Sam Pillsbury

Directing

Sam Pillsbury

Place of birth

New York City, New York, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

29 titles

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sam 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…

Known for

Free Willy 3: The Rescue poster
6.1

Willy the whale is back, this time threatened by illegal whalers making money off sushi. Jesse, now 16, has taken a job on an orca-researching ship, along with old friend Randolph and a sarcastic scientist, Drew. On the whaler's ship is captain John Wesley and his son, Max, who isn't really pleased about his father's job, but doesn't have the gut to say so. Along the way, Willy reunites with Jesse.

Free Willy 3: The Rescue

1997

Zandalee poster
4.3

Bored with her marriage to burnt out poet turned corporate executive Thierry, Zandalee falls prey to an old friend of her husband, the manipulative and egotistical Johnny and becomes enmeshed in a sensual, passionate and destructive affair.

Zandalee

1991

The Quiet Earth poster
6.7

After a top-secret experiment misfires, a scientist may be the only man left alive in the world.

The Quiet Earth

1985

Secret of Giving poster
7.0

As Christmas approaches, a single mother 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

1999

Where the Red Fern Grows poster
6.6

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

2003

Audrey's Rain poster
4.8

Audrey Walker has given up her hopes and dreams, until an ex-love returns to town and helps her realize a second chance at life.

Audrey's Rain

2003

Behind the camera

Free Willy 3: The Rescue poster
6.1

Willy the whale is back, this time threatened by illegal whalers making money off sushi. Jesse, now 16, has taken a job on an orca-researching ship, along with old friend Randolph and a sarcastic scientist, Drew. On the whaler's ship is captain John Wesley and his son, Max, who isn't really pleased about his father's job, but doesn't have the gut to say so. Along the way, Willy reunites with Jesse.

Free Willy 3: The Rescue

1997

Zandalee poster
4.3

Bored with her marriage to burnt out poet turned corporate executive Thierry, Zandalee falls prey to an old friend of her husband, the manipulative and egotistical Johnny and becomes enmeshed in a sensual, passionate and destructive affair.

Zandalee

1991

The Quiet Earth poster
6.7

After a top-secret experiment misfires, a scientist may be the only man left alive in the world.

The Quiet Earth

1985

The Quiet Earth poster
6.7

After a top-secret experiment misfires, a scientist may be the only man left alive in the world.

The Quiet Earth

1985

Secret of Giving poster
7.0

As Christmas approaches, a single mother 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

1999

Where the Red Fern Grows poster
6.6

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

2003

Audrey's Rain poster
4.8

Audrey Walker has given up her hopes and dreams, until an ex-love returns to town and helps her realize a second chance at life.

Audrey's Rain

2003

National Lampoon Presents: Endless Bummer poster
4.7

From National Lampoon, the masters of raunchy comedy, comes a summer tale of beers, babes, and bros! In the surf town of Ventura, California, JD's surf board is stolen by a surfer from Los Angeles...a crime that cannot go unpunished. Gathering his friends and the local surf hero, Mike Mooney, they take a road trip to LA to get the surfboard back, then return to Ventura for the wildest summer party ever!

National Lampoon Presents: Endless Bummer

2009

National Lampoon Presents: Endless Bummer poster
4.7

From National Lampoon, the masters of raunchy comedy, comes a summer tale of beers, babes, and bros! In the surf town of Ventura, California, JD's surf board is stolen by a surfer from Los Angeles...a crime that cannot go unpunished. Gathering his friends and the local surf hero, Mike Mooney, they take a road trip to LA to get the surfboard back, then return to Ventura for the wildest summer party ever!

National Lampoon Presents: Endless Bummer

2009

Fifteen and Pregnant poster
6.3

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

1998

Knight Rider 2010 poster
4.5

Loosely based on the popular television series of the 80's, this movie brings the story into an apocalyptic time and a new "KITT".

Knight Rider 2010

1994

Between Love and Honor poster
9.0

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

1995

Crooked Earth poster
7.5

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

2001

The Wedding Dress poster
5.6

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

2001

The King and Queen of Moonlight Bay poster
5.9

A college girl decides to get to know her estranged father before she begins her education, but his life turns out to be nothing that she expected.

The King and Queen of Moonlight Bay

2003

Morgan's Ferry poster
6.1

Three escaped convicts hide out in the home a reclusive woman as they wait to catch a ferry.

Morgan's Ferry

2001

The President's Child poster
9.0

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

1992

Taking Back Our Town poster
4.0

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

2001

The Scarecrow poster
5.7

The same night as a girl is slain in the woods, the teenagers Sam and Les are robbed of all of their hard earned hens. In the quest for their hens they cross the murderer's path.

The Scarecrow

1982

Raising Waylon poster
7.0

Café-owner Reg and photographer Julia become the unplanned guardians of their godson Waylon after his parents pass away.

Raising Waylon

2004

Sins of Silence poster
7.8

A former nun who has become a rape counselor defies a court order to release her file on a rape victim.

Sins of Silence

1996

A Mother's Instinct poster
5.6

Holly Mitchell a divorcee, remarries widower, Carl Gibbons, the father of two small boys. When she begins to question his past, he disappears with the boys. She then learns that the boys' mother is still alive, having been deserted five years ago. The two 'wives' join forces to find him and the boys.

A Mother's Instinct

1996

Into the Badlands poster
5.6

A bounty hunter searches the west for a wanted outlaw named Red Roundtree.

Into the Badlands

1991

Starlight Hotel poster
6.4

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

1987

Eyes of Terror poster
6.5

Dr. Jesse Newman is assigned to treating David, a grieving policeman who lost his partner in a shootout. It seems the case is solved, until a lucky coin belonging to David's partner triggers a revealing series of psychic visions for Dr. Newman. The visions not only implicate the killer, but also reveal the sordid habits of San Francisco's business and political elite.

Eyes of Terror

1994

Shadows of Desire poster
2.6

A woman is torn between her love for a gentle man, and her secret passion for his dangerous brother.

Shadows of Desire

1994

Thrill poster
5.2

A disgruntled worker rigs a bomb, triggered by a motion sensor, on the roller coaster at a financially troubled amusement park.

Thrill

1996

Search for Grace poster
7.0

A woman haunted by disturbing flashbacks discovers through hypnotherapy that she and her boyfriend led parallel lives with a doomed couple from 1927.

Search for Grace

1994

No artwork available
NR

Directed by Sam Pillsbury, this 1974 film observes Ralph Hotere — one of New Zealand’s greatest artists — at a moment when excitement is gathering about his work. Lauded as a “classic” by Ian Wedde, the documentary is framed around the execution of a watershed piece: a large mural Hotere was commissioned to paint for Hamilton’s Founders Theatre. Interviews with friends and associates — poets Hone Tuwhare and Bill Manhire, art critics, officials and dealers — are intercut with fascinating shots of Hotere working (including making art by photocopying or 'xerography').

Ralph Hotere

1974