Sam Luk
Directing
Biography
Canadian writer-director Sam Luk makes narrative films about inner life and human connection, exploring the poetic nature of memory and the imagination under the mutability of spacetime and identity. His first short film, INVINCIBLE SPRING, was inducted into the permanent film catalogue at ARTos Cultural and Research Foundation in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 2016. His second short film, YOU ARE MY PRESENT, signed with Hewes Pictures in 2017, who distributed the film to Amazon Prime US and UK. The rest of his work is now distributed by the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. Sam is also credited as a finishing editor for the broadcast series THE WILD CANADIAN YEAR, directed by Jeff Turner, produced by CBC’s THE NATURE OF THINGS WITH DAVID SUZUKI. He holds the same title for many theatrical features, including the animated feature film WINDOW HORSES directed by Ann Marie Fleming and produced by the NFB. In 2021, one of Sam's feature scripts was shortlisted at the Whistler Film Festival Screenwriter’s Lab. In 2023, with support from Canada Council for the Arts, Sam completed production for PIECES WITHIN, an indirect proof-of-concept for the feature he is currently developing.
Known For
A poet's muse calls on his inner child to save their relationship.
Pieces Within
James, a sensitive young artist, is torn between nostalgia for his childhood and a longing for success in modern society. Modified memories of his lost love as a child are clashed with scenes from his current infatuation with an unfaithful businesswoman.
Invincible Spring
Wounded from his past, Sam is a self-doubting dreamer who discovers a rare and intense attraction to a stranger on a bus. He fantasizes about different scenarios of approaching the girl but never finds the courage to actually do so. Conflicted, Sam takes the audience into his own mind, where he confronts his long-time ex-girlfriend, Marie, face to face.
You Are My Present
The water-like nature of life and death is juxtaposed against a woman's inner voice in search of its own identity. She travels deep into her residual memories of an ancient and foreign land, with which she shares a mysterious familiarity like a past life. She witnesses its destruction, before seeing its resurrection unfold in the present.
Dream of Water and Song
Samwise and Stevie grew up with homelessness in BC and Nova Scotia. Ianos is a gender-queer Greek. Kwaku is a single father who came from extreme poverty and famine.