Enter the Clones of Bruce

Hot Docs Cinema brings all the slaps, chops, roundhouse kicks and “hi-yah’s” to the screen with this wild examination of Bruce Lee megafandom that spawned its own film genre, just in time for Asian Heritage Month.

When Bruce Lee died in 1974 at the peak of his superstardom, he had completed only four feature films. But within hours of his funeral, Hong Kong movie studios began to produce hundreds of unauthorized biopics, sequels, prequels, spin-offs, and rip-offs starring a competing series of Lee lookalikes. Over the next decade, fueled by both deception and demand, ‘Bruceploitation’ would become a staple of global cinema.

Director David Gregory—who’d previously explored film’s transgressive edges in his award-winning documentaries Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau and Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson—now examines this uniquely ‘70s phenomenon through interviews with Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Bruce Liang and Dragon Lee and a host of other martial arts legends that for the first time reveal the history, controversy and legacy behind one of the most bizarre and successful genres in movie history.

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Asian Heritage Month: Celebrate Asian Heritage Month with new documentaries, special screenings and a very exciting visit from author Kevin Kwan.