Sam Ball

Sam Ball is a co-founder of Citizen Film. His documentaries have been widely exhibited at museums, cinematheques and film festivals around the world, including some of America’s most prestigious venues for independent film, ranging from the Sundance Film Festival to the Museum of Modern Art – New York.

Projects Sam is currently working on include: Joann Sfar Draws from Memory - a documentary portrait of graphic novelist Joann Sfar, a collaboration with KQED (PBS), Les Films du Poisson and Valerie Joseph.

In the Maze of Our Own Lives - a mixed-media collaboration with playwright Corey Fischer and theatre director Aaron Davidman, In the Maze of Our Own Lives reexamines the significance of the Depression Era Group Theatre, whose members included Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, Clifford Odets and Elia Kazan. The Group was the first American ensemble theatre and the first Broadway company to seriously examine American blue-collar and immigrant experiences.

The New Jewish Filmmaking Project - an interactive online documentary exhibit, on the theme “Half-remembered stories,” co-directed by 11 young multi-media artists.

Pearls of Yiddish Poetry (working title) - a television documentary about the life and work of Yiddish cultural activists Chana and Yosl Mlotek.

Arts and Culture

Half-Remembered Stories: Three Pieces

By Sam Ball and Sophie Constantinou

A Zombie Day of Atonement. A great-grandmother’s infidelities. An escape from Czech nationalists. The next generation of Jews is rediscovering its past on the way to creating a new future.