International Action Film Festival

Urban Action Expo

Diversity in Action Honoree Tribute Awards

About

The Urban Action Showcase and Expo (UASE) is the premier all-action experiential entertainment platform celebrating diversity and honoring the past, present and future multicultural achievements within the blockbuster Action genre including Adventure, Fantasy, Grindhouse, Action Horror, Martial Arts, Sci-Fi, and Supernatural content.
The UASE is the only Action entertainment platform offering both fan and professional experiences serving the under-represented and under-recognized urban multicultural demographic supported by the HBO/Cinemax brand. Our UAS IAFF features the exclusive Cinemax Action Short Film Competition where the winner receives distribution on the Cinemax platform including Linear, On Demand and Max Go.

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Who We Are

The UASE endeavors to Recognize, Promote, Facilitate and Encourage the participation of filmmakers, actors and industry professionals in the genre of Heroes. The UASE recognizes multicultural professionals by honoring excellence in various aspects of film making, acting and content creation. The UASE promotes professionals content creators through various media outlets, facilitate distribution opportunities and encourage new interests through the building of strong networking communities, panels, workshops and key sponsorship participation. The UASE inevitably inspires multicultural interest in the art of action film making, acting, production and content creation through the protocols of Information, Education, Facilitation and Exposure. The UASE fulfills its mandates through its Action Film Festival, Expo and Awards platforms.

Our Platforms

The Urban Action Showcase International Action Film Festival featuring the Cinemax Action Short Film Competition, welcomes Animation and Live Action Features, Shorts, TV Pilots, Web Series and Action Scenes in all aspects of the Action genre including: Adventure, Fantasy, Grindhouse, Action Horror, Martial Arts, Sci-Fi and Supernatural.

The Urban Action Expo platform allows content creators, production and entertainment companies as well as other industry-related vendors the opportunity to showcase their content, goods and services to a multicultural niche target market. The Expo is also the platform in which we execute our educational, facilitation and exposure protocols through our celebrity panels, workshops and master classes. The UASE currently facilitates distribution through its relationships with Vimeo and Amazon platforms.

The Urban Action Showcase International Action Film Festival and Honoree Awards honor the past, present and future multicultural achievements in the Action genre.

Our Purpose

Diversity in Action Initiative: Our Stories, Our Heroes, Our Way
Our Diversity in Action Initiative brings unique opportunities to aspiring filmmakers, producers, directors, actors and stunt performers enabling them to  meet and network with independent and main stream professionals in the industry thus giving them an organic real world experience in order to foster their growth in their desired fields. The UAS Diversity in Action Initiative also inspires our youth, speaking to the hero within, allowing them opportunities to see heroic images of themselves and meet the heroes that inspire their imagination. We firmly believe that every child should have the opportunity to see heroic images that reflect their image and interest in main stream media. This why we strive to balance the scales of diversity and inclusion in the blockbuster genre of heroes.
The long term goal of the UAS Diversity in Action Initiative is to ultimately see an increase in ethnic heroic principal characters in all forms of media, to increase the development of content and expand distribution platforms reflecting multicultural images and interests as it pertains to the multifaceted Action genre. To restore equal value to imbrued images based on Color, Creed and Credentials by advocating and promoting heroic content reflecting Multicultural Images and Interests in media. Our Diversity in Action initiative is supported by premium brands such as HBO/Cinemax®, Warner Media®, and El Rey Networks.

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Founder/Executive Producer

Demetrius Angelo is the Founder and Executive Producer of the Urban Action Showcase. After many years of experiencing resistance in the industry especially when it came to multicultural heroic content, Demetrius founded ASC Productions and co founded ASC Trooper Touch Entertainment in order to produce content with heroic multicultural principle characters. This soon led to the realization that both the genre as well as those who have been omitted needed an outlet to celebrate, educate, encourage and facilitate the multicultural achievements in the blockbuster genre of heroes. Demetrius is a Filmmaker and SAG AFTRA Stunt Professional. As a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) he can be seen on season one of Luke Cage as well as other hit shows like Blacklist and D.C's Gotham. Demetrius continues to strive for excellence both as an Actor and Producer. One of Demetrius's most prized accomplishments to date has been facilitating the production of Sony's 30th Anniversary Blu-ray of The Last Dragon  one of his favorite films of his youth and what he credits as a milestone in his pursuit of the Action entertainment industry.

Advisory Board

Warrington Hudlin is a media community organizer, celebrated filmmaker, film curator, and Internet producer. His creative work challenges the false dichotomy between social concerns and popular entertainment. Warrington is best known as the producer of popular feature films, HOUSE PARTY, BOOMERANG, and BEBE KIDS. He is currently involved in both transmedia and disruptive media projects.

Ed Martin: Former Treasurer for New York State Assembly and Senate Political campaigns as well as Financial Advisor for New York State Congress and New York City Borough President campaigns.Ed made his transition to Film Production in 2001. He has produced and co- produced many Music Videos, Commercials and various Short Films, Documentaries and Independent Features. His strong financial background led him to Line Production. He has line produced several Feature Films and various networks such as MTV, Spike TV, HBO and Nickelodeon. He has prepared Production Budgets and Schedules for many Independent and studio projects in both development and pre-production phases.

Grand Master Ron Van Clief AKA The Black Dragon is the Grand Master of Chinese Goju and Black Dragon Martial Arts systems. He is an Author, Actor, Writer, Producer, Director, Fight Choreographer, Stunt Coordinator and the first African American to star in Hong Kong Action Films.

Festival Coordinators

Sophia Protopapas: Event and Human Resource Coordinator. Sophia is an Executive Assistant at HBO as well as accomplished teacher and entrepreneur. 

Lamard J Wingster: AV Coordinator and Special Event Producer. Lamard is the founder of Troopers Touch Films and co founder of ASC Troopers Touch Entertainment.

Branding

Will Focus: Director of Branding. Will Focus is both Graphic/Web Designer, Illustrator (Specializing in Satabu/Mwenaa), and Systems builder with a focus in Branding/Identity and Sustainability. A full ride Drexel University Engineering Scholar, Will Focus traversed the fields of Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Communications, ultimately focusing on and obtaining his Bachelor’s of Science in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. As owner of Melanating, BlkAlchemy, and co owner of OurBlackWeb, Will currently focuses on creating high impact virtual systems which create an intellectual and financial liberation for people of color.

Marketing

Troy-Jeffrey Allen: Social Media Marketing Coordinator. Troy is the Managing Editor for ActionAGoGo.com. He is a comic book writer whose works include BAMN, Fight of the Century, and the Harvey Award nominated District Comics. His work has been featured in The City Paper, The Baltimore Sun, Bethesda Magazine, and The Washington Post.