On the night of Luke Korem’s graduation from Texas A&M in 2005, he was lying on a friends couch wondering to himself how he was going to make it in the film industry with a degree in economics.
Today, Korem is the director, editor and writer of the four time award winning documentary, “Dealt.”
“Dealt” tells the story of Richard Turner, a world renowned card magician — or card mechanic as he is referred to in the documentary. The film delivers Turner’s story as he performs complex card tricks, wins awards for his talent, travels all over the country and exceeds in his performance all while being completely blind.
Korem said he has been passionate about creating films since he was a teenager. Throughout college he spent most of his free time making videos for organizations and events such as Breakaway and Songfest. Although his major was economics, he said becoming a filmmaker was always his end goal, even though his after-college plans weren’t quite outlined.
“I started making local commercials in College Station,” Korem said. “I landed a job with a company that had not gone public as their video person, and that eventually lead to me making my first film called ‘Lord Montagu.’ It’s about a British aristocrat. It was totally out of the blue. Really it’s not exactly the career path I would recommend someone going on, but I really enjoyed it because I never knew what was coming next.”
After “Lord Montagu,” Korem started working on “Dealt.” Korem said he was able to get in touch with Richard Turner after a friend had spread the word about Turner’s unique story.
According to Turner, this was not his first film offer. Agencies from Los Angeles and New York were interested in making a documentary about jim, but after consulting close friend and producer Dave McFadzean, Korem and his team were the ones Richard Turner ultimately placed confidence in.
“I trust Texans more than I trust Hollywood,” Turner said. “Luke grew up knowing magic. He had a knowledge of it. And they were just really cool dudes, they were nice guys.”
According to Turner, trust between the two parties grew throughout the making of the film.
“Luke is like my brother,” Turner said. “Not like a son, even though he’s young enough to be my son, but he’s become more like a brother. We absolutely enjoy each other’s company and he’s a first class man with honesty, integrity and talent.”
Turner said Korem has an incredible work ethic, which is something Korem credits to his experience at Texas A&M.
“I think something that was drilled in my head is that there are a lot of talented people and the thing that is going to separate you is work ethic,” Korem said. “A lot of people that I met at A&M were very serious about what they were going to do when they got out of school. Even in class they were really working hard, being honest, being sincere and working with others. Just having a really good work ethic. I met a lot of people who were really focused and it helped me with what I wanted to do.”
Kim Turner, Richard’s wife, said she believes the movie helped Richard become more willing to talk about his blindness and the impact it had on his life. Although his journey started before filming, Kim said the film helped a lot with Richard accepting his blindness.
“We think the world of Luke,” Kim said. “We couldn’t have asked for a better director, editor and person to have come into our lives and to put it on film. It’s quite an amazing thing to have happened.”