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Hello there, everyone, and welcome back to the disc Connected. You won't know this, but this is actually take two of a conversation with mister Mike Dennis and Sam Furstenberg. Gentlemen, thanks so much for doing this again.
Oh qu sure, wonderful. We love to be on your show.
It's wonder We are here to talk about a movie that I've been anticipating for a long time, and that is Riverband. Sam, you are the director of Riverband. Can you tell us what Riverband is?
Correct? Riverband is a very very unique, interesting movie. I wouldn't say it's a provocative subject. It deals with the racial injustice in the segregated South in the nineteen sixties during the height of the civil rights movements, so it's controversial, it's different. It has a twist and turns in it which are I don't want to to get your older spoilers,
and fantastic ending, really unexpected ending. The star of the movie is Steve James that I worked with him in American Ninja one and American Ninja two, also in another movie, Avenging Force, and the co star is Margaret Avery, the leading lady Margaret Avery from the color Purple and so overall, and there is some other great great actors, great performances, interesting subject and more or less it tells the story of three soldiers, three black soldiers who are coming back
from Vietnam to the South, to the Deep South. They are not from the South, they are from Chicago, from California, and they witness the injustice. They see what's happening in a small town which is called Riverbend, and and they want to correct. They decide to correct the situation, the bigotry which is going on in the town, and the way they know to do it is a military way, the way they they learned in being in the military
in Vietnam. And the rest of the story is the unrevealing the evolution of what has happened in this little town, which they take the lead in helping the locals to resolve the problem. That's as much as I can reveal for now.
Well, on that note, Mike, can you share why you're here and you got stuck with the project for one that you've been working on for years, stuck in a way that it's a it's a mission and that you've been longing to accomplish for a very long time.
I think it chose it chose me somehow. The serendipity is incredible and that's what's been keeping us going but basically Riverbend. It was a movie that you know, I was dangerously It was never exploited on any physical media outside of VHS, right. It never played on cable TV, it never made it to laser disc, it didn't make it to DVD. So during the pandemic, or a little bit before I started, I had a brick and mortar screening series I ran for sixteen years in Philadelphia, and
we never ran Riverbend there. But I after I closed shopped there, I decided I'd start putting rarities from my collection on YouTube, and one of them happened to be Riverbend. And maybe about three months later, I got an email from Sam First and and I'm thinking, oh, this is gonna be a cease and desist, you know, he says, I said, because the subject line was I'm Sam Personverg, director of Riverbend. And I opened it up and said, no, you're doing the movie a great service. Thank you for
putting it up and sharing it. It was independently produced and it needs to be seen by as many people as possible.
Right.
So, and what Sam didn't mention is that this film is unique in the sense that it shows black people teaching one another, how to stand up against their oppressor, right, So that automatically interests me. My YouTube channel is all about black empowerment, and I was just curious about how the film got made, so we started setting interviews with Sam Me and Charles Woods, who actually turned me onto
the film in the first place. And in the process, while we were talking, a thirty five millimeter print of the film shows up on eBay and I didn't know what. I didn't know what to do, but I knew it was a rare circumstance or instance, so I put a bit on it won it. It was in South Africa, of all places, and it literally took about three or four months for it to show up at my house.
It was packed in a cardboard box with all kinds of tape on it and everything, and it sat under my desk for a good six or eight months, and then I decided I should get the scanned and see see what the quality is, you know, and maybe we can show it around. And we did that and the scan was it was The print was horrible. I mean, Sam can take it from there, you know.
But yeah, it was a print that was thirty five millimeter print. The way we used to see movies, and maybe it was to run through screening machines hundreds of time. You know, not all projectors are good. Some projectors scratches. It was heavily scratch and dirt. You know, when there is dirt on the print, it shows immediately in the in the digitized copy. But there is a process of cleaning.
Mike Michael found somebody who who knows the technology of cleaning, and the digital copy was cleaned from all the scratches and from all the spots, the dirt spots, which was amazing. But to our disappointment, we found out that six scenes were cut out of the print, either to make it short for any other reason that we don't understand, probably to make it it's longer than ninety minutes. And you know in theaters the best, the best movies for timing
is ninety minutes. So six scenes were missing, and we couldn't scan that. The quality of the VHS that existed is very very i can say, very poor quality, very poor visual quality. So we tried, Michael tried to transfer from the vhs, but it looked terrible. It was very poor compared with the with the fantastic at the time, it was two K resolution of the transfer to dig the digit digital transfer and suddenly those scenes. So this was the fate of this and we went Michael Wright.
We went to few festivals with this digital premiere.
That's a serendipity. So Craig Rogers everybody watching those you know, who was part of Deaf Crocodile Video label. He did the initial restoration of the thirty five minuilimeter release print that was cut, and we premiered that in Denton, Texas in January of twenty twenty four, right so at the Denton Black Film Festival. And it was there that we met Valerie Van who was one of the original producers and her nephew Marcus, who plays the Sun in the movie.
And if it wasn't for them, we would not be here talking about a Blu ray release or anything like that because they helped us secure the rights and access the original interpositive and internegative and original thirty five million sound elements as well. So what we have now that's gonna premiere in February around in theaters around the country, starting in New York and Philadelphia, is a pristine six K restoration done by Austin Squittieri of Real Revival. Wow.
Out of the four original producers, which one of them was the writer Sam Vince wrote the script to this movie, only one is still involved with us is Hillary Vance. She was one of the producer. She helped the wife of Advance, and she helped him in writing I remember at the time, and thankfully she's still here. We still you know, even for the screening in Texas, we managed to found we found the stunt coordinator of the movie. He lives in Texas, Mike, Mike Shank. He came to
the screening later on. For later screening we got some of the cast members. Michael will tell you about it. So there are pretty still many people. We found the original composer of the music, he's from Texas. So still pretty many people who are involved in making this movie are still around. And as we advance, we find and we make connection with more and more of them. So this is very nice. Just sadly enough, the writer, the brain behind the story, he is not with us anymore. He passed away.
Steve of course also Simmons.
I don't think we went into the serendipity there as much as we probably could have. What what happened in Denton because it sounded like I was just playing for us to meet up with Valerie. But that's not exactly how it went. Right.
Well, I mean we started to thank God for YouTube again, right, So we started doing like little promo pieces to advertise the Denton screening, and Marcus Coleman happened to see one of them and told his aunt Valerie, Hey, they're bringing Riverband back to Texas. You know you want to go? And the and Harry and and Linda Edie at the Denton Black Film as well. They were so gracious they provided accommodations for them to come to Texas and be
with us on very short notice. But we hit it off right away, So that that was the serendipity.
Yeah, because we will For a long time, we were looking more Wiz was more Michael. He was looking for the event says for all the producers and could not find they just disappeared. Eventually he made contact with the other two producers not with Valor Events, and one day I'm getting an email from Valeri Events. So she found us eventually, after a long process. Michael really put a lot of energy into trying to find her, but couldn't, and because he moved a few addresses and telephone different
telephone numbers, and suddenly she found us. So that's how, And it was only a few days before the screening in the festival.
But Ryan, get this one though, This is even more incredible how things connect, right. I mean, I really believe in what they said the power of the universe and when you start to like take a step forward, things
that happen. So after Denton and there was a premiere screening of a movie called Naked Acts, which was going to be at the Lightbox Film Center, and I teach it as a black film that I was very much aware of, and so I made an extra credit assignment for my students at Temple University to attend, and we got free tickets to go, and you know, the majority of the class came and I filmed the Q and A,
which is on the YouTube channel. But what happened. I happened to be sitting next to Dennis Doros of Milestone Films, and at the end of the screening, I happened to tell him about Riverbend and the fact that we just did a premiere but we had a release print. We couldn't find the negative, and there was you know, we couldn't go any further. And he said, well, you know I have this organization Missing Movies dot org. Let me
make a few phone calls. And this was on a Wednesday night, I think by Friday said, I found the negative. It's a photo kem.
The original negative.
Yeah. So we had to go through some legal maneuverings to be able to access the negative and all the thirty five millimeters elements. But again, you know, if I didn't bring my students to the screening and happened to talk to Dennis, we wouldn't be here today.
So Milestone is a company that has put out some incredible underseen black cinema already. So it's literally just people lifting each other up through this entire process. And I love to hear that Milestone is one of those companies that I feel like people are still sleeping on in many different ways that they'll mention, hey, this movie's never gotten attention. Then you find out Milestone put out that one and five others from the same director, and you're like, well, come on, they're out there.
They have all the Charles Burnettes.
Yeah exactly. Yeah, Sam, you are somebody that is known for a lot of different movies. You're known for, of course, Break In Two, known for the Ninja films, known for a lot of very different style movies than this one. So what originally got you into Riverbend?
In a way, luck, I was, as you mentioned, I was involved. I kind of my career led me into action and especially especially martial art action movies Revenge of the Ninja and Ninja Tree American Ninja. But in between I made some other movies like Breaking to Electric Google and later on others. And I directed another action movie which was not martial art, which is called Avenging Force with Steve James and Michael Dudikov, the two stars of American Ninja. So by now I already made three movies.
I had a chance to work to direct Steve James in three movies, and one day I was approached. My agent told me that someone is interested in me as a director and they will send the script. And this script arrived. It was called at the time, it was called Night of the Eagles, not the Riverbend, and yeah, they had a different name. So I read the script and wow, I was so excited that that's really interested. You know, social issues and historical in the South in
the sixties. And you know, even I grew up with these kind of movies to kill American Heat of the Night and those kind of movies that I grew up with those movies. I I got very excited, so apparently, I think, and not strangely but untypical. This movie was privately financed. It was not a company that financed the movie. It was private money that financed the movie. So they approached me through the agent they looked for me, I guess, those four producers and they approached me to an agent
that I had at the time. Apparently probably, I would say, because I worked with Steve James for the three times and they were interested in Steve James. So I think that's how Destiny My Path and the Path of Riverband crossed and each other and and and got together. I was very excited when I read this script, really interesting. I really wanted to direct it. Eventually they liked me. I like them very much, the producers. They want me
to help in bringing Steve James into this project. I knew it's not going to be any problem to bring Steve James. He would love this project. Because I read the script and I knew you, but this was a matter of luck. But I knew that he would like There was no question leader military Steve, Steve, how he wanted to his image to be and and what what
Mike is alluding to. It was okay. When we made the movie Avenging Force, Steve plays a black politician in New Orleans who is running for office and there is some white supremacy group, but they don't like the idea. Eventually they assassinate him, and Steve really didn't like the idea that he dies in the middle of a movie. I read everything with Chuck Norris. Jack Norris never made any movies that he will die.
But Steve really didn't like the idea that he but but this was the story, you know, the whole premise, the whole idea, who the stories that they assassinate this politician, they don't want him.
And he always told me, you owe me. I'm doing it for you. I'm doing it for you because I know we made American, but you owe me. And so it happened that the chance came that I could repay Steve. I have something for you. You know, I owe you. You always mad, but when you read the script, he will accept it. That's it. I don't owe you anymore after this movie. So, so everything came together perfect. It's not going to say some universal powers bring everything together. We don't know how.
Mike Steve is Steve's icon obviously in a lot of different ways. Can you can you share who Steve was? For everybody that has never seen a Steve James film.
Well, I mean, you know, my first introduction to Steve James was not in American Ninja or neither Martial Arts or action cannon films. It was first Hollywood Shuffle and then later I'm going to Get You Sucker, where he plays Kung Fu Joe and I you know, but he's he was a very versatile actor who got to start going all the way back to education at Sony Carson.
He has a very small appearance there in nineteen seventy four, I believe it was, And he worked until nineteen ninety three when he died at a very young age of pancreatic cancer at age forty one, I believe. But he's probably best known for his collaborations with Sam Furstenberg and you know, but you'll see him pop up in small parts in lots of movies like Brother from Another Planet, to Live and Die in La He worked with William Freakin quite a bit as well as Sam and Weekend
at bernice'e two. He has a memorable little scene or two in there, so you know, just gone too soon. A lot of people feel like, a he should have been the next American Ninja when Michael Dudkoff left a lot of people believe that he would have he should have taken over the franchise.
And or its the next American Action hero in a way outside the the Ninja franchise.
Yeah, or or that he would have been the next person to be the black action star, which Snapsen eventually became Michael dry White eventually became all those people that we recognize now. Will Smith even stand on the shoulders of Steve James.
I heard, Mike and Ryan I heard I heard two weeks ago. Very interesting story. I didn't know. We had a screening of American Ninja in Atlanta two weeks ago, and the reason we did it because the producer of the movie American Ninja, Gideon Amir, lives in Atlanta and works in Atlanta, so we decided to do for the anniversary screening and while I was talking with him, and we were talking, and he reminded me that he suggested Steve James for the part because he saw him in
the movie The Mask. M hm, he said, he told me, Gideon, the producer, said the minute I saw we were either in the middle of writing it or whatever. And he said he told me that the minute he saw him on the screen in the movie The Mask, he knew that he would be Jackson in America Ninja. He's the right guy to be Jazing. So I didn't remember that Steve was in The Mask.
All right. So Riverband has been making a name for itself, mostly because of Mike pushing it out there for everybody. But over this last six months or so, it's really getting a name. And the big thing is you just had the like West Coast premiere in LA for the first time. Tell us about the event, because when we first heard this was happening, I never expected to hear by all the Davis involved.
Neither, But listen, we found out the story. There is a whole story how the negative was found, detective story. Mike just him about it, but that's a that's a technical And then there was another little operation to somehow to get the rights because the people who owned the rights the company went bankrupt. The owners of the company all passed away and the rights. It's a complicated issue, but the rights were lingering in the earth, the rights to the movie neither here nor other. You cannot show
the movie without permits. No theater will show a movie without permits. And there was nowhere to bring the permits from. But anyway, Michael had a lawyer and they untangled it and eventually we got the right. And then then parallel, we found out that the movie never had a screening in the West Coast. It had few screening in the East Coast, but never any screening in the in the
West Coast. So Michael purred out. We purred out together with the American Cinema Tech, and we decided, together with the American Cinematic to present the first premier, the West Coast premiere that never happened four years ago, to do it now four years later. So this was the premiere. And luckily enough, three of the actors lives in Los Angeles and the representative of Steve James's daughter, So let's say four actors are living in the Los Angeles area.
Of course Margaret Avery, the lead, Alex Alex and the two co stars of SI and Debbie James, the daughter of Steve James. So Michael made it most of the connection to all of them, and they all came to the screening and Michael tell us the surprise the actors who came, and the surprise we had the.
Serah deputy again, you know, so I mean the other was Alex Morris and Julius Tennant were the two other soldiers that along with Steve James in the movie. And by coincidence, you know, Julius Tennant happens to be married to Violet Davis. And we knew we're going to do this premiere and I said, well, we have to give Margaret Avery her flowers, right, And I had somebody else in mine to like another actor woman actor to present
the flowers, but they were not available. So I went to my friend, you know, chat GPT, and I literally typed in. I said, of all the talented black actors in America, who has most followed in the footsteps of Margaret Avery? And the very first answer was Violet Davis. So I said, you know, what are the odds of that?
You know? And Julius happens to be married to her, so you know not there was a very little coaching involved, but she she came, she saw the movie, loved it, gave it a great endorsement, and then before that she she gave Margaret a bouquet of flowers and some very kind words that I hope you'll share on this podcast.
Everyone please give a very warm welcome to Egot winner Viola Davis.
Oh, I love her.
Yeah, we've spent some time together, Margaret. What are we supposed to do?
They just asked me to say some words to you, and you know, I love you, sis, and and you know I admire you. You one of the beacons, one of the acting beacons out there. Thank you, you know, and you absolutely inspired me when I was on the periphery just looking for a way in and I saw you. You're always a beacon of truth and vulnerability and soft power and always memorable. And you need to hear that because we don't often hear that. And so I want
to honor you. And I want to do a double whammy here because I.
Don't I don't want to go on and on.
Okay, but you happen to be in the center of a movie that still resonates today. I was totally in it. It's amazing that this movie where it's a town where we've been raped and pillaged and killed in damaged, and we still have to fight to be heard. And it's always great to see that female power and energy in there, that energy of love, of a reminder of our humanity,
you know, and cry. So I'm going to honor you, honor this movie which still you know, we need this right now, We need something that reminds us that we still have the power to fight back. Okay, but I love you, Margaret.
I love you back and that woman king Lord, and I bow to you.
You were buffed. Thank you.
Oh my goodness, this will it's so wonderful.
I mean, you inspire me. Thank you.
Here you go, Queen.
What can I say by all of Davis honoring me?
And she's a few words of the decay. She talked about the you know, the legacy of Margaret Avery.
And big ups to Amani Davis and the whole crew at at the American Cinema Tech. They they could not we could not have been treated better. It was fantastic thirty five years in the making. Los Angeles premiere on September fourteenth, twenty twenty four October and Ryan.
We didn't we didn't mention that what we screened. It was in Santa Monica, California, in a big theater, and what we screened was an original thirty five minimeter copy that we found sitting alongside the Negati when I when I went out there to some warehouse out there at the end of Berberg, I picked up the boxes and suddenly, alongside the elements, the original elements there were there was a print, a screening print, thirty five millimeter, original, beautiful screen,
a print that was never screened before. And that's what we used for the American Cinematics screen.
Very nice, very nice print. And you know, and and then now for people missed that screening, we're opening it up in February, beginning of February. From February until the end of the year, we'll be doing spot dates around the country with the six K restoration. We're booking dates after that. So if you're in a town and you want to see Riverbend and you you feel like there's a sizeable audience for it, will make the calls and we'll make it happen incredible.
The reception in the in the premiere, how how to go? How many people up? Was it a major event?
I would say so. I mean this was a big theater.
More than half of the theater was full, like seventy percent of the theater was full. Not advertising nothing, People just you know, the world of mouth, in the Internet, in the Instagram, all the you know, Facebook, all of them, and just people showed up. Some of them were connected to the restoration, of course, but people just knew about it and learn about it and they came. It was
very exciting. It's a it's a you know, Ryan, This movie was done in the end of the eighties, eight let's say, nineteen ninety, and it came out the story is ninety sixty five before, so there wasn't There was already implication there is something to learn from the sixties in the development of the African American experience in America
from the sixties to the eighties. But nowadays, when you see the movie, it has even bigger and amplified meaning or different meaning than it had in the eighties because we went through a lot of things happened in America in this field of the African American experience in America.
So now the movie has little even more interesting implication when you see it audience, and we saw it also Michael and me with young audience with students, and they were like, I don't want to say they were shocked, but they were very.
It stays relevant, still relevant to this day. I mean the movie centers on a bigoted sheriff and a small town who terrorizes the local black community. I mean, where have we heard that before? And the vances we're telling the story thirty five five years ago, so so you know, it's uh to see that. You know, art was used to communicate a solution back then. Can only help but inspire or invigreat audiences that have been denied that image of themselves, you know. And then also it's a very
entertaining film. I mean people were like applauding in the right places. I mean it was a sizeable enough crowd that there was a visceral reaction. And I think while David, she really captured the spirit of the night for us in her testimony.
So so yeah, to make the point, it's not a pretty movie. It's not it's not the PBS movie.
No, there's.
It's still a story with the good guys.
And you know, we've been used to showing it at black film festivals, so it's it's a different reaction then showing it in Santa Monica, which is a more mixed crowd, and they still got it, you know. And you know, one of the the biggest quotes that we got was
in Denton, the gentleman from Cinema Force. He came out, he lives in Texas and he said, never in a million years would I think that I would have an opportunity to see a movie directed by Sam Ferston, work starring Steve James that I've never even heard of in twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six. So it's such a treat for action fans and and a lot of your viewers as well have jumped on board with the pre sales of the Blu rays, so I think people know how much of a gem this is.
Michael. Also the reaction in Boston. We were in the Roxbury Film Festival in Boston. Yeah, it was also they didn't know that most of the Londons didn't even expect the They didn't know what they're coming to see.
Yea, it was interesting because we were in a smaller room, so it's a little tighter. The energy was the same, you know, I.
Agree with you.
They thought it was made for them, like wow, you know, and and the fact that it's it was basically suppressed. Like I said, it never played cable. I mean, how many movies from the nineties or eighties can you say never made it to cable? You know. So there's there there's some conspiracy theories about why that might be.
Yes, And what's crazy is so many of these movies. You know, you use the word exploited earlier, and obviously blaxploitation is a very common phrase that has used for a few different definitions, will say, but in the eighties and nineties a lot of these got more popular. And it's still amazing to me when you find one like this with names attached to it that was not allowed
to happen like that. I mean, especially when it came out in like ninety essentially, and then you had all these things happen in the nineteen nineties that would have given rise to popularity in something like this. You'd imagine, like in the wake of the Rodney King stuff, that this would have been something that people would have wanted to see, like genuinely had a hunger to see it, And so yeah, I guess there's some stories behind why this may have been held back.
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of beliefs, right Sam.
It did not fit into the exploitation slot, definitely. You know it did not because suddenly you start with the movie, oh yeah, actually you see soldier, but suddenly it takes a serious turn, totally serious turn. So it doesn't fit. So it's out of the exploration immediately of the exploitation field. And anyway, the subject is provocative, it's a radical subject. But at the same time, Mississippi Burning also came out,
which is eighties kind of similar. Somebody I just read a review that somebody compared it to Mississippi Burning Mississippi. This movie. When it was finished, the producer sold it to a small company I R released, and they sold it or gave the right or sold the right to Paramount, which is a huge company. So suddenly suddenly something here is suspicious. How come big company will like Paramount will
take a small movie, tiny budget movie. But orian there was a company Orion, which was affiliated with Paramount.
They released a prism.
No No, No, no Orion released Mississippi Burning.
Oh yeah, well Ryan ends up with Riverband down the Road.
That's what confused me because Orion was the subsist theory of Paramont. Paramount and Ryan or reconnected. So maybe maybe perhaps they did. Paramount purchased the movie in order to stop a competition to Mississippi Burning. I don't think it's a big competition because Mississippi Burning was big names, you know, big stars, Gin Eickman and other big stars. So I
don't feel that it was a competition. But for them, for music companies, for film companies to throw a million dollars to buy some movie just to stop it from competing with another music artist or another movie. For them, it's nothing. It's part of the So they released it. Paramount released it on VHS cassette. It was just and very few, small amount of copies, very small amount of copies, and I must say, very poor visual quality, very poor
quality the cassette. The VHISCA said that they they released were of a poor quality and very limited number. Yeah, and as I say, they only premiered it in the East Coast, not here.
Yeah. I worked at a store at the time and we carried it and I never w Yeah, I never watched it. The poster did not appeal to me, the cover did not appeal to me. No one, and I guess not enough people rented it to say that it was good. But it wasn't until years later when when I got reacquainted with Charles Woods, who ran a store in New York called the forty third Chamber, and we're
going through his collection. He literally had five used copies of this thing, like picking them up from like swapping in New York. And he said, I said, why do you have five of these? And he's like, you have to watch this, And that's that's what turned me on to it. I was like, oh wow, this is this is revolutionary. What's being said in this movie really does not get seen in any kind of American film, mainstream
or otherwise. There's only one other movie like this, in my estimation, in the whole history of cinema, and that's The Spooker Sat by the Door, which is another movie that came and went. It literally played for about two weeks and disappeared for decades. It's just now getting re released, Michael.
But it makes sense. Even if you go to a video store, you rent the cassette, you take it home and it has this murky grammy quality you're almost going to recommend it. It was a very poor quality physically.
So, you know, but you know, it's it's kind of interesting to me that I avoided watching it until Charles told me about it because I love black cinema and I'm a fan of Steve James. I you know, but maybe the fact that it was considered a straight the video, you know, might might have also been even though played theatrically and it had pedigree, you know, the whole Cannon Films thing. You know, maybe that's what kept people away
as well. You know, this whole strait of the front of video action was very big at the time, and I guess this movie wouldn't have been made at all if not for the market of home video. It was very little.
So listen, you walk into a store and you see twenty copies of Star Wars, six copies of Mississippi Burning, and one copy of So it makes impression on the whoever walks into the rental store. And this was the only way to see this movie. And I guess there were not on every rental store. You know, you would have Mississippi Burning was in every rental store. I don't think that River Bend was in every rental store in the country.
Definitely not copies of Dried Up Now, I have not seen any show up on eBay in probably a year.
Yeah, because there are very few consists around, very few visions the landfill.
So that's another reason it's never looked better. I mean, you know, I don't know if you're going to show clips of the restoration, but it's never looked better. We're going right from the interpositive of the of the film, which is the step right after the original camera negative. So it's color timed and it's the first generation from the camera negative. So and it's been supervised by Sam and it's immaculate. It looks, it.
Looks the cinematography is really good in this movie. Kenny Lemkin was a local. You know, the movie was shut was filmed in Texas, not in Atlanta, not in Mississippi, but in Texas because the money came from Texas and the people who invested they insist that we filmed the movie in Texas, that we should in Texas. But you know, the area that we were in had the same look of the South it's called the Waxahachie area in Texas,
south of Dallas, so it has the look. So the movie was all and and and all the actions, even the actors who came to the screening except Margaret Avery. They had a chance to see the movie in the premiere in Texas. Oh yeah, there was a There was a premiere in They told us Houston, Austin or Houston, I don't remember. And so Alex and and and they saw it. They saw the movie in.
Texas, played played a few markets before it disappeared. Because Valerie had a print of the film as well. In the print, so they may I mean from from our discovery. There were there's one print that's in the Library of Congress, which you can't take out. You can go there and view it. And then the print I got from South Africa. Then Valerie's print which got mold damaged, you know, so that's unplayable. And then the two prints that were discovered
in MGM's vaults. So that's literally the only film prints of that exists of the film. And like I said, I think the one that I got from South Africa probably was the one that played the theatrical circuit around the around the world, you know. So we know it played in Times Square, we know it played in Florida, Texas, and then Valerie's Print played a few festivals in Chicago and Texas as well. So it was very, very very rare to be able to see this on a big screen.
So another reason why people should log in and check out the website for dates or send an email and say, hey, we want to play this where we live.
So, Sam, I would love to hear your take on the fact that Sam for Urstenberg is getting a lot of love right now. I mean, we've got Ninja the Domination, We've got Revenge to Ninja, We've got American Ninja. We've got all these movies getting like these immaculate four K restorations in twenty twenty five, and everybody rabbit to see them still, you know, almost forty years later. How does that make you feel?
A Ryan? This is the magic of the world of cinema. I don't have an explanation or formula. I cannot break it down. Revenge of the Ninja was made more than forty years ago. By now, it's like forty three years ago. And this was the first martial art movie I directed, Ninja three. The domination then came American and those movies they got discent release. MGM picked them up from the company that produced them was Kenon Canon Film, which also
became there's a big revival about Kenon Film. But anyway, those movies were picked up by MGM, so they had a descent descent release for a low budget independent type of movies, and then they kind of subsided, they died, you know, it went down. And this was our prediction. We always thought that, Okay, we're making a movie that will go into video stores for five years, four years people will see and then they will disappear in what
I call a piece of time. They will disappear in the cave over the cave of time, a base of time. And so it was for the first ten years after making them, I didn't hear a lot about them. There
was a lot of influence. There was the Ninja Turtle and then Killed Bill by Tarantino, so there was the legacy kept on, but the movies themselves, the Ninja movies kind of and even breaking to Electric Google and then at the beginning of the two thousands and suddenly I start to get a call can reinterview you would you like it? Are you willing to do an interview? At the beginning, it was all pressed, it was all written interview slowly, slowly, people like you more video, and it's
just growing and growing. And you're right. Especially five movies out of the many movies that Ei di rected, twenty five movies, but five of them Ranger, the Ninja, Ninja three, The Domination, which became totally cult movie, real cult movie, Breaking to Electric Boogalo, which became an iconic symbol of the sick of the eighties, and of course America Ninja, which completely went bananas all over the world became so popular.
But maybe maybe again, I said, there is no way that I can explain it rationally to tell you why. You know, this is what the audience like, that's what people like. But perhaps maybe in those movies which are action movies or a dance movie, it was a low budget outfit. Low budget movies, medium budget. Everything that we have created on the screen is physically performed. We didn't have no screen, yellow, green screen, blue screen, cables, digital effects, nothing, everything.
Nineteen nine percent of the things that you see on the screen are physically performed. Even shrimp. Michael shrimp dancing on the ceiling was physically performed, no optical gimmicks, no optical effects. So and all the action, every fall, every hit, every dragging stunt, people behind cars, it was all perform And perhaps maybe when people are watching it today and they are used to see the Fast and the Furious, Okay, Superhero, which the action is spectacular, but you know, your brain
is telling you it's not real. A car is flying from one building to another building. Your brain is telling
you nothing like this can happen. And suddenly they see those movies, and those movies have a raw feeling, has a feeling that wow you, even if you're not conscious as an audience, as a viewer, you're not consciously sitting there and analyzing it, but still subconsciously you feel something here is real, something here is there is something here, And perhaps maybe that's part of the attraction and the reason for the growing popularities of those group of movies.
Of course, there are other directors in this group who did the you know Sheldon Ladys who did the all the Bandam movies, and you know Toby Hooper and others.
Yeah, well you're a legend.
So maybe maybe this is the answer I don't know.
Yes, no, I didn't know at the time how legendary Sam was. I mean people literally travel for miles, hundreds of miles to meet Sam and share their stories about growing up watching his films, you know. So it's been a treat this last twelve thirteen months, just being on the road with Sam and hanging out, recording audio commentaries and hearing the stories.
So speaking about your go ahead, Sam.
Excluding Breaking to Electric Buglo, all the other movies are like for Men, for Boy, for the boys. So the original crowd, they were teenagers when they saw it, of course, you know, they were twelve, ten, fourteen, fifteen. They show it to their sons, to the sun and they come to the screening. The screening in Atlanta, a guy came
with his son. He was now forty five, and his son is like, let's say eleven, and they came together to get the autograph and to meet me to just and you know, and the father was so proud and he said, I saw it, and now I saw it together with my son. So it keeps it keeps playing, It Keepsody work.
I mean even I didn't I had never seen the quote the Tarantino gave about American Ninja until recently, so he's a huge fan and and you know, our biggest hope is that he'll endorsed the product as well.
So absolutely, we really, we really.
Really hope that we're close. So if anybody watching actually knows Tarantino directly, have him reach out, get him a screener so we can have something to put on the box cover. But yeah, I mean, amazing global influence and impact the work of Sam Furstenburg, so it's great.
Well, the box cover, we get to talk about the Blu ray. That's one of the main reasons we're here. Tell me about the physical media that we are producing for Riverbend.
Mike, Well, this is the mock up, which is changing, you know, so, but and done done by Samurai Guinea pig Alan Pyrie overseas he and the artwork itself was illustrated by Aaron Kai, so it's hand painted artwork. We had to make some revisions. At the time, we were trying to court controversy, but as time progresses we realized that it's probably safer to go all Americans. So this is the all American one sheet. If you have the orig mugs and posters, those are Collector's Items now, but
is done by Aaron Kai. What do you think, Ryan, I'm just curious.
I mean, it's just it's iconic already. It's so freaking great. It's a strong posters.
We really wanted to create the feeling of the posters of the eighties. Yeah, this was intentionally so in our conversations with Aaron the artist, this is hand painted poster that you saw hand painted, and and when in our conversations with him before he started to work on it, we expressed our feeling that we would like to really have something that will remind us of the eighties. So so you know, Schwarzenegger salon this kind of uh, this
kind of younorius. So he really encapsulated this feeling of the posters of the eighties in this poster.
Well, one of the themes the movie is is it revenge or is it justice? Right, And we always felt, all of us felt that Steve James was denied the justice of being the star of his own Cannon movie, you know, and Riverbend is very close to that with the DNA of Sam Furstenburg and the amount of action that's in the story. So we said, what if Steve James was the star of a Cannon film from nineteen eighty nine. What would that poster look like? And that's what Aaron
came up with. I mean, in collaboration with Sam and myself. But you know, when you're right, you fight.
So it's really this poster encapsulates the feeling of the movies of the those movies of the eighties, the superheroes of the eighties.
Yeah, and it feels like that for sure.
It is.
Genuinely it's one that I am just easier to have on the shelf. I was stoked to be able to back it. And now we got it coming sometime mid twenty twenty six ish.
Correct juneteenth, twenty twenty sixth June nineteenth, twenty twenty six, the Blu Ray will be available. It would be in people's hands on juneteenth, and before that we'll have opportunity to see it on the big screen, like it's a beginning in February in New York and Philadelphia, and we're
looking for other dates as we speak. Also, if you haven't pre order or you're like, hey, I don't really want the Blu Ray, but I want to see the movie like streaming or whatever, we're going to do our Kickstarter campaign beginning in February to get the final funds that we need to make sure that this happens for everybody. So you know, the best way to keep track of that is just to go to riverbend restored dot com, riverbend restored dot com.
Yeah, we have a feeling that we'll have another screening in Texas, and we'll probably have conta in the South screening in the South.
We'll workers there's a there's a there's a cadre of theaters around the country that do restorations and and and re represent repertory work, you know, so uh, and then ultimately we'll also be taking the thirty five millimeter Prentice specific places that only show thirty five So that's that's an option as well. But with the digital format, we can go to as many cities as possible, not just in the United States, but around the world with it, so you know, have have hard drive, will travel.
You know, it's interesting. There is a lot of interest from Germany for some reason. We already got a couple of people who contacted us can they represent the movie in Germany if they can, asking.
If they can, Oh, yeah, the Blu is going to have subtitles too. I went through a whole thing. I thought that because the movie came out in Germany and in Greece, it came out in France and Canada, so it was in French as well and in Spanish, I thought I needed to transcribe the dubbing of those VHS tapes to create subtitles. But actually it's what's simpler is
to take the American captions and translate them automatically. So we're going to have at least four different languages English subtitles, Spanish, French, German. So so people, and it's a region free disc. You know,
you just have to cover the shipping. But in order you can pre order the disc now at River been restored as well, and it's going to be a ton of extras, you know, interviews, demonstrations for the restoration, demonstrations of how the poster was created, audio commentary with Debbie James and Sam Furstenburg, as well as a cast commentary with as Sam that we recorded at Sam's house.
Julius, Alex, Margaret and you have an album.
Yeah, we have. We will have a limited run of compact discs of the soundtrack as well.
That's cool.
Yeah, that was That was the beauty of getting the original elements from MGM, who was basically paying rent for them for thirty five years and couldn't do anything, so they were having I mean, they literally unloaded them on SAMs that day. I don't know if you, I think you were slightly overwhelmed with the amount of material that they had held onto.
When I went there with a van with my SUV and suddenly there's so many books is coming up, so surprised.
So the beauty of it was.
Negative sound, the original sound.
We had twenty four boxes, twenty four track, one inch real magnetic tape prem old big things still and our friends at Drexley University helped us, and Love Philly Records coordinated that for us to transfer the audio and create a new soundtrack CD, so you know, and we're looking we're trying to give the album cover sort of a retro look so people have something else that they can collect them feel like they're experiencing it again for the first time.
So well, one thing I do want to highlight before we call this, there are so many people that are out there working in this industry, so many companies putting out films nowadays, it's expensive, it's hard to get the certain things that you want. I really want to point out for a moment how important it is to support small things like this, specifically because other companies are putting out certain movies that have seen eighty five releases literally
on home video. And that's not exaggerating. Riverbend has not had a good release ever, It's not had a proper release in decades. It's not had a backed release like this ever. But beyond that, it is coming from a group that clearly has a passion for the film. It is coming from a group that saw this and said we can make something with this, We can bring this back to the world in a way that is more
relevant than ever, and it has already affected people. I mean, I've got people in my discord that pre ordered the movie pretty much day one that got personalized thank you videos from you saying thank you for pre ordering this, and everybody was just genuinely touched that a company out there cares so much that they will do that, and so just on behalf of everybody, because I'm sure you don't hear it that often, thank you for putting that sort of like a personal touch on it. That's so rare.
No, thank you, I must tell you since I know Michael, I know him now for four years, three or four years. Michael and Real Black together are dedicated, really dedicated to this one purpose of recovery and restoration of black cinema hundred you know. And that's like a nonprofit organization. Like I said, they don't make they don't make it to be rich, to become rich. They believe. He really really
believes in his mission. Maybe you see this your mission in life to restore, to recover, to discover, recover and restore black cinema too. We're supposed to be. By the way I told Michael before that. Steve James was also an avid collector of black cinema. I had many many at the time. It was all dhs, the other type of cassettes and laser discs of black cinema, going all the way back to silent cinema, Black silent cinema. Steve James said, A big collection, huge collection.
Yeah, it's been a dream of mine to have a label. But there's not a lot. There's not a lot out there that's accessible. So when it's happened, I jumped at it, and it's been a lot of work to get to get us to this moment where we can say that we're in theaters and we're coming to Blu Ray and we wouldn't. And I just have to thank you for for your support, Ryan, of giving your platform, your bullhorn,
the attention that this movie deserves. I think, and I think, and you've seen it, so you know it's it's not you know, it's it's a gem. It's really something that people need to see and will and we'll appreciate in their collection. I've seen it probably more than any person on Earth at this point, at least four dozen times. But I don't get tired of it, I really and I see new things in it every time, and I
can't wait to share it with more people. So I appreciate, I appreciate your support Ryan and Sam, and I wouldn't be doing this if not for Sam. Like if Sam was a complete sure, forget about it, you know, but together we are. He's one of the best people on the planet. And and he you know, he supervised the entire project, you know, and he does it with not kid gloves. He he knows what he wants, he knows what works and and you. And as I watched his
other films, I see his spirit in those films. It's it's amazing like he you know, if you if you spent the hour with us, you know Sam spirit is one of of not laid back but but just positivity, you know. And I think there have been some days where I didn't want to continue to do this and and I would have cut the ties from it. But like I said, if Sam Dipitty is the theme of this conversation, it's just I can't wait for the next
one to happen. You know what, what the next moment will be that that amplifies and say, yes, this is the time for Riverban.
Incredible. Well, I wish you both nothing but the best. I sincerely hope the theatrical run is incredible, and I hope we can make a screening in Kansas City here work, I gotta we'll have to talk about that. We get a theater that just literally this last week finalized their insul of a thirty five millimeter projector so yeah, awesome.
Well, I mean, the DCP is the way to go. But what would be fantastic is for this to be a success and we can continue to rescue more films. This is not the only one that's out there, and we have our finger on the pulse of a few titles. I learned my lesson not to announce too early, but twenty twenty six will have at least one other release come away, so incredible.
Love to hear that. All right, Well, thank you gentlemen. Hope you have a good night and stay safe and we'll talk soon.
I'm sure, thank you too. The one movie that Steve James was really the main star. We have here an opportunity to bring you big to life. Hey boy, I want to talk to you.
So this is my answer.
When I saw it, I said, holy cow, this is a filmic anomaly.
I love this film.
Hi. I'm Michael J. Dennis and I'm the founder of Real Black Riverband, starring Steve James and Margaret Davey, tells a story of three black Vietnam soldiers who teach a small town how to stand up to an oppressive share.
Maybe you could stay in, help us protect ourself, well, show us how to do it.
The River Bend is an underwatched, overlooked classic.
What I found was a forgotten chapter in black cinema history, A film that should have been part of the conversation.
But wasn't bought Just to be berry, sure, I would say yes.
I don't ever ever.
Want to hear the words boy or colored used again.
It was healing. It was an elixir from my soul. With everything that's happening in the zeitgeist today, I think that we need this movie.
After two years of legal hurdles, we secured the original elements from the Amazon MGM vault and restored the film in stunning six k.
I think it would be so happy that this movie is coming back to life, and.
Now we invite you to be part of this journey.
I think this is a film, so I think it's worth the money, and I think it's worth the time to sit in that theater for two hours and watch it and let it be the healing bomb.
If this work matters to you, join us. Make a pledge today.
You want to get better if we all just stand up, stand out.
Thank you for listening to the Disconnected podcast. There's one big thing that you could do to help the show, and that is to leave a rating and review on the podcast service of your choice. Thank you.
Hello, this is Chris Askell from They Live by Film For those that don't know us, Adam Zach and I. We built the podcast over the last two years. That's a combination of film discussion from three very different perspectives, as well as industry interviews with the leaders in Boutique, Blu Ray, and four K community. We started with dev Crocodile, but over time we've been lucky enough to speak with Aero Video, Severn, Manda Macabre, Vinegar Syndrome, Radiant Syndicator, most
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