According to a product review of Luo's ba gua videos in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts(the most recent edition I believe, which also includes a bio piece on Kimura), the BBC produced a documentary in co-hoots with Mr. Smith in the 60's about CIMA. Has anyone ever seen this film, or know where one can find it?
I can't find the video anywhere on the net, but I've seen clips from it. Marc Heyvart used to have links on www.taiji.be . I will ask Paul (who wrote the article) Saturday AM.
cool
According to him, the BBC altered his original version and he was very frustrated by it. He said that they put in a lot of flashy movie kung fu stuff( like stuff about Bruce Lee, who Smith had never researched or met) that he didn't want so he washed his hands of the thing. I saw a talk he did here in NY and he showed a lot of the original film he shot in China and it was awesome.
Jason- I chatted with Paul C. this morning about Robert Smith and the BBC documentary. It was part of "The Way of the Warrior", a BBC documentary produced in 1983. Howard Reid and Michael Croucher have co-authored a companion book which is still available, but I could not find the tape in a brief search. The other television documentary to mention Mr. Smith was Martial Arts: The Real Story from the Learning Channel in 2000.
According to Paul, as Stephen has said Mr. Smith has a lot of footage he made himself which is really remarkable, but which has not been seen widely in the public, and isn't available to purchase.
Bill