THE HIT LIST: April 2, 2018

Cutting through the fluff, we’re gonna go straight to the goods with Kabelo Chalatsane warming up this week’s stunt playlist with an extensive new reel of his work. The playlist finishes up with reels by Amanda Cook, Margaryta Soldatova, Ben Rezendes, Rosslyn Luke, Daisy Fryer, Tennison Barry III, Karleena Gore, Hailey Jackson and Travis Gomez, and Circomedia’s own Jonathan Last, joined by second and third year pupils while out and about and turning the streets of Bristol upside down with love!

This week is a special one, if not the start of an exciting interval for fans closely eyeing the progress of actor Yoshi Sudarso. The Jakarta-born L.A.-living rising star has a feature film debut in the midst which deservedly illuminates the latest labor of love for all things film, fighting and gaming for the inspired creatives at The Game Basement Productions with Final Fight fan film, The Broken Gear.

The shortfilm had itself a nice little screening event for attendees at MagFest this year and is now looking toward an online release with a date pending. Sudarso is joined by Don Frye, Vonzell Carter, Mason Davis and Sam Puefua among a raft of action talents and as such, an official teaser trailer is finally rolling out for fans all around to sample.

Indeed its been the longest time since we’ve seen something smashing from stellar independent filmmaker Haile Lee whose new fan flick marks his latest revival activity at his longstanding banner, The Game Basement Productions. A project like The Broken Gear should play handsomely into his agenda as we maintain vigilance on what may lie ahead for the channel. Take a look!

I couldn’t be more proud of the surprisingly long playlist we have going this week in the world of practice action gems and shortfilms. Lea Catania’s got some “dance” moves to show off against Chris Silcox with Rustic B at the lens and doing what he does, and you can check out an extended perspective here with Rustic explaining the process (for more on Rustic’s latest endeavors in action cinema and independent film, click here.)

Kyro Wavebourne follows suit with Noah Schultz caught in a bruising spiral in Noah’s Arc with Benjamin Hinnant and Jenna Hellmuth, and Shannon McDonough samples some amazing fight clips from projects with the criminally-underused/underrated Jarrod Allan Crooks. Krystal Ellsworth demonstrates how to lay waste to the likes of Nathan Peoples and Jacob Ellis right before Travis Wong shepherds the latest bit of brutality with Daniel Leavitt and Ferdi Fischer for some Warpcam action led by Gui DaSilva, Justin Carney unleashes his Wrath with David Lavallee Jr. at the helm, and Vlad Rimburg and Shawn Bernal return to the Hit List in fine form to assure our love and adoration with a two-minute slice of life titled Caged which also features Malay Kim, Bryan Cartago, and Brendon Huor.

Following that are just a few amazing pieces of work that I’m horribly late in finding and one hails from last year with Derek Pueblo at the helm for Barbershop Brawl, and a charming action comedy piece over at Simmi Singh’s channel titled The Over-Protective Best Friend. I highlight these two as a preamble to segue a little bit into introducing my newfound discovery of an online action talent who goes solely by Kiing whose latest reel all but exhibits a tasty sampler of reasons to keep him on your radar from here on.

Mason Sharrow gets things going The Old Fashioned Way with performances by Sean Baker and Ronin Skai, and Ben Aycrigg’s The Happiest Place In The World sees rebels battling the imperial forces of happiness with Matt Thompson and Derek Russo starring.

Stuntwoman and all-around Catwoman Jasmine Wright was a lovely find for last week’s Hit List upon which she recommended I browse her channel for Clawed which also stars Austin Uku and bodes as a charming and fun bit of DC fandom. Following that is a delightful proof-of-concept for a pending feature film now pre-visualized in Mono Ghose’s most recent short, Henchman, set in a dystopian land ruled by warlords whose oath-bound elites are only allowed to break from command through formal duels with opponents matching their equal. James Adler and John MacDonald star.

Michael Yadvish follows suit over at Yad-Fu for a brooding, head-bashing entry into Rustic B.’s latest film fighting challenge with rescue thriller, Gomorrah. Next up is another rising talent to stay mindful of with actress and martial artist Chintya Candranaya with Lady Of Fury, which is something of a longer follow-up to a few shortfilms in the same vein already available on her channel; the plot is about as vague as one could take with a lack of understanding Bahasa dialect but you can pretty much surmise that vengeance is on the menu for this entreé, followed by a sweet, hard and heavy show of screenfighting action with Chintya front and center.

Last and far from least is a worthy feat hailing from R4 Films LLC whose Robert Samuels (H.K.S.A.) and producer Robert Jefferson won the Short Film Showdown at the 2016 Urban Action Showcase and Expo. Beast: The Chronicles Of Parker now has an online wide release for martial arts film fans to endulge in with actor and decorated martial artist, Marco Johnson starring as an agent pulled into a deadly game of survival and intrigue while investigating the presence of a leathal toxin.

Apart from serving his community as a martial arts instructor, there’s more waiting in the wings for Johnson’s rising status with the pending release of Jeffrey Leslie’s The Legend Of Kung Funk. In the meantime, Beast: The Chronicles Of Parker bodes as an ample addition to your online enjoyment and with greater prospects to follow.

L to R (top): Rosslyn Luke, Matt Thompson, Krystal Ellsworth, Derek Russo and Chintya Candranaya L to R (bottom): Travis Gomez, Karleena Gore, James Adler, Daisy Fryer and John MacDonald

That’s about all we have for The Hit List this week. For all else you can click here for last week’s entries in case you missed them, or you can sub to the channels, take initiative and explore what these amazing artists bring to the table for your own enjoyment. And, as always, if you or someone you know has a terrific new demo reel, or a project that needs either promoting or sharing, run it by us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!