Back in The Saddle and all is well!!!

The court case is over. My copyright infringement case has been settled at the request of the plaintiff. I was not proven a criminal, I have a right to use the materials I want from the 1968 Book copyrighted by Count Dante for my documentary. My right to Fair Use was looked upon favorably by Judge Mark Wolf. You can see the final documents pertaining to the settlement in a couple of weeks at Justia.

After 3 years it was great to see this case come to an end. What did the settlement cost me? The time and headache of enduring it. I was defended pro bono by Anthony Falzone, Julie Ahrens and at the Stanford Center for Social Media along with David Kluft and Mike Boudett at Foley Hoag, LLC in Boston.

Good developments in the offing. Some financing for the film has come in, which I am extremely grateful for. I will be shooting over the next few weeks and continuing fundraising. One of the side events that will come out of the documentary is possibly a scholarly symposium on martial arts in the Midwest. Nothing like this has ever been done before. It could be interesting to assess the social impact of martial arts practice in partnership with the Illinois Humanities Council. Martial Art practice is a sub-culture that is seldom addressed for it's cultural impact with any real respect or focus.

My plans for completing the film are very clear now. I get new contacts related to and questions about John Keehan every few days from around the world. I have just stopped being surprised at how interested people are in the subject of Count Juan Rapheal Dante, "World's Deadliest Man" and his book, "The World's Deadliest Fighting Secrets."

Among my good news is that I may have found some film footage of the 1963 1st World Karate Tournament at the University of Chicago Fieldhouse. That still photo above is a frame from 8 mm film footage of John Keehan breaking a brick with his fist. Doug Dwyer is holding the brick for him. Let's hope the original footage is accessible so I can obtain a pristine digital image.

Sadly, several more people pertinent to the story have died since I began the film. Vince Tamura, brother of Masato Tamura, Keehan's Judo sensei, recently died, as did the head of the Green Dragon Society, Master Douglas Nowakunski.

I got 4 acts for the documentary in progress. Everything else will be DVD extras. The extras may end up being as long as the film. Lots of stories and anecdotes from the older martial artists make for an interesting oral history.

As narcisstic as John Keehan/Count Dante seemed to be, it is hard to think that there are not that many images of him around. I have a bunch, but I am still expecting that motherlode of images to pop up anytime. So far there have been claims of boxes and boxes of stuff but no proof.

For those that may have some images and are reading my blog, the pictures should be cataloged and described to me in writing or scanned and watermarked in Low resolution with details of the source and origins. I am open to looking at things. We shall see what the coming months bring.

Keep watching the space for my further adventures.