bjj

Fantasia Review: Shaun Piccinino’s AMERICAN FIGHTER Flies A Flag Of No Holds-Barred Underdog Heroism

Following their exploits with Alex Ranarivelo’s American Wrestler: The Wizard, producer Ali Afshar and actor George Kosturos brace for more fictional territory under the stewardship of filmmaker Shaun Piccinino. Their latest effort, American Fighter, returns Afshar’s on-screen persona, Ali Jahani, back on camera for a more martial arts-tinged, revved up sequel that welcomes Tom Flanagan into the fray, and actor and BJJ blackbelt, Sean Patrick Flanery. It’s 1981 and George Lucas’ Star Wars has long since become a burgeoning franchise hit. On the other side of the world, the deadly Iran Revolution is underway, and at the behest of his father, Ali has long since relocated to California to live with his Uncle. One day, the two head to the airport where Ali is expected to finally reunite with his family until things take a dark turn. With his mother trapped in Tehran and held against her will, and no […]

ENSO Productions Presents: CRUEL WORLD

Lee B. Golden III

It’s been a while since we’ve last heard from the official YouTube channel for ENSO Productions as their members have likely been busy growing their respective careers, including independent filmmaker, industry stuntman and fight choreographer Walter Garcia whose work has been written about quite a few times on my site, as well as a handful of others in the last several years. He’s one of the most prolific action designers I know of and his online resume of shortfilms are proof of just how good he is behind the camera, as well as in front of it. You can now check out some of his latest work behind the camera right now in the new online test fight short, Cruel World, with Ryan Robertson and featuring fellow ENSO members Travis Gomez and Isaac Hughes. It’s only a few minutes long, but still makes for another artful presentation of solid fight […]

"Are You Ready!?!" Watch The New LBP Test Fight Short, THROWDOWN!

Lee B. Golden III

Michael Lehr and Alexander Hashioka-Oatfield trade shots in the LBP short, THROWDOWN Independent filmmaker Emmanuel Manzanares continues to entertain the masses this month with a brand new pound-for-pound action short titled Throwdown. Filmed just this past Sunday, the project is one in a continual series of the usual experimental pieces representing the body of work by LBP Stunts Chicago as Manzanares expands his craft with other stunt performing actors in front of the camera, this time with LBP member Alexander Hashioka-Oakfield and West coast-based Fight Factory’s own Michael Lehr. I spoke to the two performers this week leading the way with Lehr, who recently appeared opposite actor and director John Wusah in their latest collaboration titled Valiant just last week. And it just so happens that while Lehr has been familiar with LBP’s work for a long period of time, Throwdown is his first pairing with Manzanares and anyone from […]