Ms. Cutler had a desire to tell stories on film, which, she said, came from an earlier passion for storytelling through modern dance. She is currently a documentary film producer for Universal Studios. Her credits include the 2023 biopic “Carlos,” about Carlos Santana, and “Breakaway,” ESPN’s “30 for 30” series about the W.N.B.A. player Maya Moore.
Like Mr. Friedman, she was raised Jewish in a not particularly religious household. She has one older brother, Aaron, and two younger brothers, Jake and Charlie. Her parents, Beth and David Cutler, divorced when she was in preschool.
Before she earned a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College, where she majored in dance and English, she was drawn to the energy at the Friedmans’ house.
“His mother was an accomplished doctor, but she also had this penchant for vintage clothing,” she said. “The whole family was bohemian and artistic.” His father, a hobbyist photographer, kept a darkroom in the house that sparked his son’s love of photography.
When Ms. Friedman was organizing the 2017 jazz club meet-up in Manhattan, Ms. Cutler was living in Greenwich Village and working as a producer at a production company. Ms. Friedman was finishing a degree in Philadelphia.
“Elias and I kept bumping into each other all over New York,” Ms. Cutler said. “We’d see each other in Union Square, in the West Village, in SoHo. We liked the same museums and the same neighborhoods.” Each time they met, Mr. Friedman would suggest they hang out and pass her his phone so she could punch in her number. “By the time he handed his phone over for the fourth time, he had four Samantha Cutlers in there,” she said. “He kept saving my number.”
