When last we saw former Tokyopop owner and publisher Stu Levy, he was in Japan, sleeping in a truck on his way to deliver food to the victims of the March 11th Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that left parts of the country devastated. At the same time that Toykopop was shutting down for good, Levy announced his intention to spend a year making a documentary about the disaster and the survivors’ heroic efforts to help others through the tough times.
Well, now there’s a trailer for this documentary and a Kickstarter page looking to raise $20,000 for post (color grading, etc) and marketing for the film, whose purpose he explains thusly:
I believe we can help heal these wounds by paying tribute to the amazing resilience and quiet spirit of the many victims and volunteers of Tohoku. By letting them know we admire and respect them, we encourage them to continue the good fight – at a time when even the strongest warriors would grow weary.
We also gain insight into how our own inner strength can help us if we ever find ourselves in a life-threatening situation. I believe we can all learn from these incredible heroes.
There’s also a Facebook page supporting the project. Some may find some irony in Levy’s turning to crowd funding now that his own publishing empire has gone to ground, but clearly there are good intentions here. Maybe Levy can also help out some people closer to home by giving them back the rights to their creations one of these days?
[Via GeekChicDaily]
I don’t mean to always hate on Levy, but does it strike anyone else as odd that the guy behind one of the most successful publishing operations of the past ten years doesn’t have 20 Gs laying around to make his own damn movie and instead is grubbing for cash on Kickstarter like a college kid trying to put out an 80-page comic on his own? I mean, this is kind of insane, right? Good vibes for Japan aside, is there any practical reason any of us should give him any money?
Agreed. That $20,000 would be better spent going directly towards relief efforts, not filtered through a project by the guy whose previous film efforts are limited to direct-to-video oddities and one of this year’s biggest box-office duds.
Is that his real hair?
Because it looks like a really awful toupee