Back in the 1990s, a British trade magazine sent me to Los Angeles every November to report on the American Film Market — then mostly an emporium of cheapo genre films, held at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. It was the heyday of the straight-to-video actioner and the doors of many sales suites were decorated with posters for kung fu and kickboxing movies that, if their sellers got lucky, would soon fill the shelves of video rental shops from Dubai to Durban.