interviews

unnamed

LIFE AFTER: A Word With LIFE XP Star, Actress And Stuntwoman Cassandra Ebner

Christina Ortega

One of my many hobbies is playing video games so when I was told about a web series that focuses on a female gamer, I had to give it a try. I was so hooked I finished it in two days (it would’ve been less, but real-life demands kept getting in the way). After viewing Life XP, I was eager to talk with Cassandra Ebner, the creator, writer, executive producer, and lead actor of the series. But her talents don’t stop there; she’s also performed stunts for Game of Thrones, Batwoman, Flash, Supernatural, and more. Want to learn more about her? Read on: You’re a gamer, an actor, a writer, and a stuntwoman. How did you get started in these roles?I was forced as a child to play the video game quake with my dads friends. Once they could beat his 5 year old daughter, he allowed his friends to […]

cover gofundme JB SK FILMS FLAT2.png

KILLER STUDIES: An Interview With Filmmaker/Author John Borowski

Christina Ortega

In early September, I attended HorrorHound Weekend in Indianapolis. Hosted by the magazine of the same name, it is a horror movie, television, and pop culture convention. A whole weekend full of all things horror! It was at this convention that I met independent filmmaker/author John Borowski. I’m not a stalker or anything, but since I heard him lecture, I’ve picked up a book of his, watched two of his films, and have followed him on three forms of social media. Nope, not stalking. If you are interested in true crime tales, you may already be familiar with Borowski’s work. He has written books and made films about Ed Gein, H.H. Holmes, and Albert Fish. I recently interviewed him via email, so other true crime geeks like myself could get to know him better: What drew you into the true crime genre? It was my love of horror films and […]

JoannaKe-smiley-1024x683

FEARLESS CINEMA: A Word With PROTECTRESS Star, Actress Joanna Ke

Lee B. Golden III

If there was ever a film festival I wish I could attend, it would be the Artemis Women In Action Film Festival in Santa Monica. I’m not just saying that, either, lest I sound patronizing and fake (really, I live in New York City, so that’s an issue) – there are a LOT of festivals that bring some terrific headliners and sideshows to the table, but the Artemis Women In Action Film Festival is an especially important one. Between the need for better representation and gender parity for women in film and stunts and the widespread brushfire of protest against sexual misconduct that is the #MeToo movement, the Artemis Women In Action Film Festival couldn’t have come at a better time. 2018 marked the festival’s fourth annual installation hailing a gathering of impressive film projects, their directors and performers and much more. Reading about it and browsing through one of […]

20180614_155541

DIRECTING A DANCE OF VENGEANCE: Director Sam Puefua Talks Revenge Action Thriller Shortfilm, MAMBA

Lee B. Golden III

The latter end of May through early June saw the emergence of a promo campaign for a project now shaping up be quite the festival favorite. The project in question hails actress Sonalii Castillo in her latest electrifying role in Mamba, a new revenge shortfilm thriller from actor and filmmaker Sam Puefua. “Sonalii brings a level of authenticity to her character,” says Puefua who also co-stars as Sam, a former soldier who applies his skillset aptly as Kali’s right-hand man. “She’s a hard worker and very passionate about her role, and having created this character, there’s no one better than her to bring this character to life!” Heralded as a cross between John Wick and Colombiana, Mamba is currently garnering acceptances and praise from multiple territories in North America and Europe with Castillo having recently won the Gold Award for Best Actress at the Independent Shorts Awards. The project also […]

bafcc0f48db40f40f2afb34ad6a7eee9_hp56

PIMPKILLAH: Indie Comic Book And Film Auteur Sarah Bitely On The Evolution Of An Amazing Idea

Lee B. Golden III

Back (L to R): Linda Burzynski, Xenia LeBlanc, Angelica Amor, Michelle Jubilee Gonzalez Front (L to R): Christie Insley, Sarah Bitely (hood) About five years ago I managed to interview stuntwoman, actress and producer Michelle Jubilee Gonzalez. It was through her I managed to build a rapport with several other veterans and up-and-comers in the industry whilst getting an angle going on covering the stunt field and it was a privelege to be able to exchange with her than as it still is now from time to time. She’s a talented singer as well – a fact that I was reminded of clean and clear when last year, I managed to screen one of her most recent short film appearances, Pimpkillah, courtesy of filmmaker and comic book creator Sarah Bitely. I think it quite surprised Michelle and that was sort of the feeling I got when I commented on one […]

FB_IMG_1523575391199

CALIFORNIA STREET DREAMIN’: A Word With Actor And Filmmaker Jordan Cann

Lee B. Golden III

Actor and artist multi-hyphenate Jordan Cann and I have a few things in common. I surprisingly learned this during our latest interview in the days since he debuted the official trailer for his second feature film, Street Dreams: Los Angeles. It turns out that both of us were born and raised in the borough of Queens in New York City. I actually reside near the area he grew up in for eight years which, at the time, dealt with its own share of crime – enough to upend the Cann household for a move to Hampton, Virginia where would begin cultivate himself in the arts. “Around this time I really started getting heavy into the martial arts due to the popularity of TMNT and the action/martial arts boom in the 80s – 90s.” he says. “After begging for classes my family finally gave in and I took formal lessons for […]

FB_IMG_1511096234814

Rising Action Star Jose Manuel Talks THE MAN FROM KATHMANDU

Lee B. Golden III

Much has happened this year for actor and martial artist Jose Manuel. Interviewing him back in April was something of a milestone achievement, and no less for a rising star who himself has contributed years of sharpening talent and unmitigated resolve toward growing into the headlining action star he strives to be to date since making history in 2012 with Puerto Rican martial arts action feature, El Testigo (The Witness). His recent ‘Best’ wins for the Short Film Competition and Blood Sweat And Bones categories at the Urban Action Showcase and Expo on November 10 are also doing plusses for him this month. Retribution won the latter of the two and you can currently catch that one via YouTube. The other, Uncompromised, still stands plenty to gain with Manuel taking the lead next year following his current endeavors in Nepal. For this, we bring you The Man From Kathmandu, hailing […]

PicsArt_11-09-04.34.47

Stunt Coordinator And Stuntman Peter Antico To Join THE RYAN CARR SHOW On Friday

Lee B. Golden III

On its face, you have all the action and spectacle you could expect and more when it comes to stunts on film and television. Behind it all are a lot of intertwining politics and matters of mild controversy relative to important issues regarding work, safety and subjects therein – some of which gets reported in writ articles via trade news sources like Deadline and Variety. For this, folks looking to delve much more into the crux of it all can catch Chicago-based stuntman Ryan Carr (Chicago Fire, The Exorcist), now well into the second season of his online podcast, The Ryan Carr Show. Carr is joined by recurring co-hosts, actress Natalee Arteaga and fellow stuntman Bob Beck, and as of Friday, adding Peter Antico to the show’s guest history for the usual topical engagments. Antico has nearly forty years of film and television credits as a stuntman, stunt coordinator and […]

FB_IMG_1508090535242

CREATIVE’S CREED: An Interview With Adam Brashaw

Lee B. Golden III

Having extensively covered Universal Pictures’s famed Fast franchise, this week’s latest bit of coverage has to be the closest I’ve come. It’s primarily attributed to the forthcoming live show which kicks off in London in January and obviously with a film saga so action packed, of course it’s going to need a crew of some very talented stunt performers to take to task the very feats attendees can expect. For this, it is with great pleasure to have been able to share an auspicious chat with Adam Brashaw, someone whose work thusfar in stunts, film and television have been all but impressive. He’s only appeared in The Hit List a few times having done three shortfilms (two of which I have seen), and you need only to see the results for yourself apart from his exceptional work reel just above. Brashaw is going nine years strong in his field with […]

SamuelSmith-Actiondirector

FOLKLORE AND FU: A Word With Filmmaker Samuel Smith

Lee B. Golden III

It’s been a bit of a banner year for filmmaker Samuel Smith, freshly into his fledgling career in film with two completed shorts and current feature film script developments now in tow. I had the chance to interview him in the past month or so in the wake of his run at the Iron Dragon TV Action Fest and this month’s Fighting Spirit Film Festival launch in the U.K.. He delves a bit on one of his shorts, expanding amply on his vision for what reads like a surefire thriller of a TV series. It’s the kind of thinking that I believe producers would be keen on given the proliferation of action-packed television in recent years. Having had the chance to check out both shorts – Tengu: Birdmen Of The Mountains and I Am Not The Devil, I can certainly divulge that Smith is well on the way to making […]

0-19

THE UNDERCUTTING EDGE: An Interview With Stephen Reedy

Lee B. Golden III

The past few weeks have been a little draining. I’ve had to let go of a few people while tending to some much-needed downtime over the weekend while balancing work on all ends, so if you’re reading this, thank you for bearing with me. Part of that rest period was spent on a nice, brisk thirty-some odd minute-long jewel of a shortfilm that I have been in love with for up to thirteen years. My feelings haven’t waned and it served as a nice refresher reminding me why it is I started this site in the first place. That movie finally garnered my own viewing of its behind-the-scenes featurette just this month, showcasing the antics and shenanigans of The Stunt People – one of the independent film and stunt troupes that bred my earlier interest in the world of online martial arts action filmmaking; The group even accrued its own […]

RMTaylorWesKlain2

ENJOYING THE RIDE: An Interview With ‘Baby Driver’ Co-Star R Marcos Taylor

Lee B. Golden III

Photo: Wes Klain It was back in 2014 when I first caught actor and stuntman R Marcos Taylor in Tony Clomax’s action short, Broken Angels. Needless to say, Taylor’s credits in film and TV date back further in a series of achievements that have seen him ascend more politically as an actor having debuted to award-winning status with the independent martial arts comedy, Paying Mr. McGetty, as well as co-starring roles in F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton and this summer’s release, Baby Driver. The latter, from Cornetto Trilogy helmer Edgar Wright has earned a total of $121 million dollars at the box office which surely makes for a neat addition to Taylor’s growing resumé. I managed to send some questions to Taylor who took some time to briefly answer some questions in the course of his busy schedule and rest assured, this won’t be the last we hear from […]

0-3

THE MAJOR SALUTES: Catching Up With Actor And Filmmaker Alexander Nevsky

Lee B. Golden III

In case you’re just tuning in, I’ve kind of been on a roll in the past week or more with interviews and largely due to the cast of the upcoming crime thriller, Black Rose. With the film less than a week away from its release, I’ve interviewed co-stars Matthias Hues and Kristanna Loken, and as of today, a new interview with its star and director, Alexander Nevsky in this following our interview last year in January. He’s got more films lined up and he discusses them accordingly as well in the text beneath, in addition to plans for a new book now well on the way to publication for health and fitness aficionados. Interestingly, he also hints at some possible prospects for the character he plays and that of others in the murder mystery millieu within Black Rose; you can read our latest review by clicking here while I humbly invite you to […]

0-4

PROFESSION OF CHOICE: An Interview With Actor And Filmmaker Jino Kang (VIDEO)

When David Van Tassell isn’t working on his own projects, every now and then he serves as contributor to Film Combat Syndicate and upon his recent review of actor and martial artist Jino Kang’s latest action thriller, Fist 2 Fist: Weapon Of Choice, Tassell took the opportunity to offer his services for an interview with the film’s director and star. The movie itself is already available wherever you can find it on VoD and DVD, and is also poised for a premiere on The Fight Channel in the UK this summer while Kang discusses, among other things, his career and current goals in film. For the hearing impaired, Tassell has also made the following transcript available just beneath, and we especially send our thanks to Tassell for going the extra mile to offer us a feat as rare as this seeing as how we rarely get to do Skype interviews […]

WORKING IN ACTION, LIVING IN PEACE: An Interview With Actor Matthias Hues

Lee B. Golden III

One of the biggest aspects of operating my site has been earning the opportunity to trade some Q&A jabs with actors I never once in a million years would have thought I would be in touch with. Looking at actor Matthias Hues, really he has to be one of the few people in my purview whose career dates back to a tine when movies arrived on VHS and had to be rewound, which really makes sharing conversational space in this capacity quite the honor. I’ve grown up watching Hues as part of my thriving childhood with film, my first experience being watching him go toe-to-toe with Dolph Lundgren in Craig Baxley’s 1990 sci-fi action thriller, I Come In Peace (a.k.a. Dark Angel) It’s one of the most thrilling and memorable moments of the halcyon days of American action filmlore and I never really thought about the prospects of a sequel […]

THE WITNESS SPEAKS: An Interview With Actor And Filmmaker José Manuel

Lee B. Golden III

It’s probably a pretty timely thing for me to be able to interview someone like José Manuel. Jackie Chan just had a birthday and Manuel, well… he’s probably one of the biggest Chan fans I’ve interviewed in my time on this site. He’s bigger than me for sure, and in the wake of his own efforts as a filmmaker and entertainer with a distinct and profound love for action on film, I couldn’t be more proud of him. I actually REALLY wanted to meet him late last year when he attended the events at the Urban Action Showcase and Expo, only I had approximately zero clue that he was in town and had only found out when he presented a documentary video of his trip on social media. I was a bit floored and a laughed it off; it wasn’t too upsetting, rather just delightful to know that New York City […]

EXCLUSIVE: Director Chris Chung Talks SOHO JIMBO Release, Present And Future Plans

Lee B. Golden III

Photo: Dan Donovan It’s not too far into the year but it didn’t take long for me to connect with a director whose previous work on the shorfilm, Handuken, came on my radar once upon a time. Meeting filmmaker Chris Chung last week, I had the honor of almost immediately engaging an interview ahead of the release of his latest shortfilm, Soho Jimbo. The project has been a major highlight of Chung’s work for a few years now as he has also mingled with the prospects of turning this project into a feature film. It would he his debut if that were to be the case, and not exactly being a stranger to martial arts cinema is certainly a helpful factor here with talents like Into The Badlands series co-star Alan Wai taking center stage. I credit Soho Jimbo co-star, actor and martial artist David Cheung who shared the initial […]

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: An Interview With Steven Yu

Lee B. Golden III

You might recognize the video above if you follow independent martial arts movies. Videos like these are a culmination of years of fandom and the hard work it takes to keep that fandom alive, and there’s no question that actor, martial artist and stunt fighter Steven Yu has contributed his fair share, and with any luck, still is. As it is, Yu is one of the dozens and dozens of people I’ve been following in the world of online independent film since 2004 when I first started watching Bilang.com tricking videos and Zero Gravity practice fights for my own evening enjoyment. (Sometimes my Quicktime player [I owned a PC, not a Mac] would crash, whereas my Windows Media Player would save the day. Fun times). Jump over to 2005 and short films like Stephen Reedy’s award-winning kung fu ninja comedy, Undercut would propel me into the workload of the San […]

VOLTRON FILM SCHOOL – PART II: An Interview With Actor And Filmmaker Edmond Shum

Lee B. Golden III

If you’re reading this, hopefully you’ve been keeping up in the wake of the latest milestone successes with the folks over at Rising Tiger Films. Last week’s interview with founder, actor and filmmaker Leroy Nguyen presented a candid tale of effort and triumph over tribulation for their feature debut, Black Scar Blues, which is currently running its first trailer. As such, its been nearly two years since this fine indie film group landed on my radar and almost a year since I’ve met them in person. Hopefully it won’t be the last time as fun as it has been while covering these people and I look forward to even more of their endeavors following Black Scar Blues, for which I cannot wait to share my review. For now, however, I leave you with the second of my two-part interview with the two leading artists behind Rising Tiger Films, and their […]

VOLTRON FILM SCHOOL – PART I: An Interview With Actor And Filmmaker Leroy Nguyen

Lee B. Golden III

It’s pretty imaginable – the demanding list of items and moving parts a filmmaker has to manage and keep track of in the course of a project’s evolution. I say this whilst not being a filmmaker myself, but having spoken to a good few who’ve worked on either one or both sides of the lens and that pretty much enlists most of the people I’ve written about off and on in the last eight years – less than three of which have been here on this site. For certain, actor and filmmaker Leroy Nguyen can attest to these and much, having cut his teeth for well over a decade through his own projects, as well as shared ventures with numerous other aspiring film professionals, and with a distinct interest in action and martial arts. Joined by longtime friend and film cohort, Edmond Shum, the two have found a unique working […]