samantha then headed to film school where she interned with HBO Films, the Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Program, and the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival.
As an independent filmmaker, Samantha has produced one feature and several short films. Her production clients have included Stanford University Center on Longevity, The Prospect Park Alliance, Hannah Senesh Community Day School, The Hootenanny Art House, and VIA/Volunteers in Asia.
Since returning to New England to raise her three boys, in addition to her filmmaking, Samantha has led theater and film productions in public schools, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, and community theater at Parish Players Theater, where she served on the Board of Directors. Recent productions include Flash Mob Caesar, a multimedia live performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, John Cariani’s Almost, Maine, The Knave of Hearts for Saint-Gaudens , Steel Magnolias, The Tempest and various children’s musical productions.
Samantha’s current position as Executive Director at JAM (Junction Arts & Media) enables her to merge her directing, teaching, organizational leadership, and activism in work that aims to build community through the media arts.