Sam Pillsbury
2021Sam Pillsbury is an American film director and producer.
Connecticut-raised Sam Pillsbury emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 14. Aged 23, he began working at the Government-owned National Film Unit, joining a group of emerging filmmakers who were investigating new subjects and styles.
Pillsbury directed seven films at the National Film Unit, including a multi-faceted study of artist Ralph Hotere, and a satirical look at workplace relations (Men and Supermen). He was also part of the directing team on Commonwealth Games chronicle Games 74, and worked both on set and at the editing bench for Paul Maunder's Gone Up North for a While.
Pillsbury went solo in 1975. Documentary Birth with R.D.Laing won awards on both sides of the Tasman, and controversy in England and the United States. The film featured controversial Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing critiqueing Western medical handling of childbirth. Pillsbury also worked on four documentaries for TV slot Seven Days, which variously looked into life for a solo mother, an ex-convict, hospital patients, and young Māori in the city.
More TV docos followed, then in 1978, Against the Lights, a short drama based on a Witi Ihimaera tale. Pillsbury's Round the Bays doco The Greatest Run on Earth won awards at festivals in Chicago and Torino.
Pillsbury's feature film debut in 1981 was with The Scarecrow, based on the gothic novel by Ronald Hugh Morrieson. Presented through the eyes of two teenage boys, the film chronicles the arrival in a 50s town of a mysterious stranger (played by American movie legend John Carradine). In 1982 The Scarecrow became the first Kiwi film to win invitation to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, in the non-competitive Director's Fortnight section. Teen star Jono Smith later reinvented himself as a cinematographer in England.
Pillsbury then worked extensively on a screen adaptation of end of the world sci-fi novel The Quiet Earth, before handing the project to director Geoff Murphy after deciding it needed fresh eyes (he later joked at being one of the only directors who had fired himself). Instead Pillsbury helmed 1880s immigrant tale Heart of the High Country for TV (based on a novel by Elizabeth Gowans), then segued into period road movie Starlight Hotel, which starred Smash Palace discovery Greer Robson.
Since Starlight Hotel, Pillsbury has directed extensively, mainly on American tele-movies. He returned to Kiwi moviemaking in 2000 for Crooked Earth, the tale of a clash between two Māori: a militant drug-dealer, and former military man Temuera Morrison.
Pillsbury's other features include Free Willy 3: The Rescue, 2008 road movie Endless Bummer and Knight Rider 2010.
These days Pillsbury has a second career as a winemaker. In 2000 he and a business partner sold Arizona wine company Dos Cabezas to a group headed by the lead singer for rock group Tool (band). Pillsbury Wine Company was launched soon afterwards.
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Starlight Hotel
Sam Pillsbury
Greer Robson, Peter Phelps
During the Great Depression, Kate (Greer Robson) is a 13-year-old girl living on New Zealand's South Island. When her mother dies and her father is offered a job in Wellington on North Island, Kate is sent to live with an aunt. The girl runs away to find her father, hopping onto a boxcar and befriending a fellow fugitive, Patrick (Peter Phelps), an emotionally battle-scarred WWI veteran fleeing the authorities after injuring a repo man. Pretending to be father and daughter, Patrick and Kate use each other for cover as they make their way across New Zealand, sleeping under the stars and championing the rights of destitute farmers and homeless squatters whose fortunes have been wiped out by economic hardship.
Starlight Hotel
The Wedding Dress
Sam Pillsbury
Neil Patrick Harris, Margaret Colin
When Hannah Pinkham's fiancé writes he's finally shipping home, her mother makes a fairy tale wedding dress, but while she's fitting it the knock on the door is not him, but the dreaded officer-messenger. Years later she sends it to her nephew, photographer Travis Cleveland, but his model-bride Cass only pretends to like it to get rid of his loyal assistant. After he walks off with it, his car gets stolen with the dress in it... And it keeps passing on from person to person, but will anybody actually get married in it or does it just keep bringing bad luck to couples?
The Wedding Dress
Secret of Giving
Sam Pillsbury
Reba McEntire, Thomas Ian Griffith
As Christmas approaches, a single mother (played by Reba McEntire) struggles to raise her son and keep up the payments on her Oregon ranch, which is difficult since she's heavily in debt. But she's a tough cookie, and proves that a steadfast attitude and an open heart go a long way in surviving the cold hearts and greed of the Scrooges around her.
Secret of Giving
Where the Red Fern Grows
Lyman Dayton, Sam Pillsbury
Joseph Ashton, Dave Matthews
Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with "Old Dan" and "Little Ann."
Where the Red Fern Grows
Raising Waylon
Sam Pillsbury
Thomas Gibson, Poppy Montgomery
Waylon is a nine year old boy who, after losing their parents, begins to live with her godparents, couples in the past but now separated and with little appetite for adoption. The boy's arrival will be the ultimate test to confirm whether the two are better together or apart.
Raising Waylon
Between Love and Honor
Sam Pillsbury
Grant Snow, Géza Kovács
Steve Collura is an undercover cop out to infiltrate Carlo Gambino's mob. He soon falls in love with Gambino's daughter Maria and must make a choice between his duties as a police officer, his love for Maria, and his allegiance to Carlo Gambino.
Between Love and Honor
Crooked Earth
Sam Pillsbury
Temuera Morrison, Jaime Passier-Armstrong
Will Bastion returns home from the army after an absence of 20 years to bury his father, the former chief of thee Maori tribe, Ngati Kaipuku. The eldest son, he is reluctant to inherit his fathers role, so it is taken more willingly by his younger brother, Kahu. Kahu is the leader of a band of drug dealers and trouble-makers who ride horses through the middle of town, wrecking peoples gardens. Under the guise of refusal of a land settlement, Kahu makes a large marijuana deal with some murdering city folk. Will must choose between loyalty for his brother and his father, Maori tradition, and contemporary financial issues.
Crooked Earth
Fifteen and Pregnant
Sam Pillsbury
Kirsten Dunst, Park Overall
Based on a true story, 15 year old Tina Spangler discovers she is pregnant. Her choices are abortion, adoption, or a lonely, exhausting life as a single parent. Abandoned by her boyfriend, she turns to her mother. Tina discovers although it has torn her world apart, her pregnancy could re-unite her shattered family and help her find her true purpose in life.
Fifteen and Pregnant
The President's Child
Sam Pillsbury
Donna Mills, William Devane
James Guthrie is a candidate for the presidency of the United States. Eight years ago he fell in love with Elizabeth Hemming, nowadays a famous hostess/reporter. Guthrie doesn't know Jason, her kid, is his son. When his unscrupulous campaign-leader finds out about Jason, he goes all out to keep it a secret from the public
The President's Child
Taking Back Our Town
Sam Pillsbury
Laura Innes, Ruby Dee
A true story about a concerned housewife, Pat Melancon, who tries to block Shintech, a massive Japanese petrochemical conglomerate, from building a plant in her toxic township already known as "cancer alley". Pat and a few newly recruited, fledgling activitsts face the full force of Shintech's wealth and influence peddling, which has bought the cooperation of the government from the local level all the way up to the Governor's office.
Taking Back Our Town