Calasanz stars as Jose Fernandez, a hard hitting kick-boxer and martial arts instructor. Jose rises to Get Your DVD or VHS today! stardom after winning the world championship. His popularity attracts the attention of Jimmy Scarfone, a local hoodlum and owner of some sleazy strip clubs, becomes obsessed with the fighter’s new celebrity status, and begins to stalk him. Jose’s every move becomes the subject of Scarfone’s “America’s Most Violent Videos”. Soon Scarfone finds the ordinary life of a fighter is not exciting enough and sets about to change that. A series of violent encounters lead to the eventual kidnapping of the champion. Awesome fight scenes make Calasanz’ debut a must-see for the martial arts enthusiast.

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Crossing the Line &
Calasanz Physical Arts

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Crossing the Line
Get Your DVD or VHS today!Calasanz stars as Jose Fernandez, a hard hitting kick-boxer and martial arts instructor. Jose rises to
stardom after winning the world championship. His popularity attracts the attention of Jimmy Scarfone,
a local hoodlum and owner of some sleazy strip clubs, becomes obsessed with the fighter’s new celebrity
status, and begins to stalk him. Jose’s every move becomes the subject of Scarfone’s “America’s Most
Violent Videos”. Soon Scarfone finds the ordinary life of a fighter is not exciting enough and sets about to
change that. A series of violent encounters lead to the eventual kidnapping of the champion. Awesome fight
scenes make Calasanz’ debut a must-see for the martial arts enthusiast.
Run time: 1hr. 23 min.
Genre: Action, Martial Arts
Director: Marcello Bue
Executive Producers:
Calasanz & Stewart Press
Producer: Nick Manning
Music: Stephen Melillo
Cast: Calasanz,
Tom Ellis, Will Miller,
Glen Rothenberger

3. 54
Walk into Calasanz dojo or visit his website and
you can’t help but notice the posters for his movie, Cross-
ing the Line. Most students and visitors can’t resist picking
up a copy of a movie that was made right here in Fairfield
County. In the film, Calasanz stars as Jose Fernandez, a
hard-hitting kick boxer and martial arts instructor. Jose
rises to stardom after winning the world championship. His
popularity attracts the attention of Jimmy Scarfone, a local
hoodlum and owner of sleazy strip clubs, who becomes
obsessed with the fighter’s new celebrity status, and begins
to stalk him. Jose’s every move becomes the subject of Scar-
fone’s Americas Most Violent Videos. Soon Scarfone finds
the ordinary life of a fighter is not exciting enough and sets
about to change that. A series of violent encounters, lead to
the eventual kidnapping of the champion.
What you may not know about the film is what led up to its
making and why it was so important for Calasanz to put his
neck on the line to produce an independent movie.
Calasanz was born in the Dominican Republic and like
most boys his age, enjoyed action movies. In 1975, his fa-
ther took him to see Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon and he
was hooked. His mission in life from that day forward was
to come to America, make a movie and become as famous
as his matinee movie idol. While his father wanted him
to become a competitive boxer, Calasanz wanted some-
thing more than jumping into a ring and beating up on his
opponent. There was a spiritual aspect to the martial arts
that drew him to it. From that point on, he did everything
he could do to make his dream come true. Calasanz went to
the city to pursue
his academic stud-
ies and quickly
found a tradi-
tional martial arts
school. He trained long, hard hours, studied and worked
at a bank to support himself. All along, he kept his goal in
sight. As a valued employee, the bank wanted to invest in
his future, so they agreed to send him to the United States
on a student visa to study English as a second language.
Once he set foot on U.S. soil, Calasanz never cracked open a
book, but instead jumped head first into the martial arts.
Calasanz made his desire to make a movie well known
to anyone who was willing to listen. All his students and
colleagues knew that his sole purpose for coming to Amer-
ica was to make an independent martial arts movie without
having to deal with the politics of the mainstream movie in-
dustry. He’d heard about how Bruce Lee had to actually leave
the United States and make movies in Hong Kong because
the industry had a hard time respecting a foreign actor. But
in order to do get this movie made, Calasanz needed money
and time, two things that are in short supply for a martial arts
teacher busy building a business from the bottom up.

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Eight years had passed since Calasanz came to the U.S. to
make his movie and it seemed that that time was slipping
away. His students goaded him constantly, asking him, “Hey
Calasanz, when will we ever see this film?” Even though the
time and circumstances were not ideal, Calasanz felt com-
pelled to act and realize his dream.
One of Calasanz private students, an aspiring filmmaker
who we’ll call Mike, wanted to help Calasanz with the film.
So the team started by making a few commercials and
eventually turned
its attention to
producing an
independent
film. One of the
first things they
needed was a good script. Calasanz had been developing his
version of the perfect script for over 10 years, but needed
his ideas to be formalized by a professional. Another stu-
dent who was a Hollywood scriptwriter gave Calasanz some
good ideas, but it needed more work. Mike agreed to get the
script in working order. This would require many revisions
and Calasanz was assured that it would be ready.
Sounds good up until this point, but many obstacles got in
the way. Calasanz suffered a shin injury in a bizarre situ-
ation that hampered his ability to train as well as keep his
business afloat. On the day that production was supposed to
start, the script was nowhere near completion. Frustrated,
Calasanz took his original script out of the director’s hands
and from that point on; the movie became an improvised
production.
Financial problems also plagued the movie. The first version
of the film was not up to Calasanz standards and the only
way to improve it was to invest more money into its produc-
tion. While many involved in the making of the movie were
well intentioned, inexperience proved to be very costly.
The price tag quickly escalated from a budget of $350,000
to almost a million dollars. Calasanz did whatever he could
to raise the funds to make the movie, including borrowing
from friends and students. When the movie did not pro-
duce the financial rewards expected, Calasanz was left with
a pile of debt. Advised by many to discharge these debts
in bankruptcy, Calasanz refused, and made it his mission
to pay back all his investors with cash, memberships, or a
combination of both.
In the eyes of the world, Calasanz may have failed because
his movie wasn’t a blockbuster. In fact, Calasanz doesn’t
look at it this way. The making of the movie had many suc-
cesses beyond what you see on the screen. Calasanz was a
pioneer in making movies in the State of Connecticut. Now
in 2009, Connecticut is one of the premiere locations in the
country for moviemakers. Calasanz made his vision come
true in the 80’s and saw the potential for creative works in
this state. Calasanz also used the making of the movie and
the publicity surrounding it to promote his name, which has
proved to be invaluable as far as promoting the goodwill of
his martial arts business. He also learned there were many
people who believed in him. That’s why it was so important
for Calasanz not to file for bankruptcy.
Not many people out there can say that they actually made
their own movie and paid for it. The movie played in the-
aters on the East Coast and also in the Dominican Republic,
where Calasanz is a national hero. In the end, Crossing the
Line was a great success. It all really depends on how you
measure it.

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When I first came to the United States I wanted to
make my mark, I wanted to make a name for myself. Upon
entering this country I had a goal in mind and I said it over
and over again, “I came here to make a movie.” I heard
what Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and others
had to go through in Hollywood with the politics involved
in making it big and I did not want to follow that path.
Even Bruce Lee went back to China because of those same
politics. I kept going and would not falter on my decision, I
wanted to make this movie in the U.S., not my home coun-
try of the Dominican Republic. Besides, I was only training
in martial
arts in the
Dominican
Republic part
time. I was
respected the
first time I entered a martial arts school because of my nat-
ural ability and most of all I never slacked off. You should
also understand that I was a bit of a show off, if someone
wanted to take a photo with me or asked me to do a full
split, I did it immediately. All that showing off surprises me
when I look back at it but I enjoyed showing off my skills
and I do have a strong respect for martial arts and the in-
structors that had a hand in my training, especially Tamey-
oshi Sakamoto. I gained the trust and heart of Sakamoto
because I possessed a gift to be a naturally gifted martial
artist and I never abused that gift. Most of my fights were
won without fighting, anyone that wanted to discuss martial
arts with me understood my skills and knew that I required
and deserved respect. There were some cases where I won
a fight but I was fortunate that it was not too serious a fight
because even though I was in good shape maybe my diet
was not so good, maybe I worked too hard, put too much
pressure on myself, or made too many mistakes. When you
are training hard and put that amount of pressure on your-
self, regardless of how good a shape you are in, you would
not be at your strongest with all that stress.
When I was eight years old it was when I taught my four
year old brother how to hurt another kid who was bullying
him. Between eight and 12 years old I knew how to take a
big step forward and deliver the hardest kick to a cow that
connected on its belly. There is an empty space that this
animal has, I would love to know the name of that specific
muscle, you hit it hard and they go down for at least one
minute! I used to do that all the time, until one day I got
caught, before the cow got up my father came and knew
exactly what happened.
As I start training in martial arts, all my friends realized
that I had a talent for what I was doing. They realized that
no one on the farms in the Dominican Republic could trade
kicking with me including his elders. I could easily win a
fight just by kicking. Fighting was something came easy to
me, I could look at a person and immediately knew
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8. 14 15
had always spent lots of time with various people to discuss
business deals to prevent those bad things from happening
if I could. I don’t believe in contracts but instead in mutual
agreements. I did everything I could in those eight years
to prevent any mistakes and I know now that everything I
did was taken for granted. “Marcello,” I said time and time
again, “This movie determines my success and my career.”
We were best friends, such good friends that when he
moved to the city he sent me letters to tell me what he was
doing, how his life was, and how hard and how much skill
he was going to put into my movie.
What I did not know about Marcello was that he was
working for one thing, to make a trailer for himself in
order to sell himself as a movie director. So much money
was wasted on the first attempt at making this movie and
Marcello wanted a second attempt at it. I did everything to
get more money and gave Marcello a second chance like I
always do because I don’t believe in giving up on people. As
we started the movie, I opened an account where the money
to make the movie would be deposited with the producer
and Marcello on that account. The first budget for the movie
was gone after two weeks so this was the reason for opening
another account. Within two weeks the money was gone.
There were checks written to buy products that I never
knew about. Two years later, somebody close to the pro-
ducer came and told me that over $100,000 was taken and I
was so trusting and sincere that I believed that these people
were just human. Even without knowing the producer, I
trusted him, he was Marcello‘s friend. One thing I noticed
that when the first budget was gone, the producer felt so bad
that he gave me his credit card for to charge $10,000 which
I paid him as he finished shooting the movie. That should
have told me that something was not right because people
do not do that. Did the producer feel bad or did he just not
want me to look into where the money had gone?
Two years before the movie process, Marcello started
writing the script and Richard Venture, a script writer from
Hollywood, trained with me. Venture was the first to write
this movie for me, he got busy and still gave me a good
draft but not enough to make a movie., That is
when to strike, bite, punch, or kick them. I would take ex-
amples from today’s self defense techniques like MMA and
Wing Chun Chi Sau and I would know where to strike just
by looking at a person‘s body. I loved martial arts but my
father begged me to get into boxing but I wanted more than
just beating someone as a sport.
In 1975 my father and I went to see a movie made famous
by Bruce Lee titled “Enter the Dragon.” I knew right away
that I wanted to make a film. I started planning a trip to the
U.S. I knew that I could make a business out of movies and
acting. I did not want to just teach anymore, I knew that I
wanted to be on the big screen. I wanted to do exactly what
Bruce was did. At this point I already had a diploma and a
job at a bank. I was able to convince my job to let me take a
break to go to the U.S. to study. I applied for a visa and got
accepted to the University of Bridgeport. When I got to the
university I didn’t open a book, I was more focused on any-
thing and everything to do with martial arts. This journey
to get to the U.S. and make something of myself was real-
ized when I opened my school. After opening the school,
the idea I had long ago to make a movie would finally be
reality.
In 1987, two students came to my door and signed as
private students, their names are John and Marcello and a
friendship between us started immediately. Marcello who
later became a director of commercials, wanted to do the
same for me and he did. This is where Marcello got his start,
he did not charge too much money because he needed the
experience. He knew that it was my dream to make this
movie and we started to collaborate. Marcello and I went to
restaurants to talk about the movie, we always talked about
the movie, I told him of my dream to make a successful
film. I told him countless times that if this movie failed that
it would shatter that dream. My father always believed in
preventing a bad thing from happening and those words
stuck with me. Marcello never had a finished script but I
trusted him and he always convinced me by saying some-
thing like “Don’t worry, I know what I am doing.”
I thought about this movie for eight years and asked myself
all the time, can this young guy direct it? Over the years I

9. where Marcello came in. Marcello wrote many drafts but
none could be used. He said, “Calasanz, the China Town
script was redone more than 30 times and that was why it
became the best.” He convinced me that nothing was wrong.
Many obstacles happened even before starting the movie.
For example, I got hurt; it was one of the biggest blows to
my career because the injury did not have to happen. It
could have been prevented by these people who convinced
me that I was safe in the place they brought me to, but
they could not help me escape from a demonstration with
someone who almost cost me my life and my dream. I built
my name by doing demonstrations for people. I never had
to hurt anyone and no one hurt me. But on this day my skill
was so beyond my opponent’s. I got pushed to stand up and
do a demonstration with a chef who was a Thai boxer. I hu-
miliated him
so much that
he could not
take it. The
people with
me knew that
I did not want to participate in any more demos, not until I
finished my movie. I built my name by humiliating people,
especially street fighters, without hurting them.
As I got to this restaurant, the only thing that I could think
of was that I did not want to participate in any demos until
after the movie. I already knew that many people were jeal-
ous of my skills plus, I had a popular show on Cablevision’s
public access channel. The chef was following the Calasanz
Show for a long time and recognized me and planned for a
demo. His intentions were to humiliate me. In the end he
was the one who became the victim of humility without
me having to hurt him. The chef set his mind to wanting
to hurt me no matter what. He was cooking for us and as I
go to sit down, this guy, at close range, delivered a kick so
hard to my ankle that I injured my tibia. I tried not to go to
any bars or restaurants until the movie was complete and I
did anyway. These people who convinced me to go had the
also persuaded me to do this demo at the restaurant, all I
was really there for was to convince someone to train at my
school, but the people with me wanted to see me in action.
I am sure they wanted me to prove myself, which was the
last thing I needed, by this time I proved myself enough.
Someday I will get into the rest of what went on that day at
the restaurant.
This injury caused a delay in the making of the movie and
lots of money but not compared to the money that Marcello
cost me. The day we started filming the movie we did not
follow a script, I took my story away from him and he came
up with something that was done at the spot. The script
was no more and it was mostly improvised. The movie was
supposed to be a low budget film and already $350,000 was
spent during the first two weeks. By the time the movie
was finished over $1 million dollars had been spent and
we owed money to everyone. I knew that I would pay up,
but the toughest part to take was all the people that we let
down, including grocery store owner Stew Leonard who
helped us the most. But Coast Entertainment Corporation
did not have to file bankruptcy. Everyone, one way or the
other got paid. Some were compensated with a membership
to my school, some of them received a membership and a
cash settlement. Many of the investors came to me and asked
why I did that, or that I should close the company. I did not
close, but I paid everyone personally.
You should know that in order to pay everyone faster, I came
with these ideas. Every time something has gone wrong, I
have proved that I can come up with some source of idea or
advertisement in order to recover. I have never been wrong,
but 95% of the time, those that I have dealt with let me down.
It does not mean that those people did it purposely. Those
that know me are aware of my strong personality and loud
voice, sometimes I make people angry. Those two things have
cost me a great deal. Today, I understand that I overwhelmed
some of those that worked with me, including my students
that I have always done business with since day one.
16 17

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11. 20 21
My vow to make a movie in the U.S. caused me to go this far
with this film. I should have known to back out when the
director could not come up with a script. I never stopped say-
ing to all my students, “I am making a movie.” I gave myself
a timetable that by 1994 I must finish this goal in order to
move on, otherwise I cannot start anything. I remember Stew
Leonard telling me more than asking, “Why you don’t take
that money and open another school?” I said, “Stew I must do
it, I have spoken too much, now I am forced to do it, it is just
ego, but everyone is starting to make faces like Hahn!”
I have come to the conclusion that I do not blame anyone
other than myself. It makes me angry that I will never forget
as part of this process that we owe a person $105,000. This
man was not working, he was sick, and owed creditors
hundreds of thousands of dollars. He came to work for
me on the film and even when I paid him, he still
would have had to file bankruptcy and later did.
A few years after he filed, he was rebuilding
his home in Greenwich. To this day I
still find that hard to believe. What
makes me the angriest is that
his wife of this person told
her husband that he would
lose money and talks bad
about me still. She failed
to be an honest person as I
paid everyone. Some of the
people that received checks
asked, “What for? “You lost out with this movie,
dummy.“ I kept my word that everyone would be
compensated.
This movie turned into the biggest humiliation of
my career. This low budget movie went from costing
around $250,000 to over $1 million. I could have
taken the easy way out and just filed bankruptcy but I
chose not to. I could have just as easily gone back to my coun-
try, taken a great job, and lived the “good life,” but I chose to
stay and do what I know and love and that is teaching martial
arts. I knew that 3-4 years down the line, this movie would
promote my name regardless if it failed in the past.
Marcello ran the master trailer which was the best part of
the movie and a box of the most memorable pictures of me.
Even when Marcello tried to hire someone to work with him
on the movie, when interviewing this prospective employee,
this man named Andrew had a dog bite him on the ear in
Marcello’s apartment. Even Andrew tried to get money from
us. That was just another speed bump during this whole
movie process. Nothing went the way it was supposed to go.
I know now that Marcello did nothing wrong, he felt sad
and ashamed that he let me and many others down. I never
wanted to blame Marcello because he did so much work on
this movie to try to get it right but he lacked the experience.
Marcello felt that he made all the mistakes but I feel that the
mistakes were all my fault and not his. Marcello’s issues were
not having a solid plan and not taking the time to learn his
craft.
So many people who believed in what I was doing were let
down. I did nothing wrong other than trust those that were
my friends, and that is why I believe that I deserve the blame
for all that happened during the making of this film. Crossing
The Line was a nightmare for me. Marcello has since van-
ished and we have not heard from him. I would like to thank
all my students that stuck by me and showed their support
during this time.

12. 22

13. Calasanz
507 Westport Avenue, Norwalk CT
www.calasanz.com 1-800-414-9544