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The Chinese martial arts film subgenre dates back to the 1920s.

In 1973, Bruce Lee's film Enter the Dragon expose Hong Kong cinema to an international audience and impacts many popular action thrillers today.

Tonight, two martial arts filmmakers give us the insight about this exciting subgenre.

I'm so happy you're joining us.

And then you from Los Angeles.

This is Clark's PBS.

Welcome to everybody with Angela Williamson and Innovation, Arts, education and public affairs program.

Everybody, with Angela Williamson is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

And now your Ramen.

So, Sohrab is our first guest.

Thank you so much for being here.

Ramen.

Thank you.

It's great to be here.

Before we talk about you as a filmmaker, I want our audience to get to know you as a person.

So tell us a little.

You have a unique background.

Yes.

I was born in Iran, Tehran.

And when I was four or I think five, we moved to Finland.

So it was already a big shock, moving from sunny, warm Iran to very cold and dark Finland because I remember we got there.

It was around December 1990.

So I grew up in Finland and did all my martial art trainings, and my own father was my own teacher, so I, I got homeschooled, but like martial art homeschooled, which meant like when I was 4 or 5, I was already with all types of martial art weapons as my toys, trying to practice and make my dad proud.

Well, and I didn't even know that when I was reading about your background that it all starts from dad.

Did he take this art with him?

He took this art form from Iran to Finland or what was dad doing that he could show you this.

Well actually my dad is the very first Iranian who studied in Shaolin Temple, China for five years and got his red belt and brought the blue shoe in Russia to Iran and start teaching that.

And when I was born, then, of course, I was his next target in terms of like giving me all the nunchucks and sticks and swords and trying to teach me the art of martial art.

This was part of you growing up?

Yes.

That was part of me growing up.

And I remember I used to hate martial art.

I used to go hiding.

I used to go tell mom that I don't want to train.

Because, of course, as a kid, all I wanted was some transformers, cars and some toys.

And just, like, hang out with some other kids from the neighborhood.

But I was actually doing full on Shaolin.

Was you training as a young age?

And that kind of put me in the path of this martial arts and movies and stuff like that.

Well, and you mentioned it put you in the path at some point, did you realize that you wanted to incorporate your martial arts training and start making movies?

I mean, you make movies or were you an actor first?

Tell me about.

That.

No.

So in Iran, I actually acted in few movies when I was a kid because I was known as a Bruce Lee kid back in Iran, because there wasn't many people doing the moves I was doing back then.

So until the age I got like 14, 15, we were living in Finland by then, and my dad made a very good decision where I went and faced him and I said, listen, I don't want to do martial art anymore.

Like, this is not what I want to do.

I want to focus on other stuff.

And I don't like it because you've been forcing me for so many years to practice, practice, practice and for what?

So he decides and said, that's cool.

All right, let's do this.

You go to China, to Shaolin Temple for one month, and when you come back, whatever you decide will do that.

So, of course, I took the bait and went to Shaolin Temple, was there for a month, and I had a privilege to show my skills in front of 50 monks and doing the Shaolin like virtue and martial art movements.

So their reaction initially gave me the the thing that I didn't see it, which was that I'm actually good at what I'm doing.

So it gave me a new profound like, excitement towards the martial arts.

So when I came back, the tide changed and I was like, dad, teach me whatever you can, because I'm going to do this and that and this.

So it became, my obsession from the teenager to just try to be best at what I do.

So that's the challenges I was facing back in Iran.

But yeah, I, I never said it was going to be easy.

And I remember the call to my dad because my dad had done it once with the martial art where nobody wanted anything to do with the child issue.

He had to go and try to sell himself as this martial art instructor and telling them, like, hey, I learned stuff in China, I want to teach you guys and stuff like that.

So he just told me, anything you do as a first person, it's going to be very tough and hard.

But he said, just come and you'll, you'll, you'll go through those challenges, but by the end of it, you'll not only have a movie, but you'll be a changed man and the end of it.

So that was that was the path I took back in 2011 and finally got the movie ready.

Mikuni picked.

you're already showing us a really interesting journey.

You call it a path, I call it a journey because you come over to the United States and learn acting and that's new for you.

But now you have to combine acting with martial arts.

And that's what's always fascinated me, which is why I asked you and Chris to be on this show is how you to do that.

But then on top of that, you just think, oh, I'm just going to create a film on top of that.

So you're taking three separate parts of the arts, combining them together and making that something that we can see on screen.

Absolutely.

So tell me, how does that make you feel?

Well, first of all, my dad was right in terms of, like, it changed me as a, as a person to to have a different perspective and not just making films, but in life in general, because, making a film is a very collaborative process where you meet people and unfortunately, some of the people you meet along the way don't have the best interests in their mind.

But eventually you know how to navigate through those people to get what you want in the end.

But I already knew from martial art background that I don't need to worry about that part because I already had it.

I already had the vision.

What I want the action to look in my film, so I didn't need to worry about that.

Then it came that actual filmmaking part of it, and the acting and directing and those parts, and those were the parts that I was a little bit nervous about because it was a new kind of, new, new environment for me because I had the martial art background, but I didn't have the movie.

Filmmaking background as, as much.

So combining those two kind of, was the challenge.

But because the martial art when when you do something over 30 years of your life, you're so good at it that you don't even think about it.

So it was mainly thinking about that filmmaking side.

How can I make this work?

How can I tell a beautiful story and add all these action elements into it, and by the end of it, have a full on genre action film.

So it was just trying to navigate through that.

And honestly, for the very first time in my life at least, the whole concept of manifestation and, and see it and all that before I was like, okay, it just sounds too wishy washy for me.

But once I was in the situations, I remember this scene.

This was three days before, we were planning to shoot in Tehran, and I was unfortunately arrested and in the jail thinking that how can I manifest now something that is so far away, so far away that you just can't like, imagine it?

And here comes the trick that I use.

I only needed to manifest the next day, not the whole thing.

Just what needs to happen next day to information to get to that final stage of it.

So manifesting me being in this set, and it was only three days before the shooting and there was there was a bail of $100,000 on me when I was in Tehran arrested.

So I was like, I'm, I'm not going to have this money.

And what what I could do in that small cell was just the manifest, me being on the set three days from now, and I didn't have any clue how that could happen.

So manifesting these like steps by step is much easier than manifesting something that could maybe come in a decade.

You know?

So that was that was my technique that I use a lot.

And for me directing because that was a new aspect.

Also, as a filmmaker, I already saw my film before.

It was already so.

So in a way, when my dad says, this film will change your life as a.

So it was me trying to figure out how do I need to navigate in this world in order to get all my dreams, all my visions, all of them to come true?

And for me, the technique was go step by step and manifest the next step in order to get the the whole whole thing come together.

One day at a time.

Yeah.

One day at a time.

That's that's the, I would say the basic of it because you as a, as a filmmaker and Chris can back me up on this one.

We don't know what tomorrow like brings and usually is not a good thing when when a filmmaker is like shooting a movie, there's there's not many moments that the producer comes, hey, we need to talk.

That is something good.

It's usually something bad that you need to fix.

But in order to get out of that, you just need to manifest the next step for your grand, grand finale.

That was so profound.

Oh, think.

Oh, so profound.

Believe it or not, our time is almost done.

But I don't want us to leave our conversation without you telling our audience what you are doing next.

And audience, I know you're thinking right now, what is it about this gel in this $100,000 bill?

You'll just need to email him and find out more information.

But I want to find out what he's doing next.

Yeah.

Tell us what you are doing next.

All right.

So basically, Layers of Lies for me was the first feature film, and I wanted to basically prove my not not only to myself but to producers, investors and filmmakers out there that I have what it takes to deliver a film, a good, like, good on action film.

And where are you at in that process?

So you have the proof of concept done?

Yeah, it's on Apple TV, Amazon.

They can just go watch it then if they see that this is what, what, what a low budget phone can bring.

Imagine if we give him a crew and the proper budget and all of that because not only it was hard to make it in Iran, the action film, but there was an filmmakers who had ever done an action movie.

So I get to finally work with people who know what they're doing.

Well, I saw what you did, and it was incredible for your first film.

Thank you.

Well, before we end our time together, I just have one question for you.

What would you like your martial arts legacy to be as we talk about martial arts as a subgenre?

Well, I would love because I'm originally from Iran and Finland.

I would love to be the guy they always go to like.

Rahman was the one who brought action film to Finland, to Iran, and maybe inspire other filmmakers and martial artists to to just take take the first step.

You don't need to know where it ends, but you just need to know your next step.

And for me, back in 2011 was to go to Iran and make the first action film.

So perfect way to end our conversation.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

That was such an inspiring story.

And what we learned was father always knows best in the end, but I cannot wait to see what you do next.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And come back and meet our second guest, Chris Jay.

Alex, thank you so much.

Thank you um die.

For decades, I've taught you everything I know, whether.

Or not.

How to safely build a fire.

How to control the flames.

Stay the course and allow.

What to do with hot coals?

How to secure your chains.

It was no sparks.

But I can only teach wildfire prevention.

Only you can prevent wildfires.

Welcome back.

Chris.

Thank you so much for joining us.

What's up?

How are you doing?

You heard your name mentioned a couple of times in the first segment.

I did, and I want to say romaine is amazing.

I have nothing but respect for what he did.

I mean, incredible, but he's not alone because we are going to talk about why you are here today.

You both are incredible.

Not just what you have done in martial arts, but how you're bringing it to an audience, but also to you are pretty much every part of the filmmaking experience.

It takes a sip of water.

Feeling good?

Right?

I love that intro.

Yes.

But before we talk about that, I want our audience to get to know you because they just heard your name.

So they want to know a little bit about you.

Okay.

Everybody, my name is Chris.

I'm just going to I'm going to talk to you because you were the eyes of the audience.

My name is Chris.

Alex.

I, came to L.A. on the shoulders of my mom and my dad, who were both dreamers with my mom more.

I started off, as a stunt person.

But I'd always.

I always wanted to be in in the arts, whether it be music or are anything.

But.

Yeah, I started off as a stunt man.

I came here, Coming from stunts moving on to, to voiceover and then, finding a way to just make my own film and transitioning in, that's kind of.

But every part of your journey, because we talked about that in the first segment.

It's all about the journey.

Yeah.

So every part of your journey actually is the reason why you end up being your own filmmaker and creating this film.

So it comes from the journey of growing up in a very creative household.

And I love that your mom collected comics.

She had, golden age.

She had all golden age, silver Age.

She got into, manga and Japanese anime before it was cool.

So I'm like, I'm, I'm og weeb way, way, way back in the day.

Wow.

Yeah.

So you didn't have a choice.

You were going to be in this industry whether you liked it or not, because it was all a part of just like we learned in the first segment as well.

It's part of your household.

You're learning it from the best, from the parent.

Yeah.

And then so you start coming.

You come here to do stunts, but as everyone is probably listening to you right now, you do.

You transition into becoming a voice actor because your voice is phenomenal.

Oh, thank.

Come and give stimulation to my existence there in the center.

It looks Cybertronian.

Listen up, rookie.

If you show fear, you're as good as dead.

It's weird.

I actually didn't come here to do stunts.

I always wanted to, to to do, like, action films.

And I always wanted to do that.

And then, you know, when I moved here, you know, being real, real broke and trying to figure out, you know, how to pay for the gym membership so I could keep working out of the gym.

I found out, actually, we have a mutual friend, Arnold.

Shawn.

Who?

Me and Ramon.

Like, we have a mutual friend that he was like an OG.

He's, an amazing performer, but he's one of the first people that saw me at the gym.

He's like, hey, you fall pretty good.

You know?

You can make a good living doing that.

And then, fast forward, I got my first job and, you know, just training with other different martial arts.

And I'll you, my introduction to martial arts is like, you know, the Karate Kid.

The first thing I am, I am a white belt in every marginalized you could possibly learn.

Because I never really had formal training.

How I got my martial arts, tutelage was.

It's kind of like if you played the game of Street Fighter, there's this character Ryu.

He would like, now he had formal training, but, essentially, it was like a trade deal.

So I remember my first friend in high school seeing young, he was really good in taekwondo, so I knew how to dance.

He knew taekwondo was.

Which, you know what I'm saying?

And part of the trade.

In order to trade, I'm D.I.Y.

like to the bone.

So that kind of started off stuff.

And then I would find out, you know, what would work, because I would spar and someone would do a move on me.

And if it worked, I'm like, okay, what was that?

So I would show you.

Yeah.

And I would like break that down for me.

And that's kind of like how I got my, I kind of got really good.

I'm really, really good.

White belt But that's all about tenacity, which is really important for this industry.

Correct?

I think it's it's a lot, a lot of it.

Yeah.

Without being tenacious, without I feel like, you know, if someone asked you, you know, like, how do you make a film and you have to answer that question, it's probably not for them.

People who make films, they need to make films.

They just need to do it.

It's something that I needed to do.

I got told a lot when I moved here.

No.

And then I got in anything and everything that I possibly could get in.

And it just came out of something like, look, what's the story I want to tell?

Because you can't make someone say yes to you, but you can say yes.

So.

So I was like, okay, it may not be the best, the best and the biggest thing that I that that that is out.

But I'm going to I'm going to play the game the best I possibly can at the level of let's just go, let's not wait.

Let's just go.

Hammer the.

Door.

Are you a lion?

Out of place?

Shot to the fly.

What?

I is everything.

Quit my job.

You?

Let's see.

This boyfriend bash my way.

Why did you move me?

Me?

You never get the feeling that.

You just meet someone.

Did I, did I really do and believe in did I, did I believe in myself like I really thought I did, so I can that's kind of the product of this is like I've been trying to convince everyone in Hollywood, I am who I say I am now, thank God, Rick Ross and Wingstop, because I did some commercials and now I have the money to fund it.

I was like, if I am who I say I am, you got some money, do it.

Put your money where your mouth is.

Are you that guy?

And that's what we did.

And this is how this started.

I funded itself onto the whole thing.

Not only did you self-fund it, but you wrote the screenplay.

Yes, ma'am.

You directed it.

Yes, ma'am.

And I also see your photo here.

So you also had a story.

And I did the Photoshop.

No idea.

Well, well, I, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't, because we hired.

This is amazing.

What I love about your story and what I love about Ramon story is that you talk about it's more of an out-of-body experience to get the job done.

Is that what I'm hearing?

It is, I think it's a little bit of both.

You know, you do have to manifest things, and you do have to have a very clear goal of what you want done.

Now, I think me and Rabin's experience may differ.

And then, you know, no one glove fits on every hand.

So everyone's going to have their own experiences and what they bring to it and how they attack a problem, because that's all I mean, filmmaking is to Tetris.

You know, we're all kind of doing the best we can, and we juggle until we get the long piece of that.

All right, cool.

We're problem solving.

And then sometimes you're doing it on the fly.

How am I going to feed 30 people for 30 days?

Like, on my bucket, you know, so I feel it's a lot of it is that a lot of it is, is, you know what?

No matter how much you plan, no matter what you do, it's never going to go exactly how you plan.

You have to be okay with it.

You have to be okay.

And if you lean into that, knowing there's going to be issue, it's going to be problem solving.

Cool.

We'll fix it as we go along.

We will run into a problem and we'll just figure it out.

But what we're not going to do is we're not going to stop.

And as long as you don't stop and you get to that finish line, at the end of the day, it's I don't think it's only a victory.

It's about the journey.

It is about the journey.

And it's not just that you're creative, but that you never give up.

Yeah, is what I'm hearing from both of your stories.

And the team, too.

Like, I didn't do this alone.

We had a lot of people who who believed in me.

Our sound job.

I mean, I hope Joe Russo Russo's watching.

I mean, we got the same team for extraction on our film, to do the sound, like, seven miracles happen for this.

We got the same guy who did, 24 karat magic for Bruno Mars.

He did a sound.

He did a song on our soundtrack, like, I am very big into to.

I'm a very ambitious man, and I'm a dreamer.

And I feel like if you don't have a dream and you don't make it actionable, you can really.

You can.

Those are two pieces that interlock with each other.

You need both of them.

You need to be like, all right, this is my dream dream.

Big dream, bold dream.

Fervently, dude, trim the biggest dream you possibly can.

Then you back in your body.

Break it down.

How can this body realize this dream and do everything you can do to make your dream happen?

Because faith without works is what?

Debt.

So what you got to do?

You gotta get to work.

Yep, yep.

Have faith and you gotta get to work.

And you have to take those steps, is what I'm hearing you say.

Yes, ma'am.

my friends over zoom, thank God I did.

VoiceOver.

They helped me out and they mixed my film and they do some of the best anime in the world.

Wow.

Yeah.

So if you heard, like, one punch.

Yeah, that's that's my biggest thing is one punch, man.

Borrow.

So that's why the voiceover act.

So I was like, look, mommy, I would do funny characters for 15, for 15 episodes if you just help me out.

And they did.

And they helped you.

Oh my gosh.

Wow.

Well, we'll make sure that we include all that.

So yeah, our our audience can support them as well.

Yes.

Before we end our time together, I like to ask you about your legacy, but also to when you tell us about your legacy, tell us about your legacy with this film.

Oh, because we didn't get to talk a lot about it.

Okay.

So I feel like what I want my legacy to be now, the film is sad because I have a lot of stories I don't want to tell.

This is tip of the iceberg.

My legacy, I feel, is I want to tell stories.

That's one check.

But I want to inspire.

It is very I'm very big on inspiring.

It's not lost on me that, a lot of places that I go, I'm the only person that looks like me.

And it takes mountains to get into those rooms.

Right now I am learning several languages.

Because I feel that if if I can do my if I can do media in a different language and I can and someone, somewhere can see someone that looks like them doing something that's very actionable, but at a high level that can inspire a lot of people.

And then that's how we get the train going.

That's how we bring more.

Reach one and, teach one and bring one wherever that goes.

Well, you have definitely inspired me.

And I know our audience is inspired as well.

You inspire me.

Look at this.

Look at look at what you built.

Thank you.

Yeah.

You cannot make the host cry.

So.

But thank you so much, Chris.

And thank you for putting your talent into motion so that we have this and this is available right now on.

Yeah.

So if you go to Tubi you can watch it.

Get the girl in tube.

Get the girl in tube.

Get the girl into TV.

Or you can go get the girl movie.com and buy an actual Blu ray from me.

I got a Blu ray and I got the soundtrack.

So please, I think it's definitely moving into what we are moving into.

As far as industry wide, I think it's important that artists know that, you know, you going to have to do a little bit more to get your stories out.

And if y'all want to help us out, then you can go to either one of those things for the film.

That way I love it and thank you.

And you inspired me as well as.

Funny as well.

And thank you for joining us on everybody with Angela Williams.

And viewers like you make this show possible.

Join us on social media to continue this conversation.

Good night and stay well.

You Fünf.

Und.

Hi, I'm Angela Williamson, host of everybody with Angela Williamson.

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