Join us on May 22, 2026 for a screening of the film, “New York Ninja” at Best Video at 8pm.

New York Ninja was filmed in New York City in 1984 , and was shelved after its original distribution company went bankrupt. The abandoned footage was eventually acquired by Vinegar Syndrome; without audio or script for the film and it was reconstructed by a new director, Kurtis M. Spieler.

Kurtis M. Spieler is an independent filmmaker from Connecticut, as well as a restoration artistfor Vinegar Syndrome. Upon completing film courses at NYU, Kurtis began refining his skills as a filmmaker by making several short films that played in genre festivals throughout the country.After scraping together enough money, Kurtis put his unique spin on the werewolf genre with his first low-budget feature, Sheep Skin. With the success of Sheep Skin, Kurtis then continued to shoot two additional low-budget horror features: the first being a found-footage movie called The Devil’s Well and the second, a slow-burn paranormal thriller entitled, The Dead Girl in Apartment03 (co-starring horror icon Adrienne King from the original Friday the 13th). Kurtis’s passion for film grew after landing a job as a restoration artist for Vinegar Syndrome. His filmmaking career also took a turn when he completed New York Ninja, an unfinished 80s action movie which was discovered unedited and abandoned in the Vinegar Syndrome film archive. Kurtis’s most recent project, Night of the Vamp-Friars, is the first wholly produced original film from Vinegar Syndrome. Shot entirely on 16mm, Night of the Vamp-Friars is a love letter to the homegrown horror films that graced the store shelves during the height of the video store era.

Kurtis M. Spieler will be in attendance for the screening and discussion afterwards.