The American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) will be teaming up Bleeding Skull on July 27 for the Blu-ray release of director William Lee’s Treasure of the Ninja … and the Films of William Lee.
The force of independent filmmaking lives strong in Buckeye alumni William Lee, who had a Super 8 camera in his hand at a very young age, learned the skills of “moviemaking” and then set about to produce, write, direct and star in a truly independent film, an homage, if you will to the chop-socky films of the 70s; of Bruce Lee and more. The result, Treasure of the Ninja.
As Bleeding Skull reports, back in 1987, Lee’s finished film didn’t have a distributor, so he learned that business as well and packaged his own VHS copies — for the rental market — and hustled his way from one video “rentailer” to the next selling copies of Treasure of the Ninja.
As the years past, Lee continued in the business, making films, acting in films and honing his skills. He has piled up an impressive list of film credits, including Code Black, Dark Target, A Cold Day in Hell and his recently completed Cinema Lexzikon Productions film, Black Wolf.
Despite the success, Treasure of the Ninja, his first film, was lost. Gone. But as legend has it, Lee found one of his original rental VHS copies floating around on eBay and bought it back (at a premium) and now with the help of AGFA and Bleeding Skull this chop-socky treasure will be available for genre fans to savor on Blu-ray!!!
Bleeding Skull’s Annie Choi and Joseph A. Ziemba have teamed up with William Lee for commentary on Treasure of the Ninja. The secrets of indie filmmaking will be revealed!!
But wait, there’s more! Digging deep into Lee’s formative years, a treasure trove of his Super 8 experimental films have been unearthed and given fresh 2K film transfers and are included with this release. As bonuses, fans get the following previously unreleased films — The New Chinese Connection (circa 1980), Dragon vs. Ninja (circa 1984) and the complete Willie Jack short collection!!
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