Interview with Sam Firstenberg (Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo) and Michael Dennis on RIVERBEND!!

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You are now listening to the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast Network.
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Whoa whoa, whoa whoa?
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Ohoa, Okay, okay, okay, okay, I'm ready. I'm ready.
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Welcome to Split Your Head, a biweekly podcast hosted by
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me Bob that covers the gamut of all things horror, exploitation, cult, underground, experimental, transgressive, bizarre,
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and indie. I've been fortunate enough to connect with some
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of the most groundbreaking and upcoming filmmakers, writers.
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And artists.
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Don't expect a typical interview. I love shooting the shoot
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with my guests and stumbling on surprising topics that literally
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split our heads. From spider comedies to nihilistic sleeves, a
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comfortable art house to genre classics forgets my brain buzzing
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and cracking wide open like a watermelon full of blood
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that I would like to share with your emails now
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part of the Someone's Favorite Productions Podcast Network.
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Hi Mom, Hello there, and welcome back.
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What is this place that's connected?
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It's connected, that's corrected.
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I've reached the number that has been disconnected.
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Hello there, everyone, and welcome back to the disc Connected.
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You won't know this, but this is actually take two
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of a conversation with mister Mike Dennis and Sam Furstenberg. Gentlemen,
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thanks so much for doing this again.
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Oh qu sure, wonderful. We love to be on your show.
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It's wonder We are here to talk about a movie
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that I've been anticipating for a long time, and that
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is Riverband. Sam, you are the director of Riverband. Can
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you tell us what Riverband is?
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Correct? Riverband is a very very unique, interesting movie. I
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wouldn't say it's a provocative subject. It deals with the
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racial injustice in the segregated South in the nineteen sixties
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during the height of the civil rights movements, so it's controversial,
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it's different. It has a twist and turns in it
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which are I don't want to to get your older spoilers,
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and fantastic ending, really unexpected ending. The star of the
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movie is Steve James that I worked with him in
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American Ninja one and American Ninja two, also in another movie,
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Avenging Force, and the co star is Margaret Avery, the
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leading lady Margaret Avery from the color Purple and so overall,
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and there is some other great great actors, great performances,
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interesting subject and more or less it tells the story
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of three soldiers, three black soldiers who are coming back
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from Vietnam to the South, to the Deep South. They
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are not from the South, they are from Chicago, from California,
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and they witness the injustice. They see what's happening in
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a small town which is called Riverbend, and and they
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want to correct. They decide to correct the situation, the
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bigotry which is going on in the town, and the
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way they know to do it is a military way,
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the way they they learned in being in the military
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in Vietnam. And the rest of the story is the
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unrevealing the evolution of what has happened in this little town,
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which they take the lead in helping the locals to
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resolve the problem. That's as much as I can reveal
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for now.
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Well, on that note, Mike, can you share why you're
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here and you got stuck with the project for one
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that you've been working on for years, stuck in a
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way that it's a it's a mission and that you've
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been longing to accomplish for a very long time.
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I think it chose it chose me somehow. The serendipity
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is incredible and that's what's been keeping us going but
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basically Riverbend. It was a movie that you know, I
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was dangerously It was never exploited on any physical media
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outside of VHS, right. It never played on cable TV,
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it never made it to laser disc, it didn't make
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it to DVD. So during the pandemic, or a little
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bit before I started, I had a brick and mortar
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screening series I ran for sixteen years in Philadelphia, and
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we never ran Riverbend there. But I after I closed
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shopped there, I decided I'd start putting rarities from my
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collection on YouTube, and one of them happened to be Riverbend.
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And maybe about three months later, I got an email
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from Sam First and and I'm thinking, oh, this is
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gonna be a cease and desist, you know, he says,
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I said, because the subject line was I'm Sam Personverg,
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director of Riverbend. And I opened it up and said, no,
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you're doing the movie a great service. Thank you for
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putting it up and sharing it. It was independently produced
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and it needs to be seen by as many people
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as possible.
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Right.
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So, and what Sam didn't mention is that this film
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is unique in the sense that it shows black people
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teaching one another, how to stand up against their oppressor, right,
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So that automatically interests me. My YouTube channel is all
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about black empowerment, and I was just curious about how
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the film got made, so we started setting interviews with
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Sam Me and Charles Woods, who actually turned me onto
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the film in the first place. And in the process,
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while we were talking, a thirty five millimeter print of
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the film shows up on eBay and I didn't know what.
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I didn't know what to do, but I knew it
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was a rare circumstance or instance, so I put a
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bit on it won it. It was in South Africa,
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of all places, and it literally took about three or
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four months for it to show up at my house.
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It was packed in a cardboard box with all kinds
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of tape on it and everything, and it sat under
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my desk for a good six or eight months, and
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then I decided I should get the scanned and see
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see what the quality is, you know, and maybe we
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can show it around. And we did that and the
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scan was it was The print was horrible. I mean,
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Sam can take it from there, you know.
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But yeah, it was a print that was thirty five
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millimeter print. The way we used to see movies, and
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maybe it was to run through screening machines hundreds of time.
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You know, not all projectors are good. Some projectors scratches.
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It was heavily scratch and dirt. You know, when there
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is dirt on the print, it shows immediately in the
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in the digitized copy. But there is a process of cleaning.
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Mike Michael found somebody who who knows the technology of cleaning,
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and the digital copy was cleaned from all the scratches
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and from all the spots, the dirt spots, which was amazing.
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But to our disappointment, we found out that six scenes
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were cut out of the print, either to make it
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short for any other reason that we don't understand, probably
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to make it it's longer than ninety minutes. And you
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know in theaters the best, the best movies for timing
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is ninety minutes. So six scenes were missing, and we
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couldn't scan that. The quality of the VHS that existed
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is very very i can say, very poor quality, very
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poor visual quality. So we tried, Michael tried to transfer
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from the vhs, but it looked terrible. It was very
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poor compared with the with the fantastic at the time,
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it was two K resolution of the transfer to dig
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the digit digital transfer and suddenly those scenes. So this
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was the fate of this and we went Michael Wright.
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We went to few festivals with this digital premiere.
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That's a serendipity. So Craig Rogers everybody watching those you know,
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who was part of Deaf Crocodile Video label. He did
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the initial restoration of the thirty five minuilimeter release print
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that was cut, and we premiered that in Denton, Texas
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in January of twenty twenty four, right so at the
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Denton Black Film Festival. And it was there that we
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met Valerie Van who was one of the original producers
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and her nephew Marcus, who plays the Sun in the movie.
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And if it wasn't for them, we would not be
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here talking about a Blu ray release or anything like
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that because they helped us secure the rights and access
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the original interpositive and internegative and original thirty five million
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sound elements as well. So what we have now that's
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gonna premiere in February around in theaters around the country,
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starting in New York and Philadelphia, is a pristine six
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K restoration done by Austin Squittieri of Real Revival. Wow.
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Out of the four original producers, which one of them
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was the writer Sam Vince wrote the script to this movie,
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only one is still involved with us is Hillary Vance.
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She was one of the producer. She helped the wife
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of Advance, and she helped him in writing I remember
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at the time, and thankfully she's still here. We still
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you know, even for the screening in Texas, we managed
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to found we found the stunt coordinator of the movie.
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He lives in Texas, Mike, Mike Shank. He came to
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the screening later on. For later screening we got some
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of the cast members. Michael will tell you about it.
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So there are pretty still many people. We found the
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original composer of the music, he's from Texas. So still
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pretty many people who are involved in making this movie
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are still around. And as we advance, we find and
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we make connection with more and more of them. So
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this is very nice. Just sadly enough, the writer, the
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brain behind the story, he is not with us anymore.
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He passed away.
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Steve of course also Simmons.
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I don't think we went into the serendipity there as
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much as we probably could have. What what happened in
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Denton because it sounded like I was just playing for
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us to meet up with Valerie. But that's not exactly
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how it went. Right.
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Well, I mean we started to thank God for YouTube again, right,
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So we started doing like little promo pieces to advertise
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the Denton screening, and Marcus Coleman happened to see one
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of them and told his aunt Valerie, Hey, they're bringing
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Riverband back to Texas. You know you want to go?
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And the and Harry and and Linda Edie at the
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Denton Black Film as well. They were so gracious they
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provided accommodations for them to come to Texas and be
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with us on very short notice. But we hit it
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off right away, So that that was the serendipity.
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Yeah, because we will For a long time, we were
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looking more Wiz was more Michael. He was looking for
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the event says for all the producers and could not
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find they just disappeared. Eventually he made contact with the
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other two producers not with Valor Events, and one day
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I'm getting an email from Valeri Events. So she found
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us eventually, after a long process. Michael really put a
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lot of energy into trying to find her, but couldn't,
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and because he moved a few addresses and telephone different
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telephone numbers, and suddenly she found us. So that's how,
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And it was only a few days before the screening
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in the festival.
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But Ryan, get this one though, This is even more
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incredible how things connect, right. I mean, I really believe
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in what they said the power of the universe and
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when you start to like take a step forward, things
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that happen. So after Denton and there was a premiere
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screening of a movie called Naked Acts, which was going
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to be at the Lightbox Film Center, and I teach
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it as a black film that I was very much
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aware of, and so I made an extra credit assignment
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for my students at Temple University to attend, and we
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got free tickets to go, and you know, the majority
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of the class came and I filmed the Q and A,
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which is on the YouTube channel. But what happened. I
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happened to be sitting next to Dennis Doros of Milestone Films,
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and at the end of the screening, I happened to
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tell him about Riverbend and the fact that we just
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did a premiere but we had a release print. We
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couldn't find the negative, and there was you know, we
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couldn't go any further. And he said, well, you know
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I have this organization Missing Movies dot org. Let me
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make a few phone calls. And this was on a
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Wednesday night, I think by Friday said, I found the negative.
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It's a photo kem.
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The original negative.
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Yeah. So we had to go through some legal maneuverings
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to be able to access the negative and all the
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thirty five millimeters elements. But again, you know, if I
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didn't bring my students to the screening and happened to
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talk to Dennis, we wouldn't be here today.
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So Milestone is a company that has put out some
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incredible underseen black cinema already. So it's literally just people
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lifting each other up through this entire process. And I
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love to hear that Milestone is one of those companies
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that I feel like people are still sleeping on in
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many different ways that they'll mention, hey, this movie's never
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gotten attention. Then you find out Milestone put out that
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one and five others from the same director, and you're like, well,
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come on, they're out there.
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They have all the Charles Burnettes.
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Yeah exactly. Yeah, Sam, you are somebody that is known
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for a lot of different movies. You're known for, of course,
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Break In Two, known for the Ninja films, known for
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a lot of very different style movies than this one.
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So what originally got you into Riverbend?
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In a way, luck, I was, as you mentioned, I
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was involved. I kind of my career led me into
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action and especially especially martial art action movies Revenge of
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the Ninja and Ninja Tree American Ninja. But in between
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I made some other movies like Breaking to Electric Google
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and later on others. And I directed another action movie
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which was not martial art, which is called Avenging Force
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with Steve James and Michael Dudikov, the two stars of
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American Ninja. So by now I already made three movies.
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I had a chance to work to direct Steve James
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in three movies, and one day I was approached. My
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agent told me that someone is interested in me as
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a director and they will send the script. And this
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script arrived. It was called at the time, it was
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called Night of the Eagles, not the Riverbend, and yeah,
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they had a different name. So I read the script
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and wow, I was so excited that that's really interested.
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You know, social issues and historical in the South in
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the sixties. And you know, even I grew up with
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these kind of movies to kill American Heat of the
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Night and those kind of movies that I grew up
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with those movies. I I got very excited, so apparently,
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I think, and not strangely but untypical. This movie was
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privately financed. It was not a company that financed the movie.
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It was private money that financed the movie. So they
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approached me through the agent they looked for me, I guess,
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those four producers and they approached me to an agent
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that I had at the time. Apparently probably, I would say,
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because I worked with Steve James for the three times
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and they were interested in Steve James. So I think
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that's how Destiny My Path and the Path of Riverband
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crossed and each other and and and got together. I
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was very excited when I read this script, really interesting.
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I really wanted to direct it. Eventually they liked me.
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I like them very much, the producers. They want me
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to help in bringing Steve James into this project. I
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knew it's not going to be any problem to bring
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Steve James. He would love this project. Because I read
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the script and I knew you, but this was a
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matter of luck. But I knew that he would like
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There was no question leader military Steve, Steve, how he
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wanted to his image to be and and what what
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Mike is alluding to. It was okay. When we made
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the movie Avenging Force, Steve plays a black politician in
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New Orleans who is running for office and there is
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some white supremacy group, but they don't like the idea.
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Eventually they assassinate him, and Steve really didn't like the
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idea that he dies in the middle of a movie.
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I read everything with Chuck Norris. Jack Norris never made
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any movies that he will die.
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But Steve really didn't like the idea that he but
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but this was the story, you know, the whole premise,
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the whole idea, who the stories that they assassinate this politician,
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they don't want him.
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And he always told me, you owe me. I'm doing
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it for you. I'm doing it for you because I
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know we made American, but you owe me. And so
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it happened that the chance came that I could repay Steve.
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I have something for you. You know, I owe you.
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You always mad, but when you read the script, he
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will accept it. That's it. I don't owe you anymore
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after this movie. So, so everything came together perfect. It's
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not going to say some universal powers bring everything together.
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We don't know how.
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Mike Steve is Steve's icon obviously in a lot of
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different ways. Can you can you share who Steve was?
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For everybody that has never seen a Steve James film.
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Well, I mean, you know, my first introduction to Steve
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James was not in American Ninja or neither Martial Arts
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or action cannon films. It was first Hollywood Shuffle and
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then later I'm going to Get You Sucker, where he
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plays Kung Fu Joe and I you know, but he's
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he was a very versatile actor who got to start
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going all the way back to education at Sony Carson.
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He has a very small appearance there in nineteen seventy four,
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I believe it was, And he worked until nineteen ninety
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three when he died at a very young age of
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pancreatic cancer at age forty one, I believe. But he's
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probably best known for his collaborations with Sam Furstenberg and
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you know, but you'll see him pop up in small
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parts in lots of movies like Brother from Another Planet,
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to Live and Die in La He worked with William
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Freakin quite a bit as well as Sam and Weekend
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at bernice'e two. He has a memorable little scene or
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two in there, so you know, just gone too soon.
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A lot of people feel like, a he should have
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been the next American Ninja when Michael Dudkoff left a
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lot of people believe that he would have he should
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have taken over the franchise.
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And or its the next American Action hero in a
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way outside the the Ninja franchise.
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Yeah, or or that he would have been the next
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person to be the black action star, which Snapsen eventually
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became Michael dry White eventually became all those people that
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we recognize now. Will Smith even stand on the shoulders
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of Steve James.
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I heard, Mike and Ryan I heard I heard two
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weeks ago. Very interesting story. I didn't know. We had
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a screening of American Ninja in Atlanta two weeks ago,
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and the reason we did it because the producer of
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the movie American Ninja, Gideon Amir, lives in Atlanta and
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works in Atlanta, so we decided to do for the
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anniversary screening and while I was talking with him, and
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we were talking, and he reminded me that he suggested
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Steve James for the part because he saw him in
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the movie The Mask. M hm, he said, he told me, Gideon,
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the producer, said the minute I saw we were either
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in the middle of writing it or whatever. And he
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said he told me that the minute he saw him
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on the screen in the movie The Mask, he knew
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that he would be Jackson in America Ninja. He's the
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right guy to be Jazing. So I didn't remember that
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Steve was in The Mask.
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All right. So Riverband has been making a name for itself,
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mostly because of Mike pushing it out there for everybody.
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But over this last six months or so, it's really
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getting a name. And the big thing is you just
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had the like West Coast premiere in LA for the
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first time. Tell us about the event, because when we
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first heard this was happening, I never expected to hear
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by all the Davis involved.
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Neither, But listen, we found out the story. There is
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a whole story how the negative was found, detective story.
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Mike just him about it, but that's a that's a
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technical And then there was another little operation to somehow
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to get the rights because the people who owned the
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rights the company went bankrupt. The owners of the company
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all passed away and the rights. It's a complicated issue,
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but the rights were lingering in the earth, the rights
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to the movie neither here nor other. You cannot show
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the movie without permits. No theater will show a movie
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without permits. And there was nowhere to bring the permits from.
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But anyway, Michael had a lawyer and they untangled it
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and eventually we got the right. And then then parallel,
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we found out that the movie never had a screening
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in the West Coast. It had few screening in the
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East Coast, but never any screening in the in the
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West Coast. So Michael purred out. We purred out together
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with the American Cinema Tech, and we decided, together with
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the American Cinematic to present the first premier, the West
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Coast premiere that never happened four years ago, to do
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it now four years later. So this was the premiere.
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And luckily enough, three of the actors lives in Los
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Angeles and the representative of Steve James's daughter, So let's
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say four actors are living in the Los Angeles area.
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Of course Margaret Avery, the lead, Alex Alex and the
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two co stars of SI and Debbie James, the daughter
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of Steve James. So Michael made it most of the
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connection to all of them, and they all came to
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the screening and Michael tell us the surprise the actors
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who came, and the surprise we had the.
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Serah deputy again, you know, so I mean the other
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00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:06.200
was Alex Morris and Julius Tennant were the two other
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soldiers that along with Steve James in the movie. And
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by coincidence, you know, Julius Tennant happens to be married
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to Violet Davis. And we knew we're going to do
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this premiere and I said, well, we have to give
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Margaret Avery her flowers, right, And I had somebody else
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in mine to like another actor woman actor to present
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the flowers, but they were not available. So I went
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to my friend, you know, chat GPT, and I literally
399
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typed in. I said, of all the talented black actors
400
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in America, who has most followed in the footsteps of
401
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Margaret Avery? And the very first answer was Violet Davis.
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So I said, you know, what are the odds of that?
403
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You know? And Julius happens to be married to her,
404
00:25:59.839 --> 00:26:03.519
so you know not there was a very little coaching involved,
405
00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:06.839
but she she came, she saw the movie, loved it,
406
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gave it a great endorsement, and then before that she
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she gave Margaret a bouquet of flowers and some very
408
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kind words that I hope you'll share on this podcast.
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Everyone please give a very warm welcome to Egot winner
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Viola Davis.
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Oh, I love her.
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Yeah, we've spent some time together, Margaret. What are we
413
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supposed to do?
414
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They just asked me to say some words to you,
415
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and you know, I love you, sis, and and you
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know I admire you. You one of the beacons, one
417
00:27:06.920 --> 00:27:10.400
of the acting beacons out there. Thank you, you know,
418
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and you absolutely inspired me when I was on the
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periphery just looking for a way in and I saw you.
420
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You're always a beacon of truth and vulnerability and soft
421
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power and always memorable. And you need to hear that
422
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because we don't often hear that. And so I want
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to honor you. And I want to do a double
424
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whammy here because I.
425
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Don't I don't want to go on and on.
426
00:27:46.839 --> 00:27:50.759
Okay, but you happen to be in the center of
427
00:27:50.799 --> 00:27:55.200
a movie that still resonates today. I was totally in it.
428
00:27:55.200 --> 00:27:59.200
It's amazing that this movie where it's a town where
429
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we've been raped and pillaged and killed in damaged, and
430
00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:09.559
we still have to fight to be heard. And it's
431
00:28:09.640 --> 00:28:13.960
always great to see that female power and energy in there,
432
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that energy of love, of a reminder of our humanity,
433
00:28:22.519 --> 00:28:28.319
you know, and cry. So I'm going to honor you,
434
00:28:28.519 --> 00:28:32.799
honor this movie which still you know, we need this
435
00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:38.519
right now, We need something that reminds us that we
436
00:28:38.799 --> 00:28:45.640
still have the power to fight back. Okay, but I
437
00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:47.160
love you, Margaret.
438
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I love you back and that woman king Lord, and
439
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I bow to you.
440
00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:57.559
You were buffed. Thank you.
441
00:28:57.880 --> 00:29:01.279
Oh my goodness, this will it's so wonderful.
442
00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:05.480
I mean, you inspire me. Thank you.
443
00:29:06.319 --> 00:29:07.240
Here you go, Queen.
444
00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:16.319
What can I say by all of Davis honoring me?
445
00:29:19.279 --> 00:29:21.799
And she's a few words of the decay. She talked
446
00:29:21.799 --> 00:29:26.359
about the you know, the legacy of Margaret Avery.
447
00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:30.759
And big ups to Amani Davis and the whole crew
448
00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:34.240
at at the American Cinema Tech. They they could not
449
00:29:34.400 --> 00:29:37.319
we could not have been treated better. It was fantastic
450
00:29:37.400 --> 00:29:41.400
thirty five years in the making. Los Angeles premiere on
451
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September fourteenth, twenty twenty four October and Ryan.
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We didn't we didn't mention that what we screened. It
453
00:29:48.839 --> 00:29:52.480
was in Santa Monica, California, in a big theater, and
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00:29:52.519 --> 00:29:56.680
what we screened was an original thirty five minimeter copy
455
00:29:56.720 --> 00:30:01.440
that we found sitting alongside the Negati when I when
456
00:30:01.480 --> 00:30:07.279
I went out there to some warehouse out there at
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00:30:07.319 --> 00:30:10.920
the end of Berberg, I picked up the boxes and suddenly,
458
00:30:11.720 --> 00:30:15.480
alongside the elements, the original elements there were there was
459
00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:21.000
a print, a screening print, thirty five millimeter, original, beautiful screen,
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00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:24.039
a print that was never screened before. And that's what
461
00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:26.160
we used for the American Cinematics screen.
462
00:30:26.359 --> 00:30:30.319
Very nice, very nice print. And you know, and and
463
00:30:30.359 --> 00:30:33.640
then now for people missed that screening, we're opening it
464
00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:36.480
up in February, beginning of February. From February until the
465
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end of the year, we'll be doing spot dates around
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the country with the six K restoration. We're booking dates
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after that. So if you're in a town and you
468
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:50.559
want to see Riverbend and you you feel like there's
469
00:30:50.599 --> 00:30:53.720
a sizeable audience for it, will make the calls and
470
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we'll make it happen incredible.
471
00:30:57.000 --> 00:30:59.319
The reception in the in the premiere, how how to go?
472
00:30:59.359 --> 00:31:01.799
How many people up? Was it a major event?
473
00:31:03.440 --> 00:31:06.559
I would say so. I mean this was a big theater.
474
00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:10.400
More than half of the theater was full, like seventy
475
00:31:10.480 --> 00:31:14.319
percent of the theater was full. Not advertising nothing, People
476
00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:18.519
just you know, the world of mouth, in the Internet,
477
00:31:18.680 --> 00:31:23.799
in the Instagram, all the you know, Facebook, all of them,
478
00:31:24.160 --> 00:31:27.240
and just people showed up. Some of them were connected
479
00:31:27.279 --> 00:31:30.640
to the restoration, of course, but people just knew about
480
00:31:30.680 --> 00:31:34.680
it and learn about it and they came. It was
481
00:31:34.839 --> 00:31:41.160
very exciting. It's a it's a you know, Ryan, This
482
00:31:41.279 --> 00:31:44.640
movie was done in the end of the eighties, eight
483
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:48.680
let's say, nineteen ninety, and it came out the story
484
00:31:48.839 --> 00:31:54.880
is ninety sixty five before, so there wasn't There was
485
00:31:54.960 --> 00:31:58.359
already implication there is something to learn from the sixties
486
00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:02.480
in the development of the African American experience in America
487
00:32:03.319 --> 00:32:06.960
from the sixties to the eighties. But nowadays, when you
488
00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:12.279
see the movie, it has even bigger and amplified meaning
489
00:32:12.680 --> 00:32:16.240
or different meaning than it had in the eighties because
490
00:32:16.279 --> 00:32:19.920
we went through a lot of things happened in America
491
00:32:20.039 --> 00:32:25.720
in this field of the African American experience in America.
492
00:32:26.519 --> 00:32:31.319
So now the movie has little even more interesting implication
493
00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:33.680
when you see it audience, and we saw it also
494
00:32:33.720 --> 00:32:36.960
Michael and me with young audience with students, and they
495
00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:39.079
were like, I don't want to say they were shocked,
496
00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:40.839
but they were very.
497
00:32:41.440 --> 00:32:46.119
It stays relevant, still relevant to this day. I mean
498
00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:50.160
the movie centers on a bigoted sheriff and a small
499
00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:54.440
town who terrorizes the local black community. I mean, where
500
00:32:54.440 --> 00:32:58.400
have we heard that before? And the vances we're telling
501
00:32:58.440 --> 00:33:04.240
the story thirty five five years ago, so so you know,
502
00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:07.799
it's uh to see that. You know, art was used
503
00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:13.279
to communicate a solution back then. Can only help but
504
00:33:13.480 --> 00:33:17.200
inspire or invigreat audiences that have been denied that image
505
00:33:17.519 --> 00:33:20.279
of themselves, you know. And then also it's a very
506
00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:23.480
entertaining film. I mean people were like applauding in the
507
00:33:23.519 --> 00:33:26.359
right places. I mean it was a sizeable enough crowd
508
00:33:26.440 --> 00:33:31.920
that there was a visceral reaction. And I think while David,
509
00:33:31.960 --> 00:33:34.680
she really captured the spirit of the night for us
510
00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:35.960
in her testimony.
511
00:33:36.119 --> 00:33:41.279
So so yeah, to make the point, it's not a
512
00:33:41.319 --> 00:33:46.400
pretty movie. It's not it's not the PBS movie.
513
00:33:47.920 --> 00:33:48.480
No, there's.
514
00:33:50.200 --> 00:33:54.680
It's still a story with the good guys.
515
00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:56.680
And you know, we've been used to showing it at
516
00:33:56.759 --> 00:34:01.279
black film festivals, so it's it's a different reaction then
517
00:34:01.319 --> 00:34:04.799
showing it in Santa Monica, which is a more mixed crowd,
518
00:34:05.079 --> 00:34:08.199
and they still got it, you know. And you know,
519
00:34:08.280 --> 00:34:12.679
one of the the biggest quotes that we got was
520
00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:17.960
in Denton, the gentleman from Cinema Force. He came out,
521
00:34:18.760 --> 00:34:22.800
he lives in Texas and he said, never in a
522
00:34:22.840 --> 00:34:24.920
million years would I think that I would have an
523
00:34:24.960 --> 00:34:28.760
opportunity to see a movie directed by Sam Ferston, work
524
00:34:29.159 --> 00:34:33.800
starring Steve James that I've never even heard of in
525
00:34:34.039 --> 00:34:37.559
twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six. So it's such a
526
00:34:37.639 --> 00:34:40.599
treat for action fans and and a lot of your
527
00:34:40.719 --> 00:34:42.960
viewers as well have jumped on board with the pre
528
00:34:43.039 --> 00:34:46.159
sales of the Blu rays, so I think people know
529
00:34:46.199 --> 00:34:47.400
how much of a gem this is.
530
00:34:48.719 --> 00:34:51.119
Michael. Also the reaction in Boston. We were in the
531
00:34:51.239 --> 00:34:57.280
Roxbury Film Festival in Boston. Yeah, it was also they
532
00:34:57.320 --> 00:34:59.840
didn't know that most of the Londons didn't even expect
533
00:34:59.880 --> 00:35:01.239
the They didn't know what they're coming to see.
534
00:35:01.280 --> 00:35:03.400
Yea, it was interesting because we were in a smaller room,
535
00:35:03.599 --> 00:35:06.920
so it's a little tighter. The energy was the same,
536
00:35:07.639 --> 00:35:09.000
you know, I.
537
00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:09.480
Agree with you.
538
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:15.039
They thought it was made for them, like wow, you know,
539
00:35:15.159 --> 00:35:19.440
and and the fact that it's it was basically suppressed.
540
00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:23.079
Like I said, it never played cable. I mean, how
541
00:35:23.079 --> 00:35:27.079
many movies from the nineties or eighties can you say
542
00:35:27.119 --> 00:35:30.559
never made it to cable? You know. So there's there
543
00:35:30.599 --> 00:35:33.639
there's some conspiracy theories about why that might be.
544
00:35:37.159 --> 00:35:40.000
Yes, And what's crazy is so many of these movies.
545
00:35:40.119 --> 00:35:42.760
You know, you use the word exploited earlier, and obviously
546
00:35:43.119 --> 00:35:46.360
blaxploitation is a very common phrase that has used for
547
00:35:46.719 --> 00:35:50.159
a few different definitions, will say, but in the eighties
548
00:35:50.159 --> 00:35:53.119
and nineties a lot of these got more popular. And
549
00:35:53.159 --> 00:35:55.119
it's still amazing to me when you find one like
550
00:35:55.159 --> 00:36:00.800
this with names attached to it that was not allowed
551
00:36:01.119 --> 00:36:02.920
to happen like that. I mean, especially when it came
552
00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:05.679
out in like ninety essentially, and then you had all
553
00:36:05.679 --> 00:36:08.000
these things happen in the nineteen nineties that would have
554
00:36:08.119 --> 00:36:10.840
given rise to popularity in something like this. You'd imagine,
555
00:36:10.880 --> 00:36:13.000
like in the wake of the Rodney King stuff, that
556
00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:15.679
this would have been something that people would have wanted
557
00:36:15.719 --> 00:36:17.840
to see, like genuinely had a hunger to see it,
558
00:36:17.880 --> 00:36:20.400
And so yeah, I guess there's some stories behind why
559
00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:21.320
this may have been held back.
560
00:36:22.719 --> 00:36:26.199
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of beliefs, right Sam.
561
00:36:27.679 --> 00:36:32.360
It did not fit into the exploitation slot, definitely. You
562
00:36:32.400 --> 00:36:35.679
know it did not because suddenly you start with the movie,
563
00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:38.840
oh yeah, actually you see soldier, but suddenly it takes
564
00:36:38.840 --> 00:36:42.280
a serious turn, totally serious turn. So it doesn't fit.
565
00:36:42.360 --> 00:36:46.320
So it's out of the exploration immediately of the exploitation field.
566
00:36:46.760 --> 00:36:52.320
And anyway, the subject is provocative, it's a radical subject.
567
00:36:53.159 --> 00:36:57.719
But at the same time, Mississippi Burning also came out,
568
00:36:57.800 --> 00:37:04.960
which is eighties kind of similar. Somebody I just read
569
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:11.280
a review that somebody compared it to Mississippi Burning Mississippi.
570
00:37:11.679 --> 00:37:17.440
This movie. When it was finished, the producer sold it
571
00:37:17.480 --> 00:37:21.639
to a small company I R released, and they sold
572
00:37:21.639 --> 00:37:24.840
it or gave the right or sold the right to Paramount,
573
00:37:24.840 --> 00:37:29.400
which is a huge company. So suddenly suddenly something here
574
00:37:29.480 --> 00:37:34.440
is suspicious. How come big company will like Paramount will
575
00:37:34.440 --> 00:37:41.039
take a small movie, tiny budget movie. But orian there
576
00:37:41.119 --> 00:37:46.519
was a company Orion, which was affiliated with Paramount.
577
00:37:47.119 --> 00:37:50.400
They released a prism.
578
00:37:49.920 --> 00:37:53.800
No No, No, no Orion released Mississippi Burning.
579
00:37:54.119 --> 00:37:57.199
Oh yeah, well Ryan ends up with Riverband down the Road.
580
00:37:57.239 --> 00:38:00.360
That's what confused me because Orion was the subsist theory
581
00:38:00.440 --> 00:38:05.400
of Paramont. Paramount and Ryan or reconnected. So maybe maybe
582
00:38:05.440 --> 00:38:10.719
perhaps they did. Paramount purchased the movie in order to
583
00:38:10.840 --> 00:38:14.280
stop a competition to Mississippi Burning. I don't think it's
584
00:38:14.280 --> 00:38:17.559
a big competition because Mississippi Burning was big names, you know,
585
00:38:17.639 --> 00:38:21.480
big stars, Gin Eickman and other big stars. So I
586
00:38:21.559 --> 00:38:24.360
don't feel that it was a competition. But for them,
587
00:38:24.840 --> 00:38:28.440
for music companies, for film companies to throw a million
588
00:38:28.559 --> 00:38:31.480
dollars to buy some movie just to stop it from
589
00:38:31.840 --> 00:38:36.039
competing with another music artist or another movie. For them,
590
00:38:36.079 --> 00:38:40.519
it's nothing. It's part of the So they released it.
591
00:38:40.639 --> 00:38:45.280
Paramount released it on VHS cassette. It was just and
592
00:38:47.320 --> 00:38:52.519
very few, small amount of copies, very small amount of copies,
593
00:38:52.840 --> 00:38:58.440
and I must say, very poor visual quality, very poor
594
00:38:58.559 --> 00:39:02.679
quality the cassette. The VHISCA said that they they released
595
00:39:02.679 --> 00:39:07.039
were of a poor quality and very limited number. Yeah,
596
00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:09.440
and as I say, they only premiered it in the
597
00:39:09.679 --> 00:39:11.519
East Coast, not here.
598
00:39:12.320 --> 00:39:14.199
Yeah. I worked at a store at the time and
599
00:39:14.239 --> 00:39:18.000
we carried it and I never w Yeah, I never
600
00:39:18.039 --> 00:39:20.639
watched it. The poster did not appeal to me, the
601
00:39:20.679 --> 00:39:23.480
cover did not appeal to me. No one, and I
602
00:39:23.480 --> 00:39:25.800
guess not enough people rented it to say that it
603
00:39:25.880 --> 00:39:30.079
was good. But it wasn't until years later when when
604
00:39:30.119 --> 00:39:33.159
I got reacquainted with Charles Woods, who ran a store
605
00:39:33.199 --> 00:39:36.000
in New York called the forty third Chamber, and we're
606
00:39:36.039 --> 00:39:40.719
going through his collection. He literally had five used copies
607
00:39:40.760 --> 00:39:44.119
of this thing, like picking them up from like swapping
608
00:39:45.320 --> 00:39:47.960
in New York. And he said, I said, why do
609
00:39:47.960 --> 00:39:49.559
you have five of these? And he's like, you have
610
00:39:49.599 --> 00:39:52.559
to watch this, And that's that's what turned me on
611
00:39:52.639 --> 00:39:55.440
to it. I was like, oh wow, this is this
612
00:39:55.519 --> 00:40:01.079
is revolutionary. What's being said in this movie really does
613
00:40:01.119 --> 00:40:04.920
not get seen in any kind of American film, mainstream
614
00:40:05.159 --> 00:40:08.039
or otherwise. There's only one other movie like this, in
615
00:40:08.159 --> 00:40:12.360
my estimation, in the whole history of cinema, and that's
616
00:40:12.719 --> 00:40:15.360
The Spooker Sat by the Door, which is another movie
617
00:40:15.719 --> 00:40:18.880
that came and went. It literally played for about two
618
00:40:18.920 --> 00:40:26.079
weeks and disappeared for decades. It's just now getting re released, Michael.
619
00:40:26.079 --> 00:40:28.360
But it makes sense. Even if you go to a
620
00:40:28.480 --> 00:40:31.480
video store, you rent the cassette, you take it home
621
00:40:31.519 --> 00:40:36.480
and it has this murky grammy quality you're almost going
622
00:40:36.519 --> 00:40:41.800
to recommend it. It was a very poor quality physically.
623
00:40:42.280 --> 00:40:45.800
So, you know, but you know, it's it's kind of
624
00:40:45.840 --> 00:40:49.920
interesting to me that I avoided watching it until Charles
625
00:40:49.960 --> 00:40:55.440
told me about it because I love black cinema and
626
00:40:55.480 --> 00:40:58.000
I'm a fan of Steve James. I you know, but
627
00:40:58.320 --> 00:41:02.639
maybe the fact that it was considered a straight the video,
628
00:41:03.320 --> 00:41:06.960
you know, might might have also been even though played
629
00:41:07.039 --> 00:41:11.360
theatrically and it had pedigree, you know, the whole Cannon
630
00:41:11.440 --> 00:41:16.159
Films thing. You know, maybe that's what kept people away
631
00:41:16.199 --> 00:41:18.599
as well. You know, this whole strait of the front
632
00:41:18.639 --> 00:41:22.559
of video action was very big at the time, and
633
00:41:22.639 --> 00:41:24.440
I guess this movie wouldn't have been made at all
634
00:41:24.519 --> 00:41:27.840
if not for the market of home video. It was
635
00:41:28.400 --> 00:41:28.920
very little.
636
00:41:29.320 --> 00:41:32.920
So listen, you walk into a store and you see
637
00:41:33.079 --> 00:41:37.559
twenty copies of Star Wars, six copies of Mississippi Burning,
638
00:41:37.599 --> 00:41:40.760
and one copy of So it makes impression on the
639
00:41:41.119 --> 00:41:43.880
whoever walks into the rental store. And this was the
640
00:41:43.880 --> 00:41:46.639
only way to see this movie. And I guess there
641
00:41:46.639 --> 00:41:49.360
were not on every rental store. You know, you would
642
00:41:49.360 --> 00:41:52.840
have Mississippi Burning was in every rental store. I don't
643
00:41:52.880 --> 00:41:55.440
think that River Bend was in every rental store in
644
00:41:55.440 --> 00:41:55.880
the country.
645
00:41:55.960 --> 00:41:59.199
Definitely not copies of Dried Up Now, I have not
646
00:41:59.320 --> 00:42:02.320
seen any show up on eBay in probably a year.
647
00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:06.159
Yeah, because there are very few consists around, very few
648
00:42:06.280 --> 00:42:08.280
visions the landfill.
649
00:42:08.400 --> 00:42:11.840
So that's another reason it's never looked better. I mean,
650
00:42:12.239 --> 00:42:15.159
you know, I don't know if you're going to show
651
00:42:15.199 --> 00:42:20.039
clips of the restoration, but it's never looked better. We're
652
00:42:20.039 --> 00:42:24.440
going right from the interpositive of the of the film,
653
00:42:24.440 --> 00:42:27.760
which is the step right after the original camera negative.
654
00:42:27.920 --> 00:42:31.960
So it's color timed and it's the first generation from
655
00:42:32.199 --> 00:42:36.199
the camera negative. So and it's been supervised by Sam
656
00:42:36.519 --> 00:42:39.920
and it's immaculate. It looks, it.
657
00:42:40.280 --> 00:42:44.519
Looks the cinematography is really good in this movie. Kenny
658
00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:47.199
Lemkin was a local. You know, the movie was shut
659
00:42:47.679 --> 00:42:54.000
was filmed in Texas, not in Atlanta, not in Mississippi,
660
00:42:54.519 --> 00:42:58.119
but in Texas because the money came from Texas and
661
00:42:58.159 --> 00:43:01.480
the people who invested they insist that we filmed the
662
00:43:01.519 --> 00:43:04.480
movie in Texas, that we should in Texas. But you know,
663
00:43:04.679 --> 00:43:07.559
the area that we were in had the same look
664
00:43:07.599 --> 00:43:10.519
of the South it's called the Waxahachie area in Texas,
665
00:43:10.519 --> 00:43:13.920
south of Dallas, so it has the look. So the
666
00:43:14.000 --> 00:43:18.000
movie was all and and and all the actions, even
667
00:43:19.199 --> 00:43:22.440
the actors who came to the screening except Margaret Avery.
668
00:43:22.840 --> 00:43:24.719
They had a chance to see the movie in the
669
00:43:24.760 --> 00:43:29.079
premiere in Texas. Oh yeah, there was a There was
670
00:43:29.119 --> 00:43:33.199
a premiere in They told us Houston, Austin or Houston,
671
00:43:33.440 --> 00:43:37.760
I don't remember. And so Alex and and and they
672
00:43:37.800 --> 00:43:39.480
saw it. They saw the movie in.
673
00:43:39.400 --> 00:43:43.480
Texas, played played a few markets before it disappeared. Because
674
00:43:43.679 --> 00:43:45.639
Valerie had a print of the film as well. In
675
00:43:45.719 --> 00:43:49.000
the print, so they may I mean from from our discovery.
676
00:43:50.840 --> 00:43:55.039
There were there's one print that's in the Library of Congress,
677
00:43:56.239 --> 00:43:58.159
which you can't take out. You can go there and
678
00:43:58.239 --> 00:44:01.519
view it. And then the print I got from South Africa.
679
00:44:02.280 --> 00:44:05.639
Then Valerie's print which got mold damaged, you know, so
680
00:44:05.679 --> 00:44:09.159
that's unplayable. And then the two prints that were discovered
681
00:44:09.280 --> 00:44:15.360
in MGM's vaults. So that's literally the only film prints
682
00:44:15.400 --> 00:44:19.119
of that exists of the film. And like I said,
683
00:44:19.239 --> 00:44:21.400
I think the one that I got from South Africa
684
00:44:21.599 --> 00:44:25.519
probably was the one that played the theatrical circuit around
685
00:44:25.559 --> 00:44:28.719
the around the world, you know. So we know it
686
00:44:28.800 --> 00:44:32.400
played in Times Square, we know it played in Florida, Texas,
687
00:44:32.639 --> 00:44:36.360
and then Valerie's Print played a few festivals in Chicago
688
00:44:36.440 --> 00:44:40.920
and Texas as well. So it was very, very very
689
00:44:41.039 --> 00:44:44.159
rare to be able to see this on a big screen.
690
00:44:45.480 --> 00:44:49.320
So another reason why people should log in and check
691
00:44:49.320 --> 00:44:52.719
out the website for dates or send an email and say, hey,
692
00:44:52.760 --> 00:44:54.519
we want to play this where we live.
693
00:44:54.800 --> 00:44:58.840
So, Sam, I would love to hear your take on
694
00:44:58.880 --> 00:45:01.639
the fact that Sam for Urstenberg is getting a lot
695
00:45:01.639 --> 00:45:04.760
of love right now. I mean, we've got Ninja the Domination,
696
00:45:04.880 --> 00:45:08.239
We've got Revenge to Ninja, We've got American Ninja. We've
697
00:45:08.280 --> 00:45:11.639
got all these movies getting like these immaculate four K
698
00:45:11.760 --> 00:45:15.760
restorations in twenty twenty five, and everybody rabbit to see
699
00:45:15.800 --> 00:45:17.920
them still, you know, almost forty years later. How does
700
00:45:17.920 --> 00:45:18.639
that make you feel?
701
00:45:18.880 --> 00:45:23.320
A Ryan? This is the magic of the world of cinema.
702
00:45:24.039 --> 00:45:27.880
I don't have an explanation or formula. I cannot break
703
00:45:27.960 --> 00:45:32.079
it down. Revenge of the Ninja was made more than
704
00:45:32.159 --> 00:45:35.880
forty years ago. By now, it's like forty three years ago.
705
00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:39.000
And this was the first martial art movie I directed,
706
00:45:39.360 --> 00:45:43.559
Ninja three. The domination then came American and those movies
707
00:45:44.559 --> 00:45:48.400
they got discent release. MGM picked them up from the
708
00:45:48.480 --> 00:45:52.360
company that produced them was Kenon Canon Film, which also
709
00:45:52.440 --> 00:45:56.280
became there's a big revival about Kenon Film. But anyway,
710
00:45:56.760 --> 00:45:59.280
those movies were picked up by MGM, so they had
711
00:45:59.280 --> 00:46:03.679
a descent descent release for a low budget independent type
712
00:46:03.679 --> 00:46:08.039
of movies, and then they kind of subsided, they died,
713
00:46:09.360 --> 00:46:13.519
you know, it went down. And this was our prediction.
714
00:46:13.639 --> 00:46:16.320
We always thought that, Okay, we're making a movie that
715
00:46:16.440 --> 00:46:20.239
will go into video stores for five years, four years
716
00:46:20.280 --> 00:46:23.400
people will see and then they will disappear in what
717
00:46:23.480 --> 00:46:27.599
I call a piece of time. They will disappear in
718
00:46:27.599 --> 00:46:30.519
the cave over the cave of time, a base of time.
719
00:46:30.840 --> 00:46:35.199
And so it was for the first ten years after
720
00:46:35.280 --> 00:46:38.440
making them, I didn't hear a lot about them. There
721
00:46:38.480 --> 00:46:41.239
was a lot of influence. There was the Ninja Turtle
722
00:46:41.760 --> 00:46:48.599
and then Killed Bill by Tarantino, so there was the
723
00:46:48.679 --> 00:46:51.800
legacy kept on, but the movies themselves, the Ninja movies
724
00:46:51.920 --> 00:46:57.440
kind of and even breaking to Electric Google and then
725
00:46:58.360 --> 00:47:00.920
at the beginning of the two thousands and suddenly I
726
00:47:01.159 --> 00:47:04.880
start to get a call can reinterview you would you
727
00:47:05.039 --> 00:47:07.880
like it? Are you willing to do an interview? At
728
00:47:07.880 --> 00:47:10.599
the beginning, it was all pressed, it was all written
729
00:47:10.639 --> 00:47:18.559
interview slowly, slowly, people like you more video, and it's
730
00:47:18.719 --> 00:47:24.119
just growing and growing. And you're right. Especially five movies
731
00:47:24.159 --> 00:47:26.719
out of the many movies that Ei di rected, twenty
732
00:47:26.760 --> 00:47:32.920
five movies, but five of them Ranger, the Ninja, Ninja three,
733
00:47:32.960 --> 00:47:36.719
The Domination, which became totally cult movie, real cult movie,
734
00:47:37.760 --> 00:47:41.960
Breaking to Electric Boogalo, which became an iconic symbol of
735
00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:47.159
the sick of the eighties, and of course America Ninja,
736
00:47:47.199 --> 00:47:53.599
which completely went bananas all over the world became so popular.
737
00:47:54.280 --> 00:47:58.159
But maybe maybe again, I said, there is no way
738
00:47:58.199 --> 00:48:01.960
that I can explain it rationally to tell you why.
739
00:48:02.400 --> 00:48:04.800
You know, this is what the audience like, that's what
740
00:48:04.840 --> 00:48:09.400
people like. But perhaps maybe in those movies which are
741
00:48:09.440 --> 00:48:13.079
action movies or a dance movie, it was a low
742
00:48:13.119 --> 00:48:19.000
budget outfit. Low budget movies, medium budget. Everything that we
743
00:48:19.199 --> 00:48:24.559
have created on the screen is physically performed. We didn't
744
00:48:24.559 --> 00:48:33.719
have no screen, yellow, green screen, blue screen, cables, digital effects, nothing, everything.
745
00:48:34.760 --> 00:48:37.000
Nineteen nine percent of the things that you see on
746
00:48:37.039 --> 00:48:43.559
the screen are physically performed. Even shrimp. Michael shrimp dancing
747
00:48:43.679 --> 00:48:48.079
on the ceiling was physically performed, no optical gimmicks, no
748
00:48:48.159 --> 00:48:53.280
optical effects. So and all the action, every fall, every hit,
749
00:48:53.599 --> 00:49:00.440
every dragging stunt, people behind cars, it was all perform
750
00:49:00.960 --> 00:49:04.280
And perhaps maybe when people are watching it today and
751
00:49:04.320 --> 00:49:08.920
they are used to see the Fast and the Furious, Okay, Superhero,
752
00:49:08.960 --> 00:49:13.599
which the action is spectacular, but you know, your brain
753
00:49:13.679 --> 00:49:17.719
is telling you it's not real. A car is flying
754
00:49:17.760 --> 00:49:21.480
from one building to another building. Your brain is telling
755
00:49:21.559 --> 00:49:26.400
you nothing like this can happen. And suddenly they see
756
00:49:26.440 --> 00:49:29.280
those movies, and those movies have a raw feeling, has
757
00:49:29.320 --> 00:49:33.000
a feeling that wow you, even if you're not conscious
758
00:49:33.039 --> 00:49:36.480
as an audience, as a viewer, you're not consciously sitting
759
00:49:36.559 --> 00:49:40.840
there and analyzing it, but still subconsciously you feel something
760
00:49:40.840 --> 00:49:44.400
here is real, something here is there is something here,
761
00:49:44.920 --> 00:49:50.159
And perhaps maybe that's part of the attraction and the
762
00:49:51.079 --> 00:49:55.199
reason for the growing popularities of those group of movies.
763
00:49:55.400 --> 00:49:57.639
Of course, there are other directors in this group who
764
00:49:57.639 --> 00:50:00.159
did the you know Sheldon Ladys who did the all
765
00:50:00.199 --> 00:50:07.480
the Bandam movies, and you know Toby Hooper and others.
766
00:50:09.320 --> 00:50:11.119
Yeah, well you're a legend.
767
00:50:11.239 --> 00:50:13.920
So maybe maybe this is the answer I don't know.
768
00:50:15.199 --> 00:50:18.000
Yes, no, I didn't know at the time how legendary
769
00:50:18.039 --> 00:50:22.719
Sam was. I mean people literally travel for miles, hundreds
770
00:50:22.760 --> 00:50:26.320
of miles to meet Sam and share their stories about
771
00:50:26.719 --> 00:50:30.480
growing up watching his films, you know. So it's been
772
00:50:30.519 --> 00:50:34.880
a treat this last twelve thirteen months, just being on
773
00:50:34.920 --> 00:50:38.199
the road with Sam and hanging out, recording audio commentaries
774
00:50:38.239 --> 00:50:39.119
and hearing the stories.
775
00:50:39.159 --> 00:50:43.000
So speaking about your go ahead, Sam.
776
00:50:43.360 --> 00:50:47.239
Excluding Breaking to Electric Buglo, all the other movies are
777
00:50:47.280 --> 00:50:51.880
like for Men, for Boy, for the boys. So the
778
00:50:51.960 --> 00:50:55.480
original crowd, they were teenagers when they saw it, of course,
779
00:50:55.519 --> 00:51:01.320
you know, they were twelve, ten, fourteen, fifteen. They show
780
00:51:01.360 --> 00:51:04.880
it to their sons, to the sun and they come
781
00:51:04.920 --> 00:51:07.840
to the screening. The screening in Atlanta, a guy came
782
00:51:07.880 --> 00:51:10.400
with his son. He was now forty five, and his
783
00:51:10.519 --> 00:51:14.280
son is like, let's say eleven, and they came together
784
00:51:15.159 --> 00:51:17.639
to get the autograph and to meet me to just
785
00:51:18.559 --> 00:51:22.119
and you know, and the father was so proud and
786
00:51:22.159 --> 00:51:24.679
he said, I saw it, and now I saw it
787
00:51:24.719 --> 00:51:32.480
together with my son. So it keeps it keeps playing,
788
00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:34.639
It Keepsody work.
789
00:51:34.679 --> 00:51:36.719
I mean even I didn't I had never seen the
790
00:51:36.800 --> 00:51:40.880
quote the Tarantino gave about American Ninja until recently, so
791
00:51:41.800 --> 00:51:44.519
he's a huge fan and and you know, our biggest
792
00:51:44.559 --> 00:51:47.159
hope is that he'll endorsed the product as well.
793
00:51:47.280 --> 00:51:50.679
So absolutely, we really, we really.
794
00:51:50.320 --> 00:51:56.840
Really hope that we're close. So if anybody watching actually
795
00:51:56.880 --> 00:52:00.400
knows Tarantino directly, have him reach out, get him a
796
00:52:00.400 --> 00:52:02.800
screener so we can have something to put on the
797
00:52:02.840 --> 00:52:08.320
box cover. But yeah, I mean, amazing global influence and
798
00:52:08.440 --> 00:52:13.360
impact the work of Sam Furstenburg, so it's great.
799
00:52:13.880 --> 00:52:15.920
Well, the box cover, we get to talk about the
800
00:52:15.920 --> 00:52:18.320
Blu ray. That's one of the main reasons we're here.
801
00:52:18.400 --> 00:52:20.960
Tell me about the physical media that we are producing
802
00:52:21.000 --> 00:52:21.679
for Riverbend.
803
00:52:21.679 --> 00:52:24.719
Mike, Well, this is the mock up, which is changing,
804
00:52:25.320 --> 00:52:29.840
you know, so, but and done done by Samurai Guinea
805
00:52:29.880 --> 00:52:35.280
pig Alan Pyrie overseas he and the artwork itself was
806
00:52:35.360 --> 00:52:42.519
illustrated by Aaron Kai, so it's hand painted artwork. We
807
00:52:42.639 --> 00:52:46.119
had to make some revisions. At the time, we were
808
00:52:46.480 --> 00:52:51.679
trying to court controversy, but as time progresses we realized
809
00:52:51.760 --> 00:52:55.559
that it's probably safer to go all Americans. So this
810
00:52:55.639 --> 00:52:59.599
is the all American one sheet. If you have the
811
00:52:59.719 --> 00:53:04.079
orig mugs and posters, those are Collector's Items now, but
812
00:53:06.400 --> 00:53:08.760
is done by Aaron Kai. What do you think, Ryan,
813
00:53:09.119 --> 00:53:10.239
I'm just curious.
814
00:53:10.519 --> 00:53:13.840
I mean, it's just it's iconic already. It's so freaking great.
815
00:53:13.880 --> 00:53:15.400
It's a strong posters.
816
00:53:16.559 --> 00:53:19.320
We really wanted to create the feeling of the posters
817
00:53:19.320 --> 00:53:23.480
of the eighties. Yeah, this was intentionally so in our
818
00:53:23.559 --> 00:53:28.079
conversations with Aaron the artist, this is hand painted poster
819
00:53:28.199 --> 00:53:31.320
that you saw hand painted, and and when in our
820
00:53:31.400 --> 00:53:34.480
conversations with him before he started to work on it,
821
00:53:34.920 --> 00:53:38.079
we expressed our feeling that we would like to really
822
00:53:38.119 --> 00:53:40.800
have something that will remind us of the eighties. So
823
00:53:40.800 --> 00:53:50.840
so you know, Schwarzenegger salon this kind of uh, this
824
00:53:51.000 --> 00:53:55.719
kind of younorius. So he really encapsulated this feeling of
825
00:53:55.760 --> 00:53:57.960
the posters of the eighties in this poster.
826
00:53:58.679 --> 00:54:02.559
Well, one of the themes the movie is is it revenge
827
00:54:02.639 --> 00:54:06.119
or is it justice? Right, And we always felt, all
828
00:54:06.159 --> 00:54:10.239
of us felt that Steve James was denied the justice
829
00:54:10.280 --> 00:54:13.719
of being the star of his own Cannon movie, you know,
830
00:54:13.920 --> 00:54:17.239
and Riverbend is very close to that with the DNA
831
00:54:17.320 --> 00:54:20.559
of Sam Furstenburg and the amount of action that's in
832
00:54:20.599 --> 00:54:24.719
the story. So we said, what if Steve James was
833
00:54:24.760 --> 00:54:27.639
the star of a Cannon film from nineteen eighty nine.
834
00:54:28.199 --> 00:54:30.960
What would that poster look like? And that's what Aaron
835
00:54:31.039 --> 00:54:34.559
came up with. I mean, in collaboration with Sam and myself.
836
00:54:34.639 --> 00:54:37.280
But you know, when you're right, you fight.
837
00:54:39.199 --> 00:54:42.320
So it's really this poster encapsulates the feeling of the
838
00:54:42.320 --> 00:54:46.519
movies of the those movies of the eighties, the superheroes
839
00:54:46.599 --> 00:54:47.360
of the eighties.
840
00:54:47.639 --> 00:54:49.719
Yeah, and it feels like that for sure.
841
00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:50.320
It is.
842
00:54:51.159 --> 00:54:54.360
Genuinely it's one that I am just easier to have
843
00:54:54.400 --> 00:54:57.280
on the shelf. I was stoked to be able to
844
00:54:57.280 --> 00:54:59.639
back it. And now we got it coming sometime mid
845
00:54:59.679 --> 00:55:00.960
twenty twenty six ish.
846
00:55:00.920 --> 00:55:06.519
Correct juneteenth, twenty twenty sixth June nineteenth, twenty twenty six,
847
00:55:07.280 --> 00:55:09.519
the Blu Ray will be available. It would be in
848
00:55:09.519 --> 00:55:15.079
people's hands on juneteenth, and before that we'll have opportunity
849
00:55:15.079 --> 00:55:17.039
to see it on the big screen, like it's a
850
00:55:17.119 --> 00:55:20.559
beginning in February in New York and Philadelphia, and we're
851
00:55:20.559 --> 00:55:24.320
looking for other dates as we speak. Also, if you
852
00:55:24.400 --> 00:55:27.239
haven't pre order or you're like, hey, I don't really
853
00:55:27.320 --> 00:55:29.119
want the Blu Ray, but I want to see the
854
00:55:29.159 --> 00:55:32.679
movie like streaming or whatever, we're going to do our
855
00:55:32.800 --> 00:55:37.599
Kickstarter campaign beginning in February to get the final funds
856
00:55:37.599 --> 00:55:40.480
that we need to make sure that this happens for everybody.
857
00:55:41.000 --> 00:55:43.519
So you know, the best way to keep track of
858
00:55:43.519 --> 00:55:47.000
that is just to go to riverbend restored dot com,
859
00:55:47.119 --> 00:55:50.760
riverbend restored dot com.
860
00:55:52.159 --> 00:55:54.320
Yeah, we have a feeling that we'll have another screening
861
00:55:54.360 --> 00:55:58.079
in Texas, and we'll probably have conta in the South
862
00:55:58.280 --> 00:55:59.239
screening in the South.
863
00:55:59.760 --> 00:56:03.119
We'll workers there's a there's a there's a cadre of
864
00:56:03.840 --> 00:56:07.920
theaters around the country that do restorations and and and
865
00:56:08.039 --> 00:56:12.519
re represent repertory work, you know, so uh, and then
866
00:56:12.599 --> 00:56:15.440
ultimately we'll also be taking the thirty five millimeter Prentice
867
00:56:15.480 --> 00:56:20.000
specific places that only show thirty five So that's that's
868
00:56:20.039 --> 00:56:23.559
an option as well. But with the digital format, we
869
00:56:23.599 --> 00:56:26.480
can go to as many cities as possible, not just
870
00:56:26.519 --> 00:56:29.199
in the United States, but around the world with it,
871
00:56:29.280 --> 00:56:32.840
so you know, have have hard drive, will travel.
872
00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:37.360
You know, it's interesting. There is a lot of interest
873
00:56:37.760 --> 00:56:40.920
from Germany for some reason. We already got a couple
874
00:56:40.960 --> 00:56:44.079
of people who contacted us can they represent the movie
875
00:56:44.079 --> 00:56:46.920
in Germany if they can, asking.
876
00:56:46.960 --> 00:56:48.639
If they can, Oh, yeah, the Blu is going to
877
00:56:48.719 --> 00:56:51.840
have subtitles too. I went through a whole thing. I
878
00:56:51.880 --> 00:56:55.280
thought that because the movie came out in Germany and
879
00:56:55.440 --> 00:57:01.000
in Greece, it came out in France and Canada, so
880
00:57:01.079 --> 00:57:04.559
it was in French as well and in Spanish, I
881
00:57:05.079 --> 00:57:10.119
thought I needed to transcribe the dubbing of those VHS
882
00:57:10.159 --> 00:57:14.760
tapes to create subtitles. But actually it's what's simpler is
883
00:57:14.800 --> 00:57:19.440
to take the American captions and translate them automatically. So
884
00:57:19.480 --> 00:57:26.320
we're going to have at least four different languages English subtitles, Spanish, French, German.
885
00:57:27.280 --> 00:57:30.960
So so people, and it's a region free disc. You know,
886
00:57:31.039 --> 00:57:33.280
you just have to cover the shipping. But in order
887
00:57:33.280 --> 00:57:35.800
you can pre order the disc now at River been
888
00:57:35.880 --> 00:57:38.239
restored as well, and it's going to be a ton
889
00:57:39.159 --> 00:57:45.360
of extras, you know, interviews, demonstrations for the restoration, demonstrations
890
00:57:45.360 --> 00:57:49.840
of how the poster was created, audio commentary with Debbie
891
00:57:49.920 --> 00:57:54.000
James and Sam Furstenburg, as well as a cast commentary
892
00:57:54.039 --> 00:57:56.679
with as Sam that we recorded at Sam's house.
893
00:57:58.039 --> 00:58:02.239
Julius, Alex, Margaret and you have an album.
894
00:58:03.239 --> 00:58:07.280
Yeah, we have. We will have a limited run of
895
00:58:08.199 --> 00:58:10.599
compact discs of the soundtrack as well.
896
00:58:10.679 --> 00:58:11.199
That's cool.
897
00:58:12.239 --> 00:58:14.679
Yeah, that was That was the beauty of getting the
898
00:58:14.800 --> 00:58:19.480
original elements from MGM, who was basically paying rent for
899
00:58:19.519 --> 00:58:22.280
them for thirty five years and couldn't do anything, so
900
00:58:22.320 --> 00:58:26.000
they were having I mean, they literally unloaded them on
901
00:58:26.239 --> 00:58:30.599
SAMs that day. I don't know if you, I think
902
00:58:30.679 --> 00:58:33.519
you were slightly overwhelmed with the amount of material that
903
00:58:33.559 --> 00:58:34.840
they had held onto.
904
00:58:34.639 --> 00:58:38.519
When I went there with a van with my SUV
905
00:58:38.639 --> 00:58:44.079
and suddenly there's so many books is coming up, so surprised.
906
00:58:44.800 --> 00:58:45.960
So the beauty of it was.
907
00:58:46.960 --> 00:58:49.079
Negative sound, the original sound.
908
00:58:49.880 --> 00:58:54.320
We had twenty four boxes, twenty four track, one inch
909
00:58:54.480 --> 00:59:01.639
real magnetic tape prem old big things still and our
910
00:59:01.679 --> 00:59:06.800
friends at Drexley University helped us, and Love Philly Records
911
00:59:07.320 --> 00:59:11.760
coordinated that for us to transfer the audio and create
912
00:59:11.800 --> 00:59:15.119
a new soundtrack CD, so you know, and we're looking
913
00:59:15.280 --> 00:59:17.880
we're trying to give the album cover sort of a
914
00:59:17.920 --> 00:59:21.199
retro look so people have something else that they can
915
00:59:21.239 --> 00:59:24.960
collect them feel like they're experiencing it again for the
916
00:59:24.960 --> 00:59:25.599
first time.
917
00:59:25.760 --> 00:59:29.440
So well, one thing I do want to highlight before
918
00:59:29.480 --> 00:59:32.920
we call this, there are so many people that are
919
00:59:32.920 --> 00:59:35.400
out there working in this industry, so many companies putting
920
00:59:35.400 --> 00:59:39.000
out films nowadays, it's expensive, it's hard to get the
921
00:59:39.039 --> 00:59:41.519
certain things that you want. I really want to point
922
00:59:41.519 --> 00:59:43.960
out for a moment how important it is to support
923
00:59:44.000 --> 00:59:48.559
small things like this, specifically because other companies are putting
924
00:59:48.559 --> 00:59:51.719
out certain movies that have seen eighty five releases literally
925
00:59:51.800 --> 00:59:55.039
on home video. And that's not exaggerating. Riverbend has not
926
00:59:55.199 --> 00:59:58.480
had a good release ever, It's not had a proper
927
00:59:58.519 --> 01:00:01.960
release in decades. It's not had a backed release like
928
01:00:02.079 --> 01:00:05.440
this ever. But beyond that, it is coming from a
929
01:00:05.480 --> 01:00:07.840
group that clearly has a passion for the film. It
930
01:00:07.920 --> 01:00:09.920
is coming from a group that saw this and said
931
01:00:10.280 --> 01:00:12.480
we can make something with this, We can bring this
932
01:00:12.559 --> 01:00:14.000
back to the world in a way that is more
933
01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:17.480
relevant than ever, and it has already affected people. I mean,
934
01:00:17.480 --> 01:00:20.119
I've got people in my discord that pre ordered the
935
01:00:20.159 --> 01:00:24.039
movie pretty much day one that got personalized thank you
936
01:00:24.159 --> 01:00:27.320
videos from you saying thank you for pre ordering this,
937
01:00:27.519 --> 01:00:31.880
and everybody was just genuinely touched that a company out
938
01:00:31.880 --> 01:00:33.920
there cares so much that they will do that, and
939
01:00:34.000 --> 01:00:36.119
so just on behalf of everybody, because I'm sure you
940
01:00:36.119 --> 01:00:38.360
don't hear it that often, thank you for putting that
941
01:00:38.400 --> 01:00:41.599
sort of like a personal touch on it. That's so rare.
942
01:00:42.519 --> 01:00:46.400
No, thank you, I must tell you since I know Michael,
943
01:00:46.440 --> 01:00:49.199
I know him now for four years, three or four years.
944
01:00:49.920 --> 01:00:54.519
Michael and Real Black together are dedicated, really dedicated to
945
01:00:54.599 --> 01:00:58.840
this one purpose of recovery and restoration of black cinema
946
01:00:59.400 --> 01:01:04.039
hundred you know. And that's like a nonprofit organization. Like
947
01:01:04.079 --> 01:01:05.639
I said, they don't make they don't make it to
948
01:01:05.760 --> 01:01:09.960
be rich, to become rich. They believe. He really really
949
01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:13.519
believes in his mission. Maybe you see this your mission
950
01:01:13.519 --> 01:01:18.800
in life to restore, to recover, to discover, recover and
951
01:01:18.840 --> 01:01:22.519
restore black cinema too. We're supposed to be. By the
952
01:01:22.559 --> 01:01:27.360
way I told Michael before that. Steve James was also
953
01:01:27.440 --> 01:01:31.000
an avid collector of black cinema. I had many many
954
01:01:31.079 --> 01:01:35.639
at the time. It was all dhs, the other type
955
01:01:35.679 --> 01:01:39.360
of cassettes and laser discs of black cinema, going all
956
01:01:39.400 --> 01:01:43.719
the way back to silent cinema, Black silent cinema. Steve
957
01:01:43.800 --> 01:01:46.199
James said, A big collection, huge collection.
958
01:01:47.880 --> 01:01:50.440
Yeah, it's been a dream of mine to have a label.
959
01:01:51.559 --> 01:01:53.360
But there's not a lot. There's not a lot out
960
01:01:53.400 --> 01:01:58.239
there that's accessible. So when it's happened, I jumped at it,
961
01:01:59.480 --> 01:02:01.599
and it's been a lot of work to get to
962
01:02:01.679 --> 01:02:04.639
get us to this moment where we can say that
963
01:02:04.719 --> 01:02:09.280
we're in theaters and we're coming to Blu Ray and
964
01:02:09.320 --> 01:02:12.079
we wouldn't. And I just have to thank you for
965
01:02:12.079 --> 01:02:18.480
for your support, Ryan, of giving your platform, your bullhorn,
966
01:02:19.840 --> 01:02:23.760
the attention that this movie deserves. I think, and I think,
967
01:02:23.960 --> 01:02:27.000
and you've seen it, so you know it's it's not
968
01:02:28.320 --> 01:02:30.719
you know, it's it's a gem. It's really something that
969
01:02:31.079 --> 01:02:33.840
people need to see and will and we'll appreciate in
970
01:02:33.880 --> 01:02:36.719
their collection. I've seen it probably more than any person
971
01:02:36.760 --> 01:02:43.639
on Earth at this point, at least four dozen times.
972
01:02:44.599 --> 01:02:47.440
But I don't get tired of it, I really and
973
01:02:47.480 --> 01:02:49.000
I see new things in it every time, and I
974
01:02:49.079 --> 01:02:52.800
can't wait to share it with more people. So I appreciate,
975
01:02:53.119 --> 01:02:57.199
I appreciate your support Ryan and Sam, and I wouldn't
976
01:02:57.239 --> 01:02:59.280
be doing this if not for Sam. Like if Sam
977
01:02:59.360 --> 01:03:02.400
was a complete sure, forget about it, you know, but
978
01:03:03.159 --> 01:03:08.400
together we are. He's one of the best people on
979
01:03:08.440 --> 01:03:12.559
the planet. And and he you know, he supervised the
980
01:03:12.679 --> 01:03:16.360
entire project, you know, and he does it with not
981
01:03:16.480 --> 01:03:19.400
kid gloves. He he knows what he wants, he knows
982
01:03:19.400 --> 01:03:22.159
what works and and you. And as I watched his
983
01:03:22.239 --> 01:03:27.119
other films, I see his spirit in those films. It's
984
01:03:27.159 --> 01:03:29.880
it's amazing like he you know, if you if you
985
01:03:29.920 --> 01:03:33.679
spent the hour with us, you know Sam spirit is
986
01:03:34.199 --> 01:03:39.280
one of of not laid back but but just positivity,
987
01:03:39.559 --> 01:03:41.920
you know. And I think there have been some days
988
01:03:42.320 --> 01:03:44.400
where I didn't want to continue to do this and
989
01:03:44.400 --> 01:03:46.559
and I would have cut the ties from it. But
990
01:03:47.239 --> 01:03:49.199
like I said, if Sam Dipitty is the theme of
991
01:03:49.239 --> 01:03:52.599
this conversation, it's just I can't wait for the next
992
01:03:52.599 --> 01:03:54.880
one to happen. You know what, what the next moment
993
01:03:54.920 --> 01:03:58.039
will be that that amplifies and say, yes, this is
994
01:03:58.079 --> 01:03:59.440
the time for Riverban.
995
01:04:01.239 --> 01:04:04.719
Incredible. Well, I wish you both nothing but the best.
996
01:04:05.079 --> 01:04:08.440
I sincerely hope the theatrical run is incredible, and I
997
01:04:08.480 --> 01:04:11.039
hope we can make a screening in Kansas City here work,
998
01:04:11.079 --> 01:04:13.000
I gotta we'll have to talk about that. We get
999
01:04:13.000 --> 01:04:15.920
a theater that just literally this last week finalized their
1000
01:04:15.960 --> 01:04:19.480
insul of a thirty five millimeter projector so yeah, awesome.
1001
01:04:19.800 --> 01:04:22.519
Well, I mean, the DCP is the way to go.
1002
01:04:23.440 --> 01:04:27.519
But what would be fantastic is for this to be
1003
01:04:27.559 --> 01:04:30.440
a success and we can continue to rescue more films.
1004
01:04:31.119 --> 01:04:33.239
This is not the only one that's out there, and
1005
01:04:33.800 --> 01:04:36.039
we have our finger on the pulse of a few titles.
1006
01:04:36.840 --> 01:04:40.119
I learned my lesson not to announce too early, but
1007
01:04:41.440 --> 01:04:44.039
twenty twenty six will have at least one other release
1008
01:04:45.159 --> 01:04:47.079
come away, so incredible.
1009
01:04:47.320 --> 01:04:49.719
Love to hear that. All right, Well, thank you gentlemen.
1010
01:04:49.760 --> 01:04:51.559
Hope you have a good night and stay safe and
1011
01:04:52.199 --> 01:04:52.880
we'll talk soon.
1012
01:04:52.920 --> 01:04:58.320
I'm sure, thank you too. The one movie that Steve
1013
01:04:58.480 --> 01:05:02.679
James was really the main star. We have here an
1014
01:05:02.719 --> 01:05:06.159
opportunity to bring you big to life. Hey boy, I
1015
01:05:06.159 --> 01:05:07.760
want to talk to you.
1016
01:05:08.719 --> 01:05:12.079
So this is my answer.
1017
01:05:12.159 --> 01:05:16.840
When I saw it, I said, holy cow, this is
1018
01:05:16.960 --> 01:05:18.199
a filmic anomaly.
1019
01:05:19.840 --> 01:05:20.599
I love this film.
1020
01:05:21.000 --> 01:05:23.000
Hi. I'm Michael J. Dennis and I'm the founder of
1021
01:05:23.079 --> 01:05:26.679
Real Black Riverband, starring Steve James and Margaret Davey, tells
1022
01:05:26.719 --> 01:05:31.440
a story of three black Vietnam soldiers who teach a
1023
01:05:31.480 --> 01:05:34.000
small town how to stand up to an oppressive share.
1024
01:05:34.440 --> 01:05:40.079
Maybe you could stay in, help us protect ourself, well,
1025
01:05:40.119 --> 01:05:41.480
show us how to do it.
1026
01:05:41.519 --> 01:05:45.079
The River Bend is an underwatched, overlooked classic.
1027
01:05:45.360 --> 01:05:49.079
What I found was a forgotten chapter in black cinema history,
1028
01:05:49.480 --> 01:05:52.079
A film that should have been part of the conversation.
1029
01:05:51.760 --> 01:05:58.159
But wasn't bought Just to be berry, sure, I would
1030
01:05:58.239 --> 01:05:58.679
say yes.
1031
01:05:59.559 --> 01:06:01.639
I don't ever ever.
1032
01:06:02.920 --> 01:06:07.239
Want to hear the words boy or colored used again.
1033
01:06:07.719 --> 01:06:11.320
It was healing. It was an elixir from my soul.
1034
01:06:12.119 --> 01:06:16.679
With everything that's happening in the zeitgeist today, I think
1035
01:06:16.719 --> 01:06:17.800
that we need this movie.
1036
01:06:18.360 --> 01:06:22.119
After two years of legal hurdles, we secured the original
1037
01:06:22.159 --> 01:06:26.280
elements from the Amazon MGM vault and restored the film
1038
01:06:26.280 --> 01:06:27.679
in stunning six k.
1039
01:06:27.719 --> 01:06:31.079
I think it would be so happy that this movie
1040
01:06:31.199 --> 01:06:33.760
is coming back to life, and.
1041
01:06:33.679 --> 01:06:36.400
Now we invite you to be part of this journey.
1042
01:06:36.639 --> 01:06:39.360
I think this is a film, so I think it's
1043
01:06:39.360 --> 01:06:42.079
worth the money, and I think it's worth the time
1044
01:06:42.159 --> 01:06:44.840
to sit in that theater for two hours and watch
1045
01:06:44.880 --> 01:06:47.199
it and let it be the healing bomb.
1046
01:06:47.599 --> 01:06:50.840
If this work matters to you, join us. Make a
1047
01:06:50.840 --> 01:06:55.400
pledge today.
1048
01:06:58.440 --> 01:07:01.119
You want to get better if we all just stand up,
1049
01:07:01.159 --> 01:07:01.760
stand out.
1050
01:07:03.320 --> 01:07:06.199
Thank you for listening to the Disconnected podcast. There's one
1051
01:07:06.199 --> 01:07:08.000
big thing that you could do to help the show,
1052
01:07:08.039 --> 01:07:09.920
and that is to leave a rating and review on
1053
01:07:09.960 --> 01:07:12.199
the podcast service of your choice. Thank you.
1054
01:07:43.320 --> 01:07:46.239
Hello, this is Chris Askell from They Live by Film
1055
01:07:46.679 --> 01:07:48.960
For those that don't know us, Adam Zach and I.
1056
01:07:49.000 --> 01:07:51.519
We built the podcast over the last two years. That's
1057
01:07:51.840 --> 01:07:55.280
a combination of film discussion from three very different perspectives,
1058
01:07:55.639 --> 01:07:58.159
as well as industry interviews with the leaders in Boutique,
1059
01:07:58.159 --> 01:08:02.000
Blu Ray, and four K community. We started with dev Crocodile,
1060
01:08:02.119 --> 01:08:04.039
but over time we've been lucky enough to speak with
1061
01:08:04.079 --> 01:08:09.559
Aero Video, Severn, Manda Macabre, Vinegar Syndrome, Radiant Syndicator, most
1062
01:08:09.559 --> 01:08:13.000
of the OCN partner labels. It's been a blast. You
1063
01:08:13.000 --> 01:08:16.479
can find us wherever you podcast and also actually recently
1064
01:08:16.479 --> 01:08:19.840
as part of someone's favorite production podcast network. We hope
1065
01:08:19.840 --> 01:08:21.479
to see you online.
1066
01:08:23.399 --> 01:08:26.319
Hey, this is Jason Kleeberg from the Force five podcast,
1067
01:08:26.359 --> 01:08:28.119
a show that forces a guest to come up with
1068
01:08:28.159 --> 01:08:30.680
a movie themed top five list topic and then we
1069
01:08:30.760 --> 01:08:34.039
reveal our picks on air. Top five heist Films, top
1070
01:08:34.079 --> 01:08:37.560
five Tier Jerkers, Top five movie Dogs. Every show you'll
1071
01:08:37.560 --> 01:08:40.800
be asking yourself what would be on my list. Guests
1072
01:08:40.800 --> 01:08:45.359
include directors, screenwriters, actors, podcasters, musicians, authors, and even a
1073
01:08:45.359 --> 01:08:48.640
professional wrestler. Subscribe to the Force five podcast and you
1074
01:08:48.640 --> 01:08:50.840
won't just be a listener, you'll be a listen nerd.
1075
01:08:51.119 --> 01:09:00.199
The Force five podcast available wherever you are listening now.
1076
01:09:00.680 --> 01:09:01.640
Thank you for listening.
1077
01:09:02.239 --> 01:09:05.880
To hear more shows from the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast network,
1078
01:09:06.279 --> 01:09:07.960
Please select the link in the description