In commemoration of the 5th anniversary of Tohoku Disaster: Pray For Japan has been set free!

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In order to make sure our film is available to the biggest possible audience, we have now posted it, in its entirety, to our YouTube channel. This is not a rental: it is being streamed for no cost.

I hope that you will be moved by our film. So moved, that you will consider donating to JEN, one of the disaster relief non-governmental organizations that led the volunteer effort in Tohoku. They were on the ground three days after the tsunami. They continue to be on the ground to help, because it really is NOT over for the people of the affected areas of Japan. There are still hundreds of families relocated from Fukushima. There are still thousands of families living in temporary housing in Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures. There are still huge swaths of land that, although cleared of debris, are basically vacant and fallow. This, five years after the tragedy. They still need you. Please help.

Pray For Japan now available on YouTube, and three Japanese sites, for rental!

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Our good friends at TOKYOPOP have put our film up for global video-on-demand rental at YouTube. As always, now that we have cleared expenses, every cent of your rental of the film will be donated to JEN-NPO, one of the charities you see providing support to volunteers in the film.

If the rental doesn’t work in your country, please get back to us, and we will get it to work. Each country and each currency needs to be entered individually. Drop TOKYOPOP a line at info@tokyopop.com to let them know if you are having trouble.

We now have Japan-only VOD sources:

Rakuten/楽天ショウタイム

http://video.rakuten.co.jp/content/142100/?sclid=a_lis_opt_jpf

HikariTV/ひかりTV
iTunes Store, JP/PRAY FOR JAPAN by スチュー・リビー

This is now the 5th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, and the 4th anniversary of the release of our film. We are proud of what we are able to accomplish, and further, we are glad people still care about the people of Tohoku affected by the disaster. Rebuilding is still very slow going, with people still living in temporary housing that was not meant to last this long. Hopefully the Federal and Prefectural governments of Japan will finally get in gear and help resettle people into permanent housing. Until then, NGOs like JEN-NPO will be there for them. IT’S NOT OVER.

By Your Side

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http://vimeo.com/zapuni/byyourside

dwarf studio, the animation studio that brought us the internationally beloved character Domo-kun, created a short this year to bring attention to the continued difficulties faced by children in Fukushima Prefecture, and the promise of music as therapy.

The short promotes Zapuni, an art collective, and El Sistema Japan, a non-governmental organization that is bringing Venezuelan-style youth orchestras to areas of Japan still affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. And no area is more affected than Fukushima Prefecture, with its no-go zones and fear about the long-term effects of exposure to radiation from the damaged Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant.

It’s a beautiful and touching short, made with the painstaking process of dimensional animation.

Promises made…promises kept.

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StuMsKiyamaJEN-NPO_final

We are happy to announce that we have donated first proceeds above and beyond our expenses to JEN-NPO, one of the organizations we featured in our film, and to which we have the closest ties. Here’s our Director/Producer/DP Stu Levy with JEN-NPO Managing Director Keiko Kiyama, handing her the check. This is a proud moment for us.

Welcome to our new website! ようこそ！

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Welcome to our new Pray For Japan website! This is Stu here and I’d like to thank Michelle for volunteering tons of time putting the site together based on our last site, which was hosted for 3 years by Ning. This new site will continue to provide information about the film and its origins, so please enjoy!

新しい「Pray for Japan」のウェブサイトへようこそ！Ning社のおかげさまで３年間ずっと前のウェブサイトをホスティングして頂けましたが、事情があって変更しました。スーパーボランティアのミッシェルが全ての情報を移したり作り直したりしましたのでとても貴重な情報はそのまま入っています。是非、ご参考にお使い下さい！

宜しく御願い致します。
スチュウ・リービー
「Pray for Japan」監督

A year of accomplishment

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Signed P4J posterWe are coming up on the first anniversary of the release of Pray For Japan. As such, we have a lot to be proud of, and even more importantly, a lot of people to thank.

Even a documentary made with a zero budget, with so many volunteers and so many great companies donating their services, incurs some expenses. It took until December of 2012 to where we were finally “even” on those expenses.

Now that we finally ARE even, we can begin to take money going forward and actually plow it into donating to Non Profit Organizations on the ground in Tohoku. Many of them have been there from nearly the beginning of the crisis, and remain because the need is still very present.

Right now, you can buy Pray For Japan on DVD and Blu-Ray through our partners at RightStuf.Com, and you can rent or buy the movie through Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, and YouTube.

We were able to do our theatrical release in March, 2012 thanks to three very awesome exhibitor partners who donated their services: AMC Theatres, Hollywood Theaters, and Cinem@rt Japan. We are continuing to make Pray For Japan available for US theatrical showings through Tugg, a service where you request the screening in your home town and then presell tickets to family, friends and colleagues through the Tugg website. We also have a host-a-screening program for institutional and small group showings of the film.

The most important thing is that we are keeping awareness alive of the fact that the Tohoku story is not over, that the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami will continue to need the help of the world to recover from one of the most devastating natural disasters on record.