An Oscar-nominated filmmaker and founding director of the documentary production company Development Pictures, Sam French’s work has appeared on HBO, BBC, CNN, Channel 4 News, Al Jazeera, National Geographic, and other broadcast outlets. He lived and worked in Afghanistan for five years, where he produced and directed films for clients including the US State Department, the European Commission, CARE International, the British Government (DFID), UNDP (United Nations Development Program), UNMACCA (United Nations Mine Action Coordination Centre of Afghanistan) and other NGOs and government organizations. Sam returned to his roots in narrative filmmaking to direct “Buzkashi Boys,” one of the first films to be shot entirely on location in Afghanistan. “Buzkashi Boys” was nominated for an Academy Award in 2013, and was co-produced by the Afghan Film Project, a non-profit NGO that Sam co-founded to help train Afghan filmmakers and foster Afghanistan’s film industry.

Sam travels extensively and finds inspiration on the borders between cultures. He has a passion for investigating the causes of conflict and the struggle to find meaning in an increasingly chaotic world. He is developing narrative film projects about the drug cartels in Mexico, a jazz nightclub in World War II era Shanghai, and an ancient archeological site recently unearthed in war-torn Afghanistan. He is currently in production on a documentary starring Aloe Blacc about the war in the Congo, and in post-production on the documentary film “In-Justice” about women imprisoned in Afghanistan for “moral crimes.” He will be directing the Shanghai based narrative feature film “The Red Thread” for DAS Films in 2015. He currently lives in Los Angeles.