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A wild child at heart, Sam Potter lives out his dreams of traveling the world, telling stories and winning EMMY Awards \u2014 all while making Hawai\u2018i proud.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t matter if he\u2019s tracking rhinoceroses in the South African bush, sitting around a campfire with Indigenous Amazonian folk or saving coral on a French Polynesian expedition, you\u2019ll always be able to tell where Sam Potter is from.<\/p>\n A rambunctious, yet determined, Sam Potter sold mangoes on the side of the road to save up for his first camera.<\/p><\/div>\n In remote locations or extreme weather conditions, the 27-year-old rarely strays from the quintessential local boy uniform, but recently had to trade in his casual clothes for a suit and tie when he was invited to the Northern California Area Emmy Awards, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences\u2019 regional chapter that includes Hawai\u2018i. His documentary series, Back to the Wild<\/em>, received five nominations. Grateful to have simply been in the same room as some of the industry\u2019s best, Potter reluctantly prepared a 30-second speech in the off chance his name would be called.<\/p>\n The presenter announced his name all right \u2014 again and again and again.<\/p>\n \u201cI ran out of stuff to say,\u201d Potter says, laughing.<\/p>\n A rambunctious, yet determined, Sam Potter sold mangoes on the side of the road to save up for his first camera.<\/p><\/div>\n The K\u014dloa, Kaua\u2018i, native took home all five awards in the categories of best human-interest news, host, director, editor and photographer \u2014 the latter honor he shares with two members of his team, Drew Longest and Cory Martin.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I got that fifth one (for hosting), it blew my mind,\u201d says Potter. \u201cIt was not expected at all. I felt like we weren\u2019t even supposed to be there. We were going up against big production companies with giant budgets.\u201d<\/p>\n Sam Potter (right), with brother Ford, take in their island home.<\/p><\/div>\n A month later, he\u2019s still somewhat at a loss for words, which seems rare for the naturally charismatic individual, who, as a kid, was banned from his peers\u2019 birthday parties because he was deemed the token wild child.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was never malicious,\u201d says Potter. \u201cIt was just always a lot of energy and, I almost want to use the word fearlessness, too. I was game for anything. I would not only get myself in trouble, but I had a way of corralling everyone to get in trouble with me.<\/p>\n The 27-year-old Emmy Award winner is always up for an adventure.<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t bad trouble, it was just fun trouble,\u201d he adds with a cheeky smile. \u201cYeah, I was a handful.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s this boy-like curiosity and zest for life that now lead Potter on grand adventures of trekking mountaintops, jumping off cliffs and swimming with sea creatures 16 times his size. But without a camera to document it all, these stunts might be considered ones of a madman who has a dangerous streak and a death wish.<\/p>\n Growing up in the small town of K\u014dloa had its perks for Potter (middle), like roaming around on bikes with his brothers, Ford and Dex.<\/p><\/div>\n It\u2019s a good thing, then, that Potter is always at the ready with his camera (or cameraman) in tow. Though he\u2019s working with some pretty serious equipment nowadays, it all started with an early 2000s point-and-shoot lens.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could say I was always really business-minded,\u201d he shares. \u201cI would buy my uncle\u2019s mangoes for 10 cents a pop, take them to the corner \u2026 and have tourists buy them off me for like 20 bucks. I was 8 years old and I would come home with like $400 or $500.<\/p>\n \u201cI saved up my mango money and all my silver dollars and everything, and I bought a camera.\u201d<\/p>\n Like any new toy, the device\u2019s thrill eventually faded, and Potter didn\u2019t pick it back up until high school.<\/p>\n \u201cI just always wanted something to be good at,\u201d admits the Kaua\u2018i High School alum. \u201cAll my friends were good at something and I felt like I had nothing that was a skill that was going to help me in life, or help me make money or build a career, or even loved to do. When I picked up a camera, what I loved about it was its versatility; I could take it and do everything I wanted to do. I didn\u2019t have a box \u2014 I wasn\u2019t a surfer or spearfisherman; I wasn\u2019t a hiker or camper. I was everything. I wanted to do everything, and the camera kind of let me do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Professionally, Potter started his career by shooting commercials for local companies, and when Instagram took off, he began creating content for influencers (otherwise known as social media users with a large following).<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I saw influencers making 10 times more than I was, and I was doing all the work \u2026 I was like, \u2018I\u2019m going to flip this camera around and build a platform.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n With consistency and dedication, Potter gained a sizable following (as of print, he has 241,000 followers on Instagram) \u2014 and, in doing so, worked with leading national brands \u2014 but it left him feeling empty and unfulfilled.<\/p>\n \u201cI became an \u2018influencer,\u2019 but that came with a lot of talking about myself,\u201d he shares. \u201cI was blessed with the opportunity to travel the world, but everything I was capturing and talking about was, \u2018Look where I\u2019m at\u2019 or \u2018Look who I\u2019m with.\u2019 It was super surface level and \u2018flex-y.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI was traveling the world, having all of these life-changing experiences in my soul and my being \u2014 I was changing as a person \u2014 and none of my work was reflecting that.\u201d<\/p>\n So, Potter flipped the script and began telling other people\u2019s stories instead. And, not just anyone, but Indigenous people\u2019s, whose voices are often unheard and underrepresented in today\u2019s media. This includes the Waorani people fighting to protect their homeland from massive oil companies; a Native Hawaiian man named Kaina Makua seeking to perpetuate traditional practices; and the Kazakh eagle hunters, whose generation-spanning connection to golden eagles keeps their culture alive.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I see someone working so hard for something way bigger than themselves, it inspires me and I can\u2019t help but wonder what I can do to make a film about that,\u201d says Potter.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I\u2019m able to do this because of Hawai\u2018i \u2014 because I grew up on Kaua\u2018i. It taught me how to be a good guest,\u201d he continues. \u201cEven though this is my home, I\u2019m still a guest here. I\u2019m a haole boy. I\u2019m a first generation. I learned how to be a guest, and, in doing that, it allowed me to tell these stories around the world and eventually come home and tell the stories here and do it in a respectful and humble way.\u201d<\/p>\n At first, he collaborated with small production companies, but then COVID hit, and everything was put on pause.<\/p>\n \u201cI was kind of bent because I felt like I was so close. I felt like \u2018Under a Mongolian Sky\u2019 (about the eagle hunters) was so close to the film I really wanted to make,\u201d says Potter. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to put into words, but it\u2019s a film that tells a really good story and I want to play all the roles; I want to play as a producer, director, writer and host.\u201d<\/p>\n Potter heard whispers from big executives and networks, but nothing came to fruition, leaving him with only one option.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018OK, whatever, I\u2019m going to do it myself and I\u2019m going to go out and make the best possible series I can,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Enter Back to the Wild<\/em>, a documentary series that follows Potter as he \u201cconnects with people who maintained a connection to the natural world,\u201d to hear him tell it.<\/p>\n \u201cI find those are the stories that intrigue me the most,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen people have an understanding and relationship with their place, they have a superpower. There\u2019s something about them, like an aura, glow or happiness. It\u2019s an understanding of their purpose that I think is really rare to find.\u201d<\/p>\n Boasting six episodes, the series takes viewers on a journey to South Africa, Mo\u2019orea and Hawai\u2018i, and, as of print, has tallied more than 1.1 million views. The last episode, titled \u201cThe Coral Gardeners,\u201d follows fellow island boy Titouan Bernicot, who\u2019s determined to save the world\u2019s coral reefs through restoration efforts and community awareness. Given Potter\u2019s pure fascination with Bernicot \u2014 and the two\u2019s obvious kinship \u2014 there\u2019s no wonder why this installment was the one to win the Emmys.<\/p>\n \u201cHe started a little coral garden right outside his house,\u201d Potter says. \u201cHe also harnessed the power of social media and got it out to the world and \u2026 now he\u2019s hired 30-plus individuals in his community, all island kids who would\u2019ve otherwise been in the tourism industry or doing something else, but now they have a legitimate job where they\u2019re learning about their coral reefs. That alone, I was just so proud of him \u2026 he created a job where people just connect with \u2018\u0101ina.<\/p>\n He continues, \u201cThat episode is what I was trying to create my whole career \u2026 It was a big milestone for me. I could show this to a Netflix executive, like, \u2018Dude, check this out. This is what I was able to do by myself. Let\u2019s do something together.\u2019 It just feels network ready, which is a big goal of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, if Potter wasn\u2019t already being eyed for his own TV show, he certainly should be now after his mostly self-funded passion project that he created with just two friends won five of the biggest awards possible for its class.<\/p>\n \u201cGrowing up on an island, you sometimes feel like you\u2019re in the middle of nowhere, but Nainoa Thompson (Polynesian Voyaging Society president and expert navigator) said it best: \u2018We have to start knowing we\u2019re in the middle of everywhere.\u2019 I want the Emmys to represent that we\u2019re capable of anything, and not only are we capable of anything, we\u2019re unique; we have something that no one else has.<\/p>\n \u201cTo the kids who watch my stuff and watch my road and see where I\u2019ve gotten to, I did it all here, I did it all on Kaua\u2018i. Sure, I traveled, but I was never trying to be something of the mainland. I was never trying to replicate some process I saw an influencer do in LA. I was authentic to who I was, and I found that there is power in our uniqueness and power in being from Hawai\u2018i. I would encourage everyone to keep that in their mind and in their heart: Hawai\u2018i makes me unique and special. I\u2019m not some kid from nowhere, I can achieve big things, and being from Hawai\u2018i, it\u2019s going to lift me up.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s evident where Potter is from, and the board shorts and his near-permanent shaka aren\u2019t the only giveaway. It\u2019s in the way he treats everyone he meets, where his passion lies and how he moves through life with aloha as his guide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A wild child at heart, Sam Potter lives out his dreams of traveling the world, telling stories and winning EMMY..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover-story"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekhawaii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/dscf0009.jpg\")
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