Sam Wrench

Sam Wrench (birthname: Samuel Wrench) is a director who known as a skilled chronicler of superstar pop music performers, both in documentary portraits and in concert. After directing music videos of recording artist Gabriella Cilmi in 2012 and 2013, Wrench’s feature debut was Mary J. Blige: The London Sessions (2015), a documentary portrait of Blige working in London.

Wrench then directed the more widely acclaimed documentary, Blur: New World Towers (2015), about the group Blur which premiered at the prestigious Copenhagen-based CPH: DOX. Sam Wrench displayed his eclectic taste in music subjects with his documentary feature on the brilliant American music ensemble, Mumford & Sons, with Mumford & Sons: We Wrote This Yesterday (2016).

Four years later, after directing several TV awards productions, music videos, and TV specials, Wrench returned to feature films with two country music concert movies, both titled Encore Drive-In Nights (2020), the first with headliner performer Blake Shelton and guest performers Gwen Stefani and Trace Adkins; the second headlining Kane Brown, with guest artists Grangers Smith, Jimmie Allen, and Lauren Alaina.

Wrench jumped into K-Pop with his concert feature, BTS: Permission to Dance on Stage—LA (2022), profiling the Korean supergroup, BTS, playing live at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Also filmed in Los Angeles, but in a more intimate setting in the city’s sylvan Laurel Canyon neighborhood, was Wrench’s next music documentary, Brandi Carlile: In the Canyon Haze Live (2022), in which Carlile performed arrangements of songs from her album, In These Silent Days.

Wrench made one of his biggest concert movies with Billie Eilish Live at the O2 (Extended Cut) (2023), capturing Eilish’s show (based on her Coachella 2022 show) in performance at London’s O2 arena. In his biggest gig to date, Wrench filmed pop’s biggest act, Taylor Swift, over three nights at SoFi Stadium for the highly anticipated Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023).