THE HIT LIST: January 14, 2019
I had a busy weekend, frankly. No time really to BS or lounge about but for all good reasons… but that’s for another post.
Indeed your time is now here as the newest installment of The Hit List goes live, kicking off with a Vimeo-only post of actor Marc Natoli’s latest demo reel, inclusive with snippets from his winning shortfilm debut last year, The Proposal.
Following that is a welcome playlist fresh with today’s burgeoning and top martial arts and stunt talent, and we begin with an official team reel featuring a band of martial arts athletes I began covering last montj before I went into my holiday cave. Enter Team AKA with all its members front and center cut to the bone with high-energy music and cinematography and you can learn more about this group at akakarate.com.
The playlist rounds out with some of the best and rising in the stunt industry listing Sara Leal, Sherry Rene, Andre Da Silva, Matt Philiben, Jeffrey Mayfield, Kent Lloyd, Lauren Pugh, Austin Durden, Brian Le of Martial Club, Rain Lehel, Noelle Mulligan, Ben Zgorecki, Aviel A.V. Ayoung, Sierra Barrett, Michael A. Hel, Ishiyama Naoki, Zhanna Sattsaeva, Sarah Cooper, and Michel Quach.
As far as trailers go, I have none! But, I do wanna take the time to throw out Joey Min’s latest expression of gratitude in the hopes of replenishing his current crowd funding campaign so he and his cohorts at Art School Dropouts can help replace equipment that broke during the production of the invariably awesome Yes, Auntie! which is still waiting in limbo for details on either release or further festival profusion.
Enjoy, and if you look hard enough, eventually you’ll spot me in the red flannel shirt.
…Also, it’s worth pointing out that there’s quite the meaning to filmmaker Nicholas Ortiz peddling this iteration of the neon logo for one of his most recent shortfilm succeses, Black Betty. I caught up with him two weeks ago for the premiere screening of Joey Min’s Yes, Auntie!, and the subject came up out of the thin blue air. For that, let’s just say that Betty isn’t quite done laying down the law just yet (updated)…
Off to the fight gems to complete The Hit List and we begin with a quickie from Darren Holmquist and Malachi Mutakabbir, followed by McKay Stewart’s latest with David Wachs with Jasper Jeon, a pair of electrifying practice gems with Tarrell Bullock and Travis Davis and with Robin Calvo and Bryant Garcia-Cruz, Danny Yang and Cameron Rankin in a summer 2018 sword short called Sworn Brothers, George Karja’s latest group sesh with LK Stunt Team, another epic sword fracas this time at the Maspalomas Dunes in Spain with Dacio Caballero and Jota Romas (courtesy of cinematographer Dani Medina who contacted me and sent the vid), Mikko Lopponen with another slick experimental fight piece this time with Saara Inari and Judit Sziva, a fight scene you surely didn’t expect this week with Andrew Kim, Alexandra Pozon and Brian Kuttel from Kamen Ramen in association with Art School Dropouts, and an innovative little animated jewel from Dave Macomber called Power Play.
Luciano Arnieri shepherds a montage of practice fights in a vid assembled from Shi Long Dar Producciones and Kipan Stunt Team, and Syracuse’s own Sharif Anael-Bey returns to the Hit List with a short film he debut directed and performed titled Enuf, featuring LaKisa Renee, the continuing saga of violence presented in Brownin October’s mini action webseries, Chase with Trevor Kingston Frost and Stuart Williamson, and the rhythmic beatdowns that ensue from Jason Truong and his team of able performers in the new action short, The Heist, host to the key track, “Fill Your Soul” by Def3.
We also catch up with Shahaub Roudbari’s 2013 romantic action comedy, DayDreamers, prior to reintroducing one of the internet’s most time-honored action shorts, Dogfight from LBP Stunts Chicago in honor of stuntman Shawn Bernal’s recently-departed shirt from the hit Raid-inspired actioner, and completing our rounds with DPX Entertainment’s Symphony Of Swords with Sayaka Pereira and PeiPeiAlena Yuan.
Enjoy the hits!
That’s all for this week! Share The Hit List with friends and click here for more The Hit List awesomeness, and if you have a Hit on your hands, hit us up at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!
Native New Yorker. Lover of all things pizza, chocolate, pets, and good friends. Karaoke hero. Left of center. Survivor. Fond supporter of cult, obscure and independent cinema - especially fond of Asian movies and global action cinema. Author of the bi-weekly Hit List. Founder and editor of Film Combat Syndicate. Still, very much, only human.
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