
Sam Firstenberg
Directing
Biography
Sam Firstenberg (born March 13, 1950, Poland) is an American film director. Born in Poland, Sam Firstenberg grew up in Jerusalem and obtained his higher education in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for working on the American Ninja series and Ninja Trilogy for Cannon Films. Sam Firstenberg has directed films ranging from comedy to action, musical to drama, science fiction, thrillers and horror.
Known For

Joe Armstrong, an orphaned drifter with little respect for much other than martial arts, finds himself on an American Army base in the Philippines after a judge gives him a choice of enlistment or prison. On one of his first missions driving a convoy, his platoon is attacked by a group of rebels who try to steal the weapons the platoon is transporting and kidnap the base colonel's daughter.
American Ninja

A peaceful ex-ninja's life shatters when his son's kidnapping forces him back into violence amid an American-Japanese criminal drug war.
Revenge of the Ninja

On a remote Caribbean island, Army Ranger Joe Armstrong investigates the disappearance of several marines, which leads him to The Lion, a super-criminal who has kidnapped a local scientist and mass-produced an army of mutant Ninja warriors.
American Ninja 2: The Confrontation

A senator is targeted by the Pentangle, a right wing paramilitary group. His pal, a former CIA agent and martial artist, tries to help him. The group kidnaps the agent's sister and tries to hunt him down, "The Most Dangerous Game" style.
Avenging Force

A martial artist working as a reporter tries to track down his family’s sword passed down by his adopted Japanese father. He soon finds himself fighting for his life in a brutal underground tournament.
American Samurai

An aerobics instructor becomes a ruthless assassin after being possessed by a slain ninja's spirit, leading to a showdown with a martial arts expert.
Ninja III: The Domination

A documentary about the rise and fall of the Cannon Film Group, the legendary independent film company helmed by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

The dance crew from "Breakin'" bands together to save a community center from a greedy developer bent on building a shopping center in its place.
Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

The most comprehensive retrospective of the '80s action film genre ever made.
In Search of the Last Action Heroes

A terrorist places an atom bomb somewhere in an American metropolis. The president of the U.S. has no other choice; he has to call Delta Force.
Delta Force 3: The Killing Game

An insane surgeon finds himself up to his armpits in eyeballs after guilt prompts him to begin removing the eyes of abducted people in hopes of performing transplants on his daughter who lost her own in a car-accident he caused.
Mansion of the Doomed

Happy couple Jason and Alexandra lose their sail yacht in a storm and are grateful to get picked up by Captain Jim Bigelow's commercial carrier. Suspicious about the ship's doctor and realizing the ship is improbably empty and the radio not broken as the crew claims, Jason starts snooping around. Bodies on meat-hooks, genetic experimentation and giant spiders are what he finds.
Spiders II: Breeding Ground

Exploring the story behind the 1980s cult classic, examining the mix of Hong Kong action with Western storytelling, how Kurt McKinney inspired kids and teenagers to fight back against bullies, how the world was introduced to Jean Claude Van Damme, and how it impacted the VHS generation.
The Untold Story of No Retreat No Surrender

The President of the United States, in the midst of negative public opinion, is kidnapped while attending a charity function. However, this is all part of a plan to boost his ratings, the 'kidnappers' being a CIA black ops team. It seems like a great idea until the leader of the black ops decides he can make it away with the ransom money himself, but one of his team has other ideas.
The Alternate

Ex-DEA agent Jack receives an emergency message from his brother Phillip, whose team was ambushed on the Caribbean island of St. Keith. Jack goes to St. Keith to find his brother, who has been turned into a cyborg by the drug runner he was after.
Cyborg Cop

Jack, a cop, loses his partner to a crazed terrorist during a hostage rescue sending the man to death row. What Jack doesn't know is that the terrorist will be taken and turned into a cyborg for the "Anti-Terrorist Group".
Cyborg Cop II

A team of military experts and scientists go after a terrorist group that has seized a deadly virus and is threatening to release it.
Operation Delta Force

Kyle Rivers has joined the Dpt of Defense as an investigator. Her first assignment is to do a background check on Lana Hawking, scientist for a top secret clearance.
Motel Blue

Randi Stewart is a sergeant on a marine base where her father is the commanding officer. She is being treated by the new base psychiatrist, Bill Turner. Her brother, Gordon Stewart is running for political office. General Stewart is murdered and Randi is the key suspect. Once Bill starts investigating the crime through his treatment of Randi, he begins to uncover an unusually large amount of suicides on the base. The intrigue grows and so does Bill's unprofessional feelings towards Randi. Is she the murderer? He doesn't really want to find out. He just keeps getting sucked deeper and deeper into the "Quicksand".
Quicksand

Hulk Hogan and Grace Jones star in this adventure tale about a onetime secret agent who finds a treasure map on the shell of a turtle. Soon he's on a chase to recover the loot, just one step ahead of other seekers of wealth.