“Song of the Sword,” a 1986 local sword-and-sorcery movie, has been lovingly re-edited for a fresh premiere at Liberty Hall.
The movie, directed by J. Stanley Haehl, was filmed entirely in Kansas by a primarily Lawrence-based cast and crew under the banner Abraxas Productions. Its narrative draws influence from many of the classics that are still loved today: Tolkien, Arthurian legend and the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who.
Maria Anthony, who co-wrote the script and starred in the film as a warrior named Kalydia, said the movie had a single screening at KU’s student union upon release. Although it won an award, she wasn’t aware of any further showings.
According to Anthony, film enthusiast Sam Panico kickstarted the film’s modern revival with a review on his blog, “B&S About Movies.”
“Imagine, if you will, LARPers — Live Action Role Playing — but on a much larger scale, filmed by video camera, fuzzy drained video colors coalescing to give us wanderers with walking sticks in the woods, primitive video effects in the place of computer generation magic and best of all, everyone is so serious about it,” Panico wrote in the review.
Anthony said Panico was intrigued by the semi-lost film and wanted to see it rejuvenated for a modern audience. That’s where Joel Sanderson, operator of Demolition Kitchen Video, stepped in to provide his editing expertise.
Under the Demolition Kitchen banner, Sanderson is a “budget video producer, audio-visual technical designer, public access movie host, and musician,” according to his Facebook page. He also documents a diversity of Kansas-made media through an Internet Archive account.
Sanderson has long been interested in collecting and researching Kansas-made films. When he moved to Lawrence in 1989 and began working at the KU Film Library, he learned of “Song of the Sword” from his coworker, Mark Zumalt, the movie’s cinematographer.
Sanderson toyed with showing the film on his Sunflower Cable public access show around 2007, but figured it needed to be condensed — the original video clocks in at a healthy 1 hour and 57 minutes run time. The new edition showing at Liberty has since been shortened by Sanderson’s discerning eye.
“All I did was cut it for time, tighten things up, and the only other thing I added was I enhanced some of the sound effects, too,” Sanderson said. “And, you know, enhanced the colors and made it look more dreamy in a way. It’s from an original VHS tape, so it’s not going to be pristine, 4K quality.”
Sanderson reported that a recent test-run of the footage looked “really good on the screen” at Liberty.
Sanderson was also drawn to the project because he felt an ‘80s sword-and-sorcery regional film would stand out in a local movie scene dominated by horror films. Out of the thousands of regionally made movies, he estimates that very few are high fantasy.
The work required for this type of cinema, replete with elaborate costuming and magical effects, was driven part by passionate willpower and part by sheer luck.
“We cast our friends and closest companions,” Anthony said. To cast the sorcerer Adroma, she added, “We went up to this pretty lady in the student union and said, ‘Do you want to be in a movie?’ That’s kind of dicey now, but again, there was no budget.”
Clark Jamison played Shan-Ra in the film, a noble, guiding character invested in the power of words. Jamison recalls self-funding what he could of the project, including costumes created by Anna McCoy, editing software and lodging during two days of shooting at the Coronado Heights castle.
“We all stayed in (one) motel room for a night or two while we shot there,” Anthony said, laughing at the memory.
With 40 years gone by, she was happy to hand over creative reins for the 2025 special edition.
“There was no motivation or plan on my part (to re-edit the movie),” she said. “It was all these other people, and I think that’s perfectly appropriate at this point, that it be more fan-driven, creator-driven.”
Ultimately, every moment of viewing is imbued with the whimsy and fantastical interests of the cast and crew.
“This movie makes me feel like everyone in this is really into symphonic metal, BDSM, polyamory or painting miniatures,” Panico wrote. “Maybe and instead of or.”
Immerse yourself in the fantasy
Folks can attend the premiere of the newly edited “Song of the Sword” at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, at Liberty Hall (644 Massachusetts St.) in partnership with Love Garden Sounds. A panel discussion with the cast and crew will follow the showing.
Admission is $12.50. Tickets are available online or at the box office.
Those who want a greater dose of Anthony’s writing can seek out her historical fantasy trilogy set around 400 A.D. Britain. The first installment, “Pippa Agrippa in Britannia Prima,” can be purchased at the Raven Book Store.
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com.
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