Sam Wells (November 4, 1950 – June 3, 2011) was an American experimental filmmaker and photographer based in Princeton, New Jersey. He is best known for the film Wired Angel (1999),[1] an avant-garde feature inspired by the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Filmed on high-contrast black-and-white reversal film[2] and featuring a musical score written by Academy Award-winning composer Joe Renzetti, Wired Angel was well received at underground film festivals in both Chicago[3] and New York,[2][4] with Film Threat magazine naming it one of the best unseen films of 2001.[5]
Wells' 1990 short film The Talking Rain played at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival.[6] He exhibited sections of his Vietnam-inspired film and digital media installation Fragrance of Ghosts at William Paterson University in 2007.[7]
Wells was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003.[8] In 2006, he was the recipient of an Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.[9]