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Speaker 1: Hello there, everyone, and welcome back to the disc Connected.
Speaker 1: You won't know this, but this is actually take two
Speaker 1: of a conversation with mister Mike Dennis and Sam Furstenberg. Gentlemen,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for doing this again.
Speaker 3: Oh qu sure, wonderful. We love to be on your show.
Speaker 1: It's wonder We are here to talk about a movie
Speaker 1: that I've been anticipating for a long time, and that
Speaker 1: is Riverband. Sam, you are the director of Riverband. Can
Speaker 1: you tell us what Riverband is?
Speaker 3: Correct? Riverband is a very very unique, interesting movie. I
Speaker 3: wouldn't say it's a provocative subject. It deals with the
Speaker 3: racial injustice in the segregated South in the nineteen sixties
Speaker 3: during the height of the civil rights movements, so it's controversial,
Speaker 3: it's different. It has a twist and turns in it
Speaker 3: which are I don't want to to get your older spoilers,
Speaker 3: and fantastic ending, really unexpected ending. The star of the
Speaker 3: movie is Steve James that I worked with him in
Speaker 3: American Ninja one and American Ninja two, also in another movie,
Speaker 3: Avenging Force, and the co star is Margaret Avery, the
Speaker 3: leading lady Margaret Avery from the color Purple and so overall,
Speaker 3: and there is some other great great actors, great performances,
Speaker 3: interesting subject and more or less it tells the story
Speaker 3: of three soldiers, three black soldiers who are coming back
Speaker 3: from Vietnam to the South, to the Deep South. They
Speaker 3: are not from the South, they are from Chicago, from California,
Speaker 3: and they witness the injustice. They see what's happening in
Speaker 3: a small town which is called Riverbend, and and they
Speaker 3: want to correct. They decide to correct the situation, the
Speaker 3: bigotry which is going on in the town, and the
Speaker 3: way they know to do it is a military way,
Speaker 3: the way they they learned in being in the military
Speaker 3: in Vietnam. And the rest of the story is the
Speaker 3: unrevealing the evolution of what has happened in this little town,
Speaker 3: which they take the lead in helping the locals to
Speaker 3: resolve the problem. That's as much as I can reveal
Speaker 3: for now.
Speaker 1: Well, on that note, Mike, can you share why you're
Speaker 1: here and you got stuck with the project for one
Speaker 1: that you've been working on for years, stuck in a
Speaker 1: way that it's a it's a mission and that you've
Speaker 1: been longing to accomplish for a very long time.
Speaker 4: I think it chose it chose me somehow. The serendipity
Speaker 4: is incredible and that's what's been keeping us going but
Speaker 4: basically Riverbend. It was a movie that you know, I
Speaker 4: was dangerously It was never exploited on any physical media
Speaker 4: outside of VHS, right. It never played on cable TV,
Speaker 4: it never made it to laser disc, it didn't make
Speaker 4: it to DVD. So during the pandemic, or a little
Speaker 4: bit before I started, I had a brick and mortar
Speaker 4: screening series I ran for sixteen years in Philadelphia, and
Speaker 4: we never ran Riverbend there. But I after I closed
Speaker 4: shopped there, I decided I'd start putting rarities from my
Speaker 4: collection on YouTube, and one of them happened to be Riverbend.
Speaker 4: And maybe about three months later, I got an email
Speaker 4: from Sam First and and I'm thinking, oh, this is
Speaker 4: gonna be a cease and desist, you know, he says,
Speaker 4: I said, because the subject line was I'm Sam Personverg,
Speaker 4: director of Riverbend. And I opened it up and said, no,
Speaker 4: you're doing the movie a great service. Thank you for
Speaker 4: putting it up and sharing it. It was independently produced
Speaker 4: and it needs to be seen by as many people
Speaker 4: as possible.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: So, and what Sam didn't mention is that this film
Speaker 4: is unique in the sense that it shows black people
Speaker 4: teaching one another, how to stand up against their oppressor, right,
Speaker 4: So that automatically interests me. My YouTube channel is all
Speaker 4: about black empowerment, and I was just curious about how
Speaker 4: the film got made, so we started setting interviews with
Speaker 4: Sam Me and Charles Woods, who actually turned me onto
Speaker 4: the film in the first place. And in the process,
Speaker 4: while we were talking, a thirty five millimeter print of
Speaker 4: the film shows up on eBay and I didn't know what.
Speaker 4: I didn't know what to do, but I knew it
Speaker 4: was a rare circumstance or instance, so I put a
Speaker 4: bit on it won it. It was in South Africa,
Speaker 4: of all places, and it literally took about three or
Speaker 4: four months for it to show up at my house.
Speaker 4: It was packed in a cardboard box with all kinds
Speaker 4: of tape on it and everything, and it sat under
Speaker 4: my desk for a good six or eight months, and
Speaker 4: then I decided I should get the scanned and see
Speaker 4: see what the quality is, you know, and maybe we
Speaker 4: can show it around. And we did that and the
Speaker 4: scan was it was The print was horrible. I mean,
Speaker 4: Sam can take it from there, you know.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was a print that was thirty five
Speaker 3: millimeter print. The way we used to see movies, and
Speaker 3: maybe it was to run through screening machines hundreds of time.
Speaker 3: You know, not all projectors are good. Some projectors scratches.
Speaker 3: It was heavily scratch and dirt. You know, when there
Speaker 3: is dirt on the print, it shows immediately in the
Speaker 3: in the digitized copy. But there is a process of cleaning.
Speaker 3: Mike Michael found somebody who who knows the technology of cleaning,
Speaker 3: and the digital copy was cleaned from all the scratches
Speaker 3: and from all the spots, the dirt spots, which was amazing.
Speaker 3: But to our disappointment, we found out that six scenes
Speaker 3: were cut out of the print, either to make it
Speaker 3: short for any other reason that we don't understand, probably
Speaker 3: to make it it's longer than ninety minutes. And you
Speaker 3: know in theaters the best, the best movies for timing
Speaker 3: is ninety minutes. So six scenes were missing, and we
Speaker 3: couldn't scan that. The quality of the VHS that existed
Speaker 3: is very very i can say, very poor quality, very
Speaker 3: poor visual quality. So we tried, Michael tried to transfer
Speaker 3: from the vhs, but it looked terrible. It was very
Speaker 3: poor compared with the with the fantastic at the time,
Speaker 3: it was two K resolution of the transfer to dig
Speaker 3: the digit digital transfer and suddenly those scenes. So this
Speaker 3: was the fate of this and we went Michael Wright.
Speaker 3: We went to few festivals with this digital premiere.
Speaker 4: That's a serendipity. So Craig Rogers everybody watching those you know,
Speaker 4: who was part of Deaf Crocodile Video label. He did
Speaker 4: the initial restoration of the thirty five minuilimeter release print
Speaker 4: that was cut, and we premiered that in Denton, Texas
Speaker 4: in January of twenty twenty four, right so at the
Speaker 4: Denton Black Film Festival. And it was there that we
Speaker 4: met Valerie Van who was one of the original producers
Speaker 4: and her nephew Marcus, who plays the Sun in the movie.
Speaker 4: And if it wasn't for them, we would not be
Speaker 4: here talking about a Blu ray release or anything like
Speaker 4: that because they helped us secure the rights and access
Speaker 4: the original interpositive and internegative and original thirty five million
Speaker 4: sound elements as well. So what we have now that's
Speaker 4: gonna premiere in February around in theaters around the country,
Speaker 4: starting in New York and Philadelphia, is a pristine six
Speaker 4: K restoration done by Austin Squittieri of Real Revival. Wow.
Speaker 3: Out of the four original producers, which one of them
Speaker 3: was the writer Sam Vince wrote the script to this movie,
Speaker 3: only one is still involved with us is Hillary Vance.
Speaker 3: She was one of the producer. She helped the wife
Speaker 3: of Advance, and she helped him in writing I remember
Speaker 3: at the time, and thankfully she's still here. We still
Speaker 3: you know, even for the screening in Texas, we managed
Speaker 3: to found we found the stunt coordinator of the movie.
Speaker 3: He lives in Texas, Mike, Mike Shank. He came to
Speaker 3: the screening later on. For later screening we got some
Speaker 3: of the cast members. Michael will tell you about it.
Speaker 3: So there are pretty still many people. We found the
Speaker 3: original composer of the music, he's from Texas. So still
Speaker 3: pretty many people who are involved in making this movie
Speaker 3: are still around. And as we advance, we find and
Speaker 3: we make connection with more and more of them. So
Speaker 3: this is very nice. Just sadly enough, the writer, the
Speaker 3: brain behind the story, he is not with us anymore.
Speaker 3: He passed away.
Speaker 4: Steve of course also Simmons.
Speaker 1: I don't think we went into the serendipity there as
Speaker 1: much as we probably could have. What what happened in
Speaker 1: Denton because it sounded like I was just playing for
Speaker 1: us to meet up with Valerie. But that's not exactly
Speaker 1: how it went. Right.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean we started to thank God for YouTube again, right,
Speaker 4: So we started doing like little promo pieces to advertise
Speaker 4: the Denton screening, and Marcus Coleman happened to see one
Speaker 4: of them and told his aunt Valerie, Hey, they're bringing
Speaker 4: Riverband back to Texas. You know you want to go?
Speaker 4: And the and Harry and and Linda Edie at the
Speaker 4: Denton Black Film as well. They were so gracious they
Speaker 4: provided accommodations for them to come to Texas and be
Speaker 4: with us on very short notice. But we hit it
Speaker 4: off right away, So that that was the serendipity.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because we will For a long time, we were
Speaker 3: looking more Wiz was more Michael. He was looking for
Speaker 3: the event says for all the producers and could not
Speaker 3: find they just disappeared. Eventually he made contact with the
Speaker 3: other two producers not with Valor Events, and one day
Speaker 3: I'm getting an email from Valeri Events. So she found
Speaker 3: us eventually, after a long process. Michael really put a
Speaker 3: lot of energy into trying to find her, but couldn't,
Speaker 3: and because he moved a few addresses and telephone different
Speaker 3: telephone numbers, and suddenly she found us. So that's how,
Speaker 3: And it was only a few days before the screening
Speaker 3: in the festival.
Speaker 4: But Ryan, get this one though, This is even more
Speaker 4: incredible how things connect, right. I mean, I really believe
Speaker 4: in what they said the power of the universe and
Speaker 4: when you start to like take a step forward, things
Speaker 4: that happen. So after Denton and there was a premiere
Speaker 4: screening of a movie called Naked Acts, which was going
Speaker 4: to be at the Lightbox Film Center, and I teach
Speaker 4: it as a black film that I was very much
Speaker 4: aware of, and so I made an extra credit assignment
Speaker 4: for my students at Temple University to attend, and we
Speaker 4: got free tickets to go, and you know, the majority
Speaker 4: of the class came and I filmed the Q and A,
Speaker 4: which is on the YouTube channel. But what happened. I
Speaker 4: happened to be sitting next to Dennis Doros of Milestone Films,
Speaker 4: and at the end of the screening, I happened to
Speaker 4: tell him about Riverbend and the fact that we just
Speaker 4: did a premiere but we had a release print. We
Speaker 4: couldn't find the negative, and there was you know, we
Speaker 4: couldn't go any further. And he said, well, you know
Speaker 4: I have this organization Missing Movies dot org. Let me
Speaker 4: make a few phone calls. And this was on a
Speaker 4: Wednesday night, I think by Friday said, I found the negative.
Speaker 4: It's a photo kem.
Speaker 3: The original negative.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So we had to go through some legal maneuverings
Speaker 4: to be able to access the negative and all the
Speaker 4: thirty five millimeters elements. But again, you know, if I
Speaker 4: didn't bring my students to the screening and happened to
Speaker 4: talk to Dennis, we wouldn't be here today.
Speaker 1: So Milestone is a company that has put out some
Speaker 1: incredible underseen black cinema already. So it's literally just people
Speaker 1: lifting each other up through this entire process. And I
Speaker 1: love to hear that Milestone is one of those companies
Speaker 1: that I feel like people are still sleeping on in
Speaker 1: many different ways that they'll mention, hey, this movie's never
Speaker 1: gotten attention. Then you find out Milestone put out that
Speaker 1: one and five others from the same director, and you're like, well,
Speaker 1: come on, they're out there.
Speaker 4: They have all the Charles Burnettes.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. Yeah, Sam, you are somebody that is known
Speaker 1: for a lot of different movies. You're known for, of course,
Speaker 1: Break In Two, known for the Ninja films, known for
Speaker 1: a lot of very different style movies than this one.
Speaker 1: So what originally got you into Riverbend?
Speaker 3: In a way, luck, I was, as you mentioned, I
Speaker 3: was involved. I kind of my career led me into
Speaker 3: action and especially especially martial art action movies Revenge of
Speaker 3: the Ninja and Ninja Tree American Ninja. But in between
Speaker 3: I made some other movies like Breaking to Electric Google
Speaker 3: and later on others. And I directed another action movie
Speaker 3: which was not martial art, which is called Avenging Force
Speaker 3: with Steve James and Michael Dudikov, the two stars of
Speaker 3: American Ninja. So by now I already made three movies.
Speaker 3: I had a chance to work to direct Steve James
Speaker 3: in three movies, and one day I was approached. My
Speaker 3: agent told me that someone is interested in me as
Speaker 3: a director and they will send the script. And this
Speaker 3: script arrived. It was called at the time, it was
Speaker 3: called Night of the Eagles, not the Riverbend, and yeah,
Speaker 3: they had a different name. So I read the script
Speaker 3: and wow, I was so excited that that's really interested.
Speaker 3: You know, social issues and historical in the South in
Speaker 3: the sixties. And you know, even I grew up with
Speaker 3: these kind of movies to kill American Heat of the
Speaker 3: Night and those kind of movies that I grew up
Speaker 3: with those movies. I I got very excited, so apparently,
Speaker 3: I think, and not strangely but untypical. This movie was
Speaker 3: privately financed. It was not a company that financed the movie.
Speaker 3: It was private money that financed the movie. So they
Speaker 3: approached me through the agent they looked for me, I guess,
Speaker 3: those four producers and they approached me to an agent
Speaker 3: that I had at the time. Apparently probably, I would say,
Speaker 3: because I worked with Steve James for the three times
Speaker 3: and they were interested in Steve James. So I think
Speaker 3: that's how Destiny My Path and the Path of Riverband
Speaker 3: crossed and each other and and and got together. I
Speaker 3: was very excited when I read this script, really interesting.
Speaker 3: I really wanted to direct it. Eventually they liked me.
Speaker 3: I like them very much, the producers. They want me
Speaker 3: to help in bringing Steve James into this project. I
Speaker 3: knew it's not going to be any problem to bring
Speaker 3: Steve James. He would love this project. Because I read
Speaker 3: the script and I knew you, but this was a
Speaker 3: matter of luck. But I knew that he would like
Speaker 3: There was no question leader military Steve, Steve, how he
Speaker 3: wanted to his image to be and and what what
Speaker 3: Mike is alluding to. It was okay. When we made
Speaker 3: the movie Avenging Force, Steve plays a black politician in
Speaker 3: New Orleans who is running for office and there is
Speaker 3: some white supremacy group, but they don't like the idea.
Speaker 3: Eventually they assassinate him, and Steve really didn't like the
Speaker 3: idea that he dies in the middle of a movie.
Speaker 3: I read everything with Chuck Norris. Jack Norris never made
Speaker 3: any movies that he will die.
Speaker 5: But Steve really didn't like the idea that he but
Speaker 5: but this was the story, you know, the whole premise,
Speaker 5: the whole idea, who the stories that they assassinate this politician,
Speaker 5: they don't want him.
Speaker 3: And he always told me, you owe me. I'm doing
Speaker 3: it for you. I'm doing it for you because I
Speaker 3: know we made American, but you owe me. And so
Speaker 3: it happened that the chance came that I could repay Steve.
Speaker 3: I have something for you. You know, I owe you.
Speaker 3: You always mad, but when you read the script, he
Speaker 3: will accept it. That's it. I don't owe you anymore
Speaker 3: after this movie. So, so everything came together perfect. It's
Speaker 3: not going to say some universal powers bring everything together.
Speaker 3: We don't know how.
Speaker 1: Mike Steve is Steve's icon obviously in a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways. Can you can you share who Steve was?
Speaker 1: For everybody that has never seen a Steve James film.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, you know, my first introduction to Steve
Speaker 4: James was not in American Ninja or neither Martial Arts
Speaker 4: or action cannon films. It was first Hollywood Shuffle and
Speaker 4: then later I'm going to Get You Sucker, where he
Speaker 4: plays Kung Fu Joe and I you know, but he's
Speaker 4: he was a very versatile actor who got to start
Speaker 4: going all the way back to education at Sony Carson.
Speaker 4: He has a very small appearance there in nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 4: I believe it was, And he worked until nineteen ninety
Speaker 4: three when he died at a very young age of
Speaker 4: pancreatic cancer at age forty one, I believe. But he's
Speaker 4: probably best known for his collaborations with Sam Furstenberg and
Speaker 4: you know, but you'll see him pop up in small
Speaker 4: parts in lots of movies like Brother from Another Planet,
Speaker 4: to Live and Die in La He worked with William
Speaker 4: Freakin quite a bit as well as Sam and Weekend
Speaker 4: at bernice'e two. He has a memorable little scene or
Speaker 4: two in there, so you know, just gone too soon.
Speaker 4: A lot of people feel like, a he should have
Speaker 4: been the next American Ninja when Michael Dudkoff left a
Speaker 4: lot of people believe that he would have he should
Speaker 4: have taken over the franchise.
Speaker 3: And or its the next American Action hero in a
Speaker 3: way outside the the Ninja franchise.
Speaker 4: Yeah, or or that he would have been the next
Speaker 4: person to be the black action star, which Snapsen eventually
Speaker 4: became Michael dry White eventually became all those people that
Speaker 4: we recognize now. Will Smith even stand on the shoulders
Speaker 4: of Steve James.
Speaker 3: I heard, Mike and Ryan I heard I heard two
Speaker 3: weeks ago. Very interesting story. I didn't know. We had
Speaker 3: a screening of American Ninja in Atlanta two weeks ago,
Speaker 3: and the reason we did it because the producer of
Speaker 3: the movie American Ninja, Gideon Amir, lives in Atlanta and
Speaker 3: works in Atlanta, so we decided to do for the
Speaker 3: anniversary screening and while I was talking with him, and
Speaker 3: we were talking, and he reminded me that he suggested
Speaker 3: Steve James for the part because he saw him in
Speaker 3: the movie The Mask. M hm, he said, he told me, Gideon,
Speaker 3: the producer, said the minute I saw we were either
Speaker 3: in the middle of writing it or whatever. And he
Speaker 3: said he told me that the minute he saw him
Speaker 3: on the screen in the movie The Mask, he knew
Speaker 3: that he would be Jackson in America Ninja. He's the
Speaker 3: right guy to be Jazing. So I didn't remember that
Speaker 3: Steve was in The Mask.
Speaker 1: All right. So Riverband has been making a name for itself,
Speaker 1: mostly because of Mike pushing it out there for everybody.
Speaker 1: But over this last six months or so, it's really
Speaker 1: getting a name. And the big thing is you just
Speaker 1: had the like West Coast premiere in LA for the
Speaker 1: first time. Tell us about the event, because when we
Speaker 1: first heard this was happening, I never expected to hear
Speaker 1: by all the Davis involved.
Speaker 3: Neither, But listen, we found out the story. There is
Speaker 3: a whole story how the negative was found, detective story.
Speaker 3: Mike just him about it, but that's a that's a
Speaker 3: technical And then there was another little operation to somehow
Speaker 3: to get the rights because the people who owned the
Speaker 3: rights the company went bankrupt. The owners of the company
Speaker 3: all passed away and the rights. It's a complicated issue,
Speaker 3: but the rights were lingering in the earth, the rights
Speaker 3: to the movie neither here nor other. You cannot show
Speaker 3: the movie without permits. No theater will show a movie
Speaker 3: without permits. And there was nowhere to bring the permits from.
Speaker 3: But anyway, Michael had a lawyer and they untangled it
Speaker 3: and eventually we got the right. And then then parallel,
Speaker 3: we found out that the movie never had a screening
Speaker 3: in the West Coast. It had few screening in the
Speaker 3: East Coast, but never any screening in the in the
Speaker 3: West Coast. So Michael purred out. We purred out together
Speaker 3: with the American Cinema Tech, and we decided, together with
Speaker 3: the American Cinematic to present the first premier, the West
Speaker 3: Coast premiere that never happened four years ago, to do
Speaker 3: it now four years later. So this was the premiere.
Speaker 3: And luckily enough, three of the actors lives in Los
Speaker 3: Angeles and the representative of Steve James's daughter, So let's
Speaker 3: say four actors are living in the Los Angeles area.
Speaker 3: Of course Margaret Avery, the lead, Alex Alex and the
Speaker 3: two co stars of SI and Debbie James, the daughter
Speaker 3: of Steve James. So Michael made it most of the
Speaker 3: connection to all of them, and they all came to
Speaker 3: the screening and Michael tell us the surprise the actors
Speaker 3: who came, and the surprise we had the.
Speaker 4: Serah deputy again, you know, so I mean the other
Speaker 4: was Alex Morris and Julius Tennant were the two other
Speaker 4: soldiers that along with Steve James in the movie. And
Speaker 4: by coincidence, you know, Julius Tennant happens to be married
Speaker 4: to Violet Davis. And we knew we're going to do
Speaker 4: this premiere and I said, well, we have to give
Speaker 4: Margaret Avery her flowers, right, And I had somebody else
Speaker 4: in mine to like another actor woman actor to present
Speaker 4: the flowers, but they were not available. So I went
Speaker 4: to my friend, you know, chat GPT, and I literally
Speaker 4: typed in. I said, of all the talented black actors
Speaker 4: in America, who has most followed in the footsteps of
Speaker 4: Margaret Avery? And the very first answer was Violet Davis.
Speaker 4: So I said, you know, what are the odds of that?
Speaker 4: You know? And Julius happens to be married to her,
Speaker 4: so you know not there was a very little coaching involved,
Speaker 4: but she she came, she saw the movie, loved it,
Speaker 4: gave it a great endorsement, and then before that she
Speaker 4: she gave Margaret a bouquet of flowers and some very
Speaker 4: kind words that I hope you'll share on this podcast.
Speaker 6: Everyone please give a very warm welcome to Egot winner
Speaker 6: Viola Davis.
Speaker 7: Oh, I love her.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've spent some time together, Margaret. What are we
Speaker 3: supposed to do?
Speaker 8: They just asked me to say some words to you,
Speaker 8: and you know, I love you, sis, and and you
Speaker 8: know I admire you. You one of the beacons, one
Speaker 8: of the acting beacons out there. Thank you, you know,
Speaker 8: and you absolutely inspired me when I was on the
Speaker 8: periphery just looking for a way in and I saw you.
Speaker 8: You're always a beacon of truth and vulnerability and soft
Speaker 8: power and always memorable. And you need to hear that
Speaker 8: because we don't often hear that. And so I want
Speaker 8: to honor you. And I want to do a double
Speaker 8: whammy here because I.
Speaker 3: Don't I don't want to go on and on.
Speaker 8: Okay, but you happen to be in the center of
Speaker 8: a movie that still resonates today. I was totally in it.
Speaker 8: It's amazing that this movie where it's a town where
Speaker 8: we've been raped and pillaged and killed in damaged, and
Speaker 8: we still have to fight to be heard. And it's
Speaker 8: always great to see that female power and energy in there,
Speaker 8: that energy of love, of a reminder of our humanity,
Speaker 8: you know, and cry. So I'm going to honor you,
Speaker 8: honor this movie which still you know, we need this
Speaker 8: right now, We need something that reminds us that we
Speaker 8: still have the power to fight back. Okay, but I
Speaker 8: love you, Margaret.
Speaker 6: I love you back and that woman king Lord, and
Speaker 6: I bow to you.
Speaker 3: You were buffed. Thank you.
Speaker 7: Oh my goodness, this will it's so wonderful.
Speaker 3: I mean, you inspire me. Thank you.
Speaker 4: Here you go, Queen.
Speaker 7: What can I say by all of Davis honoring me?
Speaker 3: And she's a few words of the decay. She talked
Speaker 3: about the you know, the legacy of Margaret Avery.
Speaker 4: And big ups to Amani Davis and the whole crew
Speaker 4: at at the American Cinema Tech. They they could not
Speaker 4: we could not have been treated better. It was fantastic
Speaker 4: thirty five years in the making. Los Angeles premiere on
Speaker 4: September fourteenth, twenty twenty four October and Ryan.
Speaker 3: We didn't we didn't mention that what we screened. It
Speaker 3: was in Santa Monica, California, in a big theater, and
Speaker 3: what we screened was an original thirty five minimeter copy
Speaker 3: that we found sitting alongside the Negati when I when
Speaker 3: I went out there to some warehouse out there at
Speaker 3: the end of Berberg, I picked up the boxes and suddenly,
Speaker 3: alongside the elements, the original elements there were there was
Speaker 3: a print, a screening print, thirty five millimeter, original, beautiful screen,
Speaker 3: a print that was never screened before. And that's what
Speaker 3: we used for the American Cinematics screen.
Speaker 4: Very nice, very nice print. And you know, and and
Speaker 4: then now for people missed that screening, we're opening it
Speaker 4: up in February, beginning of February. From February until the
Speaker 4: end of the year, we'll be doing spot dates around
Speaker 4: the country with the six K restoration. We're booking dates
Speaker 4: after that. So if you're in a town and you
Speaker 4: want to see Riverbend and you you feel like there's
Speaker 4: a sizeable audience for it, will make the calls and
Speaker 4: we'll make it happen incredible.
Speaker 1: The reception in the in the premiere, how how to go?
Speaker 1: How many people up? Was it a major event?
Speaker 4: I would say so. I mean this was a big theater.
Speaker 3: More than half of the theater was full, like seventy
Speaker 3: percent of the theater was full. Not advertising nothing, People
Speaker 3: just you know, the world of mouth, in the Internet,
Speaker 3: in the Instagram, all the you know, Facebook, all of them,
Speaker 3: and just people showed up. Some of them were connected
Speaker 3: to the restoration, of course, but people just knew about
Speaker 3: it and learn about it and they came. It was
Speaker 3: very exciting. It's a it's a you know, Ryan, This
Speaker 3: movie was done in the end of the eighties, eight
Speaker 3: let's say, nineteen ninety, and it came out the story
Speaker 3: is ninety sixty five before, so there wasn't There was
Speaker 3: already implication there is something to learn from the sixties
Speaker 3: in the development of the African American experience in America
Speaker 3: from the sixties to the eighties. But nowadays, when you
Speaker 3: see the movie, it has even bigger and amplified meaning
Speaker 3: or different meaning than it had in the eighties because
Speaker 3: we went through a lot of things happened in America
Speaker 3: in this field of the African American experience in America.
Speaker 3: So now the movie has little even more interesting implication
Speaker 3: when you see it audience, and we saw it also
Speaker 3: Michael and me with young audience with students, and they
Speaker 3: were like, I don't want to say they were shocked,
Speaker 3: but they were very.
Speaker 4: It stays relevant, still relevant to this day. I mean
Speaker 4: the movie centers on a bigoted sheriff and a small
Speaker 4: town who terrorizes the local black community. I mean, where
Speaker 4: have we heard that before? And the vances we're telling
Speaker 4: the story thirty five five years ago, so so you know,
Speaker 4: it's uh to see that. You know, art was used
Speaker 4: to communicate a solution back then. Can only help but
Speaker 4: inspire or invigreat audiences that have been denied that image
Speaker 4: of themselves, you know. And then also it's a very
Speaker 4: entertaining film. I mean people were like applauding in the
Speaker 4: right places. I mean it was a sizeable enough crowd
Speaker 4: that there was a visceral reaction. And I think while David,
Speaker 4: she really captured the spirit of the night for us
Speaker 4: in her testimony.
Speaker 3: So so yeah, to make the point, it's not a
Speaker 3: pretty movie. It's not it's not the PBS movie.
Speaker 4: No, there's.
Speaker 3: It's still a story with the good guys.
Speaker 4: And you know, we've been used to showing it at
Speaker 4: black film festivals, so it's it's a different reaction then
Speaker 4: showing it in Santa Monica, which is a more mixed crowd,
Speaker 4: and they still got it, you know. And you know,
Speaker 4: one of the the biggest quotes that we got was
Speaker 4: in Denton, the gentleman from Cinema Force. He came out,
Speaker 4: he lives in Texas and he said, never in a
Speaker 4: million years would I think that I would have an
Speaker 4: opportunity to see a movie directed by Sam Ferston, work
Speaker 4: starring Steve James that I've never even heard of in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six. So it's such a
Speaker 4: treat for action fans and and a lot of your
Speaker 4: viewers as well have jumped on board with the pre
Speaker 4: sales of the Blu rays, so I think people know
Speaker 4: how much of a gem this is.
Speaker 3: Michael. Also the reaction in Boston. We were in the
Speaker 3: Roxbury Film Festival in Boston. Yeah, it was also they
Speaker 3: didn't know that most of the Londons didn't even expect
Speaker 3: the They didn't know what they're coming to see.
Speaker 4: Yea, it was interesting because we were in a smaller room,
Speaker 4: so it's a little tighter. The energy was the same,
Speaker 4: you know, I.
Speaker 3: Agree with you.
Speaker 4: They thought it was made for them, like wow, you know,
Speaker 4: and and the fact that it's it was basically suppressed.
Speaker 4: Like I said, it never played cable. I mean, how
Speaker 4: many movies from the nineties or eighties can you say
Speaker 4: never made it to cable? You know. So there's there
Speaker 4: there's some conspiracy theories about why that might be.
Speaker 1: Yes, And what's crazy is so many of these movies.
Speaker 1: You know, you use the word exploited earlier, and obviously
Speaker 1: blaxploitation is a very common phrase that has used for
Speaker 1: a few different definitions, will say, but in the eighties
Speaker 1: and nineties a lot of these got more popular. And
Speaker 1: it's still amazing to me when you find one like
Speaker 1: this with names attached to it that was not allowed
Speaker 1: to happen like that. I mean, especially when it came
Speaker 1: out in like ninety essentially, and then you had all
Speaker 1: these things happen in the nineteen nineties that would have
Speaker 1: given rise to popularity in something like this. You'd imagine,
Speaker 1: like in the wake of the Rodney King stuff, that
Speaker 1: this would have been something that people would have wanted
Speaker 1: to see, like genuinely had a hunger to see it,
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I guess there's some stories behind why
Speaker 1: this may have been held back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of beliefs, right Sam.
Speaker 3: It did not fit into the exploitation slot, definitely. You
Speaker 3: know it did not because suddenly you start with the movie,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, actually you see soldier, but suddenly it takes
Speaker 3: a serious turn, totally serious turn. So it doesn't fit.
Speaker 3: So it's out of the exploration immediately of the exploitation field.
Speaker 3: And anyway, the subject is provocative, it's a radical subject.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, Mississippi Burning also came out,
Speaker 3: which is eighties kind of similar. Somebody I just read
Speaker 3: a review that somebody compared it to Mississippi Burning Mississippi.
Speaker 3: This movie. When it was finished, the producer sold it
Speaker 3: to a small company I R released, and they sold
Speaker 3: it or gave the right or sold the right to Paramount,
Speaker 3: which is a huge company. So suddenly suddenly something here
Speaker 3: is suspicious. How come big company will like Paramount will
Speaker 3: take a small movie, tiny budget movie. But orian there
Speaker 3: was a company Orion, which was affiliated with Paramount.
Speaker 4: They released a prism.
Speaker 3: No No, No, no Orion released Mississippi Burning.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, well Ryan ends up with Riverband down the Road.
Speaker 3: That's what confused me because Orion was the subsist theory
Speaker 3: of Paramont. Paramount and Ryan or reconnected. So maybe maybe
Speaker 3: perhaps they did. Paramount purchased the movie in order to
Speaker 3: stop a competition to Mississippi Burning. I don't think it's
Speaker 3: a big competition because Mississippi Burning was big names, you know,
Speaker 3: big stars, Gin Eickman and other big stars. So I
Speaker 3: don't feel that it was a competition. But for them,
Speaker 3: for music companies, for film companies to throw a million
Speaker 3: dollars to buy some movie just to stop it from
Speaker 3: competing with another music artist or another movie. For them,
Speaker 3: it's nothing. It's part of the So they released it.
Speaker 3: Paramount released it on VHS cassette. It was just and
Speaker 3: very few, small amount of copies, very small amount of copies,
Speaker 3: and I must say, very poor visual quality, very poor
Speaker 3: quality the cassette. The VHISCA said that they they released
Speaker 3: were of a poor quality and very limited number. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and as I say, they only premiered it in the
Speaker 3: East Coast, not here.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I worked at a store at the time and
Speaker 4: we carried it and I never w Yeah, I never
Speaker 4: watched it. The poster did not appeal to me, the
Speaker 4: cover did not appeal to me. No one, and I
Speaker 4: guess not enough people rented it to say that it
Speaker 4: was good. But it wasn't until years later when when
Speaker 4: I got reacquainted with Charles Woods, who ran a store
Speaker 4: in New York called the forty third Chamber, and we're
Speaker 4: going through his collection. He literally had five used copies
Speaker 4: of this thing, like picking them up from like swapping
Speaker 4: in New York. And he said, I said, why do
Speaker 4: you have five of these? And he's like, you have
Speaker 4: to watch this, And that's that's what turned me on
Speaker 4: to it. I was like, oh wow, this is this
Speaker 4: is revolutionary. What's being said in this movie really does
Speaker 4: not get seen in any kind of American film, mainstream
Speaker 4: or otherwise. There's only one other movie like this, in
Speaker 4: my estimation, in the whole history of cinema, and that's
Speaker 4: The Spooker Sat by the Door, which is another movie
Speaker 4: that came and went. It literally played for about two
Speaker 4: weeks and disappeared for decades. It's just now getting re released, Michael.
Speaker 3: But it makes sense. Even if you go to a
Speaker 3: video store, you rent the cassette, you take it home
Speaker 3: and it has this murky grammy quality you're almost going
Speaker 3: to recommend it. It was a very poor quality physically.
Speaker 4: So, you know, but you know, it's it's kind of
Speaker 4: interesting to me that I avoided watching it until Charles
Speaker 4: told me about it because I love black cinema and
Speaker 4: I'm a fan of Steve James. I you know, but
Speaker 4: maybe the fact that it was considered a straight the video,
Speaker 4: you know, might might have also been even though played
Speaker 4: theatrically and it had pedigree, you know, the whole Cannon
Speaker 4: Films thing. You know, maybe that's what kept people away
Speaker 4: as well. You know, this whole strait of the front
Speaker 4: of video action was very big at the time, and
Speaker 4: I guess this movie wouldn't have been made at all
Speaker 4: if not for the market of home video. It was
Speaker 4: very little.
Speaker 3: So listen, you walk into a store and you see
Speaker 3: twenty copies of Star Wars, six copies of Mississippi Burning,
Speaker 3: and one copy of So it makes impression on the
Speaker 3: whoever walks into the rental store. And this was the
Speaker 3: only way to see this movie. And I guess there
Speaker 3: were not on every rental store. You know, you would
Speaker 3: have Mississippi Burning was in every rental store. I don't
Speaker 3: think that River Bend was in every rental store in
Speaker 3: the country.
Speaker 4: Definitely not copies of Dried Up Now, I have not
Speaker 4: seen any show up on eBay in probably a year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because there are very few consists around, very few
Speaker 3: visions the landfill.
Speaker 4: So that's another reason it's never looked better. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, I don't know if you're going to show
Speaker 4: clips of the restoration, but it's never looked better. We're
Speaker 4: going right from the interpositive of the of the film,
Speaker 4: which is the step right after the original camera negative.
Speaker 4: So it's color timed and it's the first generation from
Speaker 4: the camera negative. So and it's been supervised by Sam
Speaker 4: and it's immaculate. It looks, it.
Speaker 3: Looks the cinematography is really good in this movie. Kenny
Speaker 3: Lemkin was a local. You know, the movie was shut
Speaker 3: was filmed in Texas, not in Atlanta, not in Mississippi,
Speaker 3: but in Texas because the money came from Texas and
Speaker 3: the people who invested they insist that we filmed the
Speaker 3: movie in Texas, that we should in Texas. But you know,
Speaker 3: the area that we were in had the same look
Speaker 3: of the South it's called the Waxahachie area in Texas,
Speaker 3: south of Dallas, so it has the look. So the
Speaker 3: movie was all and and and all the actions, even
Speaker 3: the actors who came to the screening except Margaret Avery.
Speaker 3: They had a chance to see the movie in the
Speaker 3: premiere in Texas. Oh yeah, there was a There was
Speaker 3: a premiere in They told us Houston, Austin or Houston,
Speaker 3: I don't remember. And so Alex and and and they
Speaker 3: saw it. They saw the movie in.
Speaker 4: Texas, played played a few markets before it disappeared. Because
Speaker 4: Valerie had a print of the film as well. In
Speaker 4: the print, so they may I mean from from our discovery.
Speaker 4: There were there's one print that's in the Library of Congress,
Speaker 4: which you can't take out. You can go there and
Speaker 4: view it. And then the print I got from South Africa.
Speaker 4: Then Valerie's print which got mold damaged, you know, so
Speaker 4: that's unplayable. And then the two prints that were discovered
Speaker 4: in MGM's vaults. So that's literally the only film prints
Speaker 4: of that exists of the film. And like I said,
Speaker 4: I think the one that I got from South Africa
Speaker 4: probably was the one that played the theatrical circuit around
Speaker 4: the around the world, you know. So we know it
Speaker 4: played in Times Square, we know it played in Florida, Texas,
Speaker 4: and then Valerie's Print played a few festivals in Chicago
Speaker 4: and Texas as well. So it was very, very very
Speaker 4: rare to be able to see this on a big screen.
Speaker 4: So another reason why people should log in and check
Speaker 4: out the website for dates or send an email and say, hey,
Speaker 4: we want to play this where we live.
Speaker 1: So, Sam, I would love to hear your take on
Speaker 1: the fact that Sam for Urstenberg is getting a lot
Speaker 1: of love right now. I mean, we've got Ninja the Domination,
Speaker 1: We've got Revenge to Ninja, We've got American Ninja. We've
Speaker 1: got all these movies getting like these immaculate four K
Speaker 1: restorations in twenty twenty five, and everybody rabbit to see
Speaker 1: them still, you know, almost forty years later. How does
Speaker 1: that make you feel?
Speaker 3: A Ryan? This is the magic of the world of cinema.
Speaker 3: I don't have an explanation or formula. I cannot break
Speaker 3: it down. Revenge of the Ninja was made more than
Speaker 3: forty years ago. By now, it's like forty three years ago.
Speaker 3: And this was the first martial art movie I directed,
Speaker 3: Ninja three. The domination then came American and those movies
Speaker 3: they got discent release. MGM picked them up from the
Speaker 3: company that produced them was Kenon Canon Film, which also
Speaker 3: became there's a big revival about Kenon Film. But anyway,
Speaker 3: those movies were picked up by MGM, so they had
Speaker 3: a descent descent release for a low budget independent type
Speaker 3: of movies, and then they kind of subsided, they died,
Speaker 3: you know, it went down. And this was our prediction.
Speaker 3: We always thought that, Okay, we're making a movie that
Speaker 3: will go into video stores for five years, four years
Speaker 3: people will see and then they will disappear in what
Speaker 3: I call a piece of time. They will disappear in
Speaker 3: the cave over the cave of time, a base of time.
Speaker 3: And so it was for the first ten years after
Speaker 3: making them, I didn't hear a lot about them. There
Speaker 3: was a lot of influence. There was the Ninja Turtle
Speaker 3: and then Killed Bill by Tarantino, so there was the
Speaker 3: legacy kept on, but the movies themselves, the Ninja movies
Speaker 3: kind of and even breaking to Electric Google and then
Speaker 3: at the beginning of the two thousands and suddenly I
Speaker 3: start to get a call can reinterview you would you
Speaker 3: like it? Are you willing to do an interview? At
Speaker 3: the beginning, it was all pressed, it was all written
Speaker 3: interview slowly, slowly, people like you more video, and it's
Speaker 3: just growing and growing. And you're right. Especially five movies
Speaker 3: out of the many movies that Ei di rected, twenty
Speaker 3: five movies, but five of them Ranger, the Ninja, Ninja three,
Speaker 3: The Domination, which became totally cult movie, real cult movie,
Speaker 3: Breaking to Electric Boogalo, which became an iconic symbol of
Speaker 3: the sick of the eighties, and of course America Ninja,
Speaker 3: which completely went bananas all over the world became so popular.
Speaker 3: But maybe maybe again, I said, there is no way
Speaker 3: that I can explain it rationally to tell you why.
Speaker 3: You know, this is what the audience like, that's what
Speaker 3: people like. But perhaps maybe in those movies which are
Speaker 3: action movies or a dance movie, it was a low
Speaker 3: budget outfit. Low budget movies, medium budget. Everything that we
Speaker 3: have created on the screen is physically performed. We didn't
Speaker 3: have no screen, yellow, green screen, blue screen, cables, digital effects, nothing, everything.
Speaker 3: Nineteen nine percent of the things that you see on
Speaker 3: the screen are physically performed. Even shrimp. Michael shrimp dancing
Speaker 3: on the ceiling was physically performed, no optical gimmicks, no
Speaker 3: optical effects. So and all the action, every fall, every hit,
Speaker 3: every dragging stunt, people behind cars, it was all perform
Speaker 3: And perhaps maybe when people are watching it today and
Speaker 3: they are used to see the Fast and the Furious, Okay, Superhero,
Speaker 3: which the action is spectacular, but you know, your brain
Speaker 3: is telling you it's not real. A car is flying
Speaker 3: from one building to another building. Your brain is telling
Speaker 3: you nothing like this can happen. And suddenly they see
Speaker 3: those movies, and those movies have a raw feeling, has
Speaker 3: a feeling that wow you, even if you're not conscious
Speaker 3: as an audience, as a viewer, you're not consciously sitting
Speaker 3: there and analyzing it, but still subconsciously you feel something
Speaker 3: here is real, something here is there is something here,
Speaker 3: And perhaps maybe that's part of the attraction and the
Speaker 3: reason for the growing popularities of those group of movies.
Speaker 3: Of course, there are other directors in this group who
Speaker 3: did the you know Sheldon Ladys who did the all
Speaker 3: the Bandam movies, and you know Toby Hooper and others.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well you're a legend.
Speaker 3: So maybe maybe this is the answer I don't know.
Speaker 4: Yes, no, I didn't know at the time how legendary
Speaker 4: Sam was. I mean people literally travel for miles, hundreds
Speaker 4: of miles to meet Sam and share their stories about
Speaker 4: growing up watching his films, you know. So it's been
Speaker 4: a treat this last twelve thirteen months, just being on
Speaker 4: the road with Sam and hanging out, recording audio commentaries
Speaker 4: and hearing the stories.
Speaker 1: So speaking about your go ahead, Sam.
Speaker 3: Excluding Breaking to Electric Buglo, all the other movies are
Speaker 3: like for Men, for Boy, for the boys. So the
Speaker 3: original crowd, they were teenagers when they saw it, of course,
Speaker 3: you know, they were twelve, ten, fourteen, fifteen. They show
Speaker 3: it to their sons, to the sun and they come
Speaker 3: to the screening. The screening in Atlanta, a guy came
Speaker 3: with his son. He was now forty five, and his
Speaker 3: son is like, let's say eleven, and they came together
Speaker 3: to get the autograph and to meet me to just
Speaker 3: and you know, and the father was so proud and
Speaker 3: he said, I saw it, and now I saw it
Speaker 3: together with my son. So it keeps it keeps playing,
Speaker 3: It Keepsody work.
Speaker 4: I mean even I didn't I had never seen the
Speaker 4: quote the Tarantino gave about American Ninja until recently, so
Speaker 4: he's a huge fan and and you know, our biggest
Speaker 4: hope is that he'll endorsed the product as well.
Speaker 3: So absolutely, we really, we really.
Speaker 4: Really hope that we're close. So if anybody watching actually
Speaker 4: knows Tarantino directly, have him reach out, get him a
Speaker 4: screener so we can have something to put on the
Speaker 4: box cover. But yeah, I mean, amazing global influence and
Speaker 4: impact the work of Sam Furstenburg, so it's great.
Speaker 1: Well, the box cover, we get to talk about the
Speaker 1: Blu ray. That's one of the main reasons we're here.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the physical media that we are producing
Speaker 1: for Riverbend.
Speaker 4: Mike, Well, this is the mock up, which is changing,
Speaker 4: you know, so, but and done done by Samurai Guinea
Speaker 4: pig Alan Pyrie overseas he and the artwork itself was
Speaker 4: illustrated by Aaron Kai, so it's hand painted artwork. We
Speaker 4: had to make some revisions. At the time, we were
Speaker 4: trying to court controversy, but as time progresses we realized
Speaker 4: that it's probably safer to go all Americans. So this
Speaker 4: is the all American one sheet. If you have the
Speaker 4: orig mugs and posters, those are Collector's Items now, but
Speaker 4: is done by Aaron Kai. What do you think, Ryan,
Speaker 4: I'm just curious.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's iconic already. It's so freaking great.
Speaker 1: It's a strong posters.
Speaker 3: We really wanted to create the feeling of the posters
Speaker 3: of the eighties. Yeah, this was intentionally so in our
Speaker 3: conversations with Aaron the artist, this is hand painted poster
Speaker 3: that you saw hand painted, and and when in our
Speaker 3: conversations with him before he started to work on it,
Speaker 3: we expressed our feeling that we would like to really
Speaker 3: have something that will remind us of the eighties. So
Speaker 3: so you know, Schwarzenegger salon this kind of uh, this
Speaker 3: kind of younorius. So he really encapsulated this feeling of
Speaker 3: the posters of the eighties in this poster.
Speaker 4: Well, one of the themes the movie is is it revenge
Speaker 4: or is it justice? Right, And we always felt, all
Speaker 4: of us felt that Steve James was denied the justice
Speaker 4: of being the star of his own Cannon movie, you know,
Speaker 4: and Riverbend is very close to that with the DNA
Speaker 4: of Sam Furstenburg and the amount of action that's in
Speaker 4: the story. So we said, what if Steve James was
Speaker 4: the star of a Cannon film from nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 4: What would that poster look like? And that's what Aaron
Speaker 4: came up with. I mean, in collaboration with Sam and myself.
Speaker 4: But you know, when you're right, you fight.
Speaker 3: So it's really this poster encapsulates the feeling of the
Speaker 3: movies of the those movies of the eighties, the superheroes
Speaker 3: of the eighties.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it feels like that for sure.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 1: Genuinely it's one that I am just easier to have
Speaker 1: on the shelf. I was stoked to be able to
Speaker 1: back it. And now we got it coming sometime mid
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six ish.
Speaker 4: Correct juneteenth, twenty twenty sixth June nineteenth, twenty twenty six,
Speaker 4: the Blu Ray will be available. It would be in
Speaker 4: people's hands on juneteenth, and before that we'll have opportunity
Speaker 4: to see it on the big screen, like it's a
Speaker 4: beginning in February in New York and Philadelphia, and we're
Speaker 4: looking for other dates as we speak. Also, if you
Speaker 4: haven't pre order or you're like, hey, I don't really
Speaker 4: want the Blu Ray, but I want to see the
Speaker 4: movie like streaming or whatever, we're going to do our
Speaker 4: Kickstarter campaign beginning in February to get the final funds
Speaker 4: that we need to make sure that this happens for everybody.
Speaker 4: So you know, the best way to keep track of
Speaker 4: that is just to go to riverbend restored dot com,
Speaker 4: riverbend restored dot com.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have a feeling that we'll have another screening
Speaker 3: in Texas, and we'll probably have conta in the South
Speaker 3: screening in the South.
Speaker 4: We'll workers there's a there's a there's a cadre of
Speaker 4: theaters around the country that do restorations and and and
Speaker 4: re represent repertory work, you know, so uh, and then
Speaker 4: ultimately we'll also be taking the thirty five millimeter Prentice
Speaker 4: specific places that only show thirty five So that's that's
Speaker 4: an option as well. But with the digital format, we
Speaker 4: can go to as many cities as possible, not just
Speaker 4: in the United States, but around the world with it,
Speaker 4: so you know, have have hard drive, will travel.
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting. There is a lot of interest
Speaker 3: from Germany for some reason. We already got a couple
Speaker 3: of people who contacted us can they represent the movie
Speaker 3: in Germany if they can, asking.
Speaker 4: If they can, Oh, yeah, the Blu is going to
Speaker 4: have subtitles too. I went through a whole thing. I
Speaker 4: thought that because the movie came out in Germany and
Speaker 4: in Greece, it came out in France and Canada, so
Speaker 4: it was in French as well and in Spanish, I
Speaker 4: thought I needed to transcribe the dubbing of those VHS
Speaker 4: tapes to create subtitles. But actually it's what's simpler is
Speaker 4: to take the American captions and translate them automatically. So
Speaker 4: we're going to have at least four different languages English subtitles, Spanish, French, German.
Speaker 4: So so people, and it's a region free disc. You know,
Speaker 4: you just have to cover the shipping. But in order
Speaker 4: you can pre order the disc now at River been
Speaker 4: restored as well, and it's going to be a ton
Speaker 4: of extras, you know, interviews, demonstrations for the restoration, demonstrations
Speaker 4: of how the poster was created, audio commentary with Debbie
Speaker 4: James and Sam Furstenburg, as well as a cast commentary
Speaker 4: with as Sam that we recorded at Sam's house.
Speaker 3: Julius, Alex, Margaret and you have an album.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we have. We will have a limited run of
Speaker 4: compact discs of the soundtrack as well.
Speaker 1: That's cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was That was the beauty of getting the
Speaker 4: original elements from MGM, who was basically paying rent for
Speaker 4: them for thirty five years and couldn't do anything, so
Speaker 4: they were having I mean, they literally unloaded them on
Speaker 4: SAMs that day. I don't know if you, I think
Speaker 4: you were slightly overwhelmed with the amount of material that
Speaker 4: they had held onto.
Speaker 3: When I went there with a van with my SUV
Speaker 3: and suddenly there's so many books is coming up, so surprised.
Speaker 4: So the beauty of it was.
Speaker 3: Negative sound, the original sound.
Speaker 4: We had twenty four boxes, twenty four track, one inch
Speaker 4: real magnetic tape prem old big things still and our
Speaker 4: friends at Drexley University helped us, and Love Philly Records
Speaker 4: coordinated that for us to transfer the audio and create
Speaker 4: a new soundtrack CD, so you know, and we're looking
Speaker 4: we're trying to give the album cover sort of a
Speaker 4: retro look so people have something else that they can
Speaker 4: collect them feel like they're experiencing it again for the
Speaker 4: first time.
Speaker 1: So well, one thing I do want to highlight before
Speaker 1: we call this, there are so many people that are
Speaker 1: out there working in this industry, so many companies putting
Speaker 1: out films nowadays, it's expensive, it's hard to get the
Speaker 1: certain things that you want. I really want to point
Speaker 1: out for a moment how important it is to support
Speaker 1: small things like this, specifically because other companies are putting
Speaker 1: out certain movies that have seen eighty five releases literally
Speaker 1: on home video. And that's not exaggerating. Riverbend has not
Speaker 1: had a good release ever, It's not had a proper
Speaker 1: release in decades. It's not had a backed release like
Speaker 1: this ever. But beyond that, it is coming from a
Speaker 1: group that clearly has a passion for the film. It
Speaker 1: is coming from a group that saw this and said
Speaker 1: we can make something with this, We can bring this
Speaker 1: back to the world in a way that is more
Speaker 1: relevant than ever, and it has already affected people. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've got people in my discord that pre ordered the
Speaker 1: movie pretty much day one that got personalized thank you
Speaker 1: videos from you saying thank you for pre ordering this,
Speaker 1: and everybody was just genuinely touched that a company out
Speaker 1: there cares so much that they will do that, and
Speaker 1: so just on behalf of everybody, because I'm sure you
Speaker 1: don't hear it that often, thank you for putting that
Speaker 1: sort of like a personal touch on it. That's so rare.
Speaker 3: No, thank you, I must tell you since I know Michael,
Speaker 3: I know him now for four years, three or four years.
Speaker 3: Michael and Real Black together are dedicated, really dedicated to
Speaker 3: this one purpose of recovery and restoration of black cinema
Speaker 3: hundred you know. And that's like a nonprofit organization. Like
Speaker 3: I said, they don't make they don't make it to
Speaker 3: be rich, to become rich. They believe. He really really
Speaker 3: believes in his mission. Maybe you see this your mission
Speaker 3: in life to restore, to recover, to discover, recover and
Speaker 3: restore black cinema too. We're supposed to be. By the
Speaker 3: way I told Michael before that. Steve James was also
Speaker 3: an avid collector of black cinema. I had many many
Speaker 3: at the time. It was all dhs, the other type
Speaker 3: of cassettes and laser discs of black cinema, going all
Speaker 3: the way back to silent cinema, Black silent cinema. Steve
Speaker 3: James said, A big collection, huge collection.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been a dream of mine to have a label.
Speaker 4: But there's not a lot. There's not a lot out
Speaker 4: there that's accessible. So when it's happened, I jumped at it,
Speaker 4: and it's been a lot of work to get to
Speaker 4: get us to this moment where we can say that
Speaker 4: we're in theaters and we're coming to Blu Ray and
Speaker 4: we wouldn't. And I just have to thank you for
Speaker 4: for your support, Ryan, of giving your platform, your bullhorn,
Speaker 4: the attention that this movie deserves. I think, and I think,
Speaker 4: and you've seen it, so you know it's it's not
Speaker 4: you know, it's it's a gem. It's really something that
Speaker 4: people need to see and will and we'll appreciate in
Speaker 4: their collection. I've seen it probably more than any person
Speaker 4: on Earth at this point, at least four dozen times.
Speaker 4: But I don't get tired of it, I really and
Speaker 4: I see new things in it every time, and I
Speaker 4: can't wait to share it with more people. So I appreciate,
Speaker 4: I appreciate your support Ryan and Sam, and I wouldn't
Speaker 4: be doing this if not for Sam. Like if Sam
Speaker 4: was a complete sure, forget about it, you know, but
Speaker 4: together we are. He's one of the best people on
Speaker 4: the planet. And and he you know, he supervised the
Speaker 4: entire project, you know, and he does it with not
Speaker 4: kid gloves. He he knows what he wants, he knows
Speaker 4: what works and and you. And as I watched his
Speaker 4: other films, I see his spirit in those films. It's
Speaker 4: it's amazing like he you know, if you if you
Speaker 4: spent the hour with us, you know Sam spirit is
Speaker 4: one of of not laid back but but just positivity,
Speaker 4: you know. And I think there have been some days
Speaker 4: where I didn't want to continue to do this and
Speaker 4: and I would have cut the ties from it. But
Speaker 4: like I said, if Sam Dipitty is the theme of
Speaker 4: this conversation, it's just I can't wait for the next
Speaker 4: one to happen. You know what, what the next moment
Speaker 4: will be that that amplifies and say, yes, this is
Speaker 4: the time for Riverban.
Speaker 1: Incredible. Well, I wish you both nothing but the best.
Speaker 1: I sincerely hope the theatrical run is incredible, and I
Speaker 1: hope we can make a screening in Kansas City here work,
Speaker 1: I gotta we'll have to talk about that. We get
Speaker 1: a theater that just literally this last week finalized their
Speaker 1: insul of a thirty five millimeter projector so yeah, awesome.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, the DCP is the way to go.
Speaker 4: But what would be fantastic is for this to be
Speaker 4: a success and we can continue to rescue more films.
Speaker 4: This is not the only one that's out there, and
Speaker 4: we have our finger on the pulse of a few titles.
Speaker 4: I learned my lesson not to announce too early, but
Speaker 4: twenty twenty six will have at least one other release
Speaker 4: come away, so incredible.
Speaker 1: Love to hear that. All right, Well, thank you gentlemen.
Speaker 1: Hope you have a good night and stay safe and
Speaker 1: we'll talk soon.
Speaker 3: I'm sure, thank you too. The one movie that Steve
Speaker 3: James was really the main star. We have here an
Speaker 3: opportunity to bring you big to life. Hey boy, I
Speaker 3: want to talk to you.
Speaker 4: So this is my answer.
Speaker 9: When I saw it, I said, holy cow, this is
Speaker 9: a filmic anomaly.
Speaker 3: I love this film.
Speaker 4: Hi. I'm Michael J. Dennis and I'm the founder of
Speaker 4: Real Black Riverband, starring Steve James and Margaret Davey, tells
Speaker 4: a story of three black Vietnam soldiers who teach a
Speaker 4: small town how to stand up to an oppressive share.
Speaker 7: Maybe you could stay in, help us protect ourself, well,
Speaker 7: show us how to do it.
Speaker 3: The River Bend is an underwatched, overlooked classic.
Speaker 4: What I found was a forgotten chapter in black cinema history,
Speaker 4: A film that should have been part of the conversation.
Speaker 6: But wasn't bought Just to be berry, sure, I would
Speaker 6: say yes.
Speaker 4: I don't ever ever.
Speaker 3: Want to hear the words boy or colored used again.
Speaker 8: It was healing. It was an elixir from my soul.
Speaker 8: With everything that's happening in the zeitgeist today, I think
Speaker 8: that we need this movie.
Speaker 4: After two years of legal hurdles, we secured the original
Speaker 4: elements from the Amazon MGM vault and restored the film
Speaker 4: in stunning six k.
Speaker 8: I think it would be so happy that this movie
Speaker 8: is coming back to life, and.
Speaker 4: Now we invite you to be part of this journey.
Speaker 8: I think this is a film, so I think it's
Speaker 8: worth the money, and I think it's worth the time
Speaker 8: to sit in that theater for two hours and watch
Speaker 8: it and let it be the healing bomb.
Speaker 4: If this work matters to you, join us. Make a
Speaker 4: pledge today.
Speaker 3: You want to get better if we all just stand up,
Speaker 3: stand out.
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Speaker 9: Hello, this is Chris Askell from They Live by Film
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