Blackwolf

One of William’s most well-known films, which has helped him develop an underground following is TREASURE OF THE NINJA. William funded the film by working several jobs and paying for some expenses with a credit card. During an interview with a local news station, he was compared to Robert Townsend, a Black filmmaker, who independently raised funds to make the film HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE. The film touched on the difficulties that Black actors had in the industry, such as limited, stereotypical roles. inally, the film got out, I sold it out of the trunk of my car. I would drive around to Blockbuster video stores and say, ‘Hey, I got a kung fu film, what do you think?’

This was something about the genius of being an independent filmmaker. I got a phone book from the Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island areas. I started calling video stores ‘Hey My name is William Lee, I got this film TREASURE OF THE NINJA, you interested?’

They would order directly from me. I would send the VHS tapes in the mail to them. The artwork was done by a lady I worked with at a local radio station. I went to a Kinkos and made copies of the artwork she did and slid it in the sleeves of all these VHS tapes. All of the TREASURE OF THE NINJAS that are out there, that people have — I did those by myself!
Most recently, AGFA / AMERICAN GENRE FILM ARCHIVE reached out to William regarding distribution. This distribution deal includes DRAGON VS NINJA, THE NEW CHINESE CONNECTION, and TREASURE OF THE NINJA.

Joe Ziemba, the director of AGFA spoke on his fondness for William’s films saying “I’m a fan of TREASURE OF THE NINJA. I have a VHS copy and feel that it’s one of the most impressive and joyous do-it-yourself action films of the 1980s. When I contacted William, I discovered that he had a treasure trove of unseen work that was made around the same time as TREASURE [OF THE NINJA]. AGFA felt that it was important to help William preserve these films and share them with a wider audience. We’re in the process of restoring the films now. We’ll be releasing them on Blu-ray and in theaters in 2021. We can’t wait!”