Policy Punchline

Samuel George is a documentary filmmaker that has gone into each of his projects with the simple goal of listening. Sam describes himself as a filmmaker and analyst for the Bertelsmann Foundation focusing on the intersection of economics, politics, the digital revolution, and daily life. Filming on the ground from the Turkish – Syrian border to the factories of Juarez, Mexico, the films dive inside critical crossroads around the globe. Traveling abroad to places like Turkey, Latvia, India, Mexico, and other cities in the US, Sam captures the lives of the people on the ground, humanizing the individual experience of the public policy in a unique way that only a documentary film can capture. Sam interviews both policymakers and ordinary people to enter the lives of people that are often neglected. We start the interview with Sam’s journey towards documentary filmmaking and why he thinks it’s a powerful medium for policy discussions. Guided by a philosophy of “show, don’t tell,” Sam argues that documentary f