THE TEAM
Sam Pollard
Geeta Gandbhir
Alisa Payne
A collaboration between award-winning filmmakers Sam Pollard, Geeta Gandbhir and Alisa Payne, MESSAGE FILMS is committed to making cutting-edge content by and about BIPOC and other underrepresented people.
We are invested in groundbreaking, cinematic and dynamic storytelling that pushes the artistic boundaries of traditional filmmaking and critical thinking, for both scripted and non-fiction. We recognize that expanding the gaze through which we create and experience content is critical to the future of our industry.
Our collective experience in directing and producing will allow us to curate a roster of award-winning, premium content projects that appeal to broad audiences, while upholding the mandate of diversity, equity and access for all.
SAM POLLARD
Director/Producer
SAM POLLARD is an accomplished feature film and television video editor, and
documentary producer/director.
Between 1990 and 2010, Mr. Pollard edited several of Spike Lee's films, including "Mo' Better Blues," "Jungle Fever," "Girl 6," "Clockers," and "Bamboozled." Mr. Pollard and Mr. Lee also co-produced numerous documentary productions for both the small and big screen. "Four Little Girls," a feature-length documentary was nominated for an Academy Award. Additionally, "When The Levees Broke," a four-part documentary, garnered several awards, including a Peabody Award and three Emmy Awards. In 2010, Mr. Pollard co-produced and supervised the editing of the follow-up to "Levees": "If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise."
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Since 2012, Mr. Pollard has worked as a producer/director. He completed "Slavery By Another Name," a documentary for PBS, which competed at the Sundance Festival. In 2015, he created the documentary "August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand" for American Masters. In 2016, his feature-length documentary "Two Trains Runnin’" premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival. "Sammy Davis Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me" for American Masters premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2019, Mr. Pollard co-directed the six-part series "Why We Hate," which premiered on The Discovery Channel.
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In 2020, he received the International Documentary Association’s first Career
Achievement Award in 2020, and the following year Film at Lincoln Center paid tribute
to Pollard, calling him one of “cinema’s most dedicated chroniclers of the Black
experience in America.” That same year he contributed as a director to the HBO series "Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children" and completed "MLK/FBI".
Pollard has partnered with his long-time collaborators Geeta Gandbhir and Alisa Payne
to form a new film production company, Message Pictures. The company's mission is to
amplify unheard voices, throw light in the shadows and share stories that dare to be
told.
GEETA GANDBHIR
Filmmaker
Geeta Gandbhir embarked on her career in narrative film under the guidance of Spike Lee and Sam Pollard. After working for eleven years in scripted film, collaborating with renowned figures such as the Coen Brothers, Robert Altman, and others, she transitioned into documentary filmmaking.
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As a Director, credits include the series "Born in Synanon" for Paramount, "Eyes on the Prize" for HBO, "Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power," which was nominated for the 2022 Critics Choice Award, won a 2023 SIMA Award, and is nominated for two 2023 Emmys. She directed and show ran the series "Black and Missing" for HBO which won a 2022 NAACP Award for Best Directing, a 2022 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Series, a 2022 ATAS Honors Award, and a Cinema Eye Honors for Best Series. She directed the film "Apart," with Rudy Valdez, for HBOMax, which was nominated for an NAACP Award and won a 2022 Emmy Award. Her short film from 2020, "Call Center Blues," with Topic Studios was shortlisted for the 2021 Academy Awards. She directed an episode "The Asian Americans" for PBS, which won the 2021 Peabody Award. Additional directing credits include the six-part series "Why We Hate" for Discovery, and "I Am Evidence" for HBO which won a 2019 Emmy, DuPont Award, and ATAS Award. Her film "Armed with Faith" for PBS also won a 2019 News and Documentary Emmy, an episode of the Netflix series "The Rapture," focusing on rap artist Rapsody, "Prison Dogs," which she co-directed with Perri Peltz, and "A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers," for PBS. She also played a co-director and co-producer role in the "A Conversation on Race" series in collaboration with The New York Times Op-Docs. This series earned recognition, including an Online Journalism Award for Online Commentary, an AFI Documentary Film Festival Audience Award for Best Short, and a MacArthur Grant. She also co-produced the HBO film "The Sentence," directed by Rudy Valdez, which received a 2019 Primetime Emmy.
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In her role as an Editor, her films have garnered two Emmy Awards, four Peabody Awards, and one Academy Award.
ALISA PAYNE
Producer
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Alisa Payne's producing career spans over 20 years, boasting a diverse array of credits.
These credits encompass the much anticipated feature film adaptation of "Stamped from the Beginning" for Netflix, based on Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's eponymous book, premiering at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and on Netflix in November 2023, the critically acclaimed HBO film special "Between the World and Me," "The Conversation: Revolution" based on The NYTimes Op Doc series "A Conversation on Race," the pivotal 2016 Democratic National Convention, and an array of short films, television series, specials, and digital productions.
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Her work has garnered prestigious recognition, including a Gracie Award, and she has been nominated for several esteemed awards, including an Emmy, Critic's Choice Award, NAACP Image Award, and Cable Positive Award.
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Currently, she is the Co-Executive Producer for "Harlem Ice," a 6-part docuseries on Disney+ and is the producer of the short film "Women Count" (Sundance / Times Studios).
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Alisa enjoys collaborating with Sam Pollard and Geeta Gandbhir on the projects cultivated by their company, Message Pictures.
