The Bootstrap Cafe

At the time of this film’s inception, Sam was making his living as a theatre actor. After receiving his MFA in Acting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and BFA in Acting from Southern Oregon University, he played such onstage roles as Henry V for the Tony award-winning Utah Shakespeare Festival and Hamlet for the Nashville Shakespeare Festival. On film, his credits include the movie, Ruin Me, and various short films. Sam’s directorial debut was the short film, Bob, which debuted at the Knoxville Film Festival. He has been an enormous fan of movies ever since he was a kid growing up in rural Oregon, watching films like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Back to the Future. Today, some of Sam’s biggest influences are Paul Thomas Anderson, the Coen Brothers, and Stanley Kubrick.