Pray for Japan
{{Infobox film
| name = Pray for Japan
| image = Pray for Japan poster.jpg
| caption = Film poster
| director = Stu Levy
| producer = Stu Levy
| writer =
| music = Shinya Mizoguchi
| cinematography =
| editing =
| studio =
| released = {{Film date|2012}}
| runtime = 97 minutes
| country = Japan
| language = Japanese
| budget =
| gross =
}}
Pray for Japan is a 2012 Japanese documentary film about the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Stu Levy produced and directed the film. All of the crew, including Levy, volunteered to make it, and all of the profits from it will be donated to the non-profit organization JEN for their Tōhoku reconstruction projects.{{Cite web|url=http://prayforjapan-film.org/page/the-team|title=エンディングロール|date=28 June 2014}} The film premiered in Tokyo on March 6, 2012,https://www.facebook.com/events/330261053674705/ {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}{{deadlink|date=September 2023}} and showed for one night only in 15 North American AMC Theatres on March 14, 2012.{{cite web |url=http://prayforjapan-film.org/events/event/listByDate?date=2012-03-14 |title=Events - Pray for Japan |accessdate=2012-02-28 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226074805/http://prayforjapan-film.org/events/event/listByDate?date=2012-03-14 |archivedate=2014-02-26 }}
The film moves between several perspectives, including survivors living in a shelter, a middle school staff, volunteers, and a young musician who lost several family members. A woman's voiceover reads poetry interspersed between these different perspectives. The overall effect is to show that despite the disaster, the survivors are moving forward with their recovery.
Reception
{{Metacritic film prose|53|four|ref=yes|access-date=30 September 2023}}
Ernest Hardy of The Village Voice wrote, "Filmed over a period of six weeks and supplemented with animated music sequences and chilling news footage of the terrifying deluge, Pray is both an elegy and a love letter."{{cite web|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/pray-for-japan/|title=Pray for Japan|first=Ernest|last=Hardy|website=The Village Voice|date=14 March 2012|access-date=30 September 2023}} Justin Chang of Variety wrote, "It's hard not to be moved by the words of love, gratitude and resilience spoken by earthquake/tsunami survivors and volunteers in Pray for Japan. But well-meaning platitudes go only so far in this sincerely felt, raggedly structured compilation of footage shot by producer-director Stu Levy while he was aiding victims in the devastated coastal city of Ishinomaki."{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2012/film/reviews/pray-for-japan-1117947264/|title=Pray for Japan|first=Justin|last=Chang|website=Variety|date=18 March 2012|access-date=30 September 2023}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{official website|http://prayforjapan-film.org/}}
- {{IMDb title|2066041}}
- {{rottentomatoes|pray_for_japan}}
- {{Metacritic film}}
{{2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami}}
Category:2012 documentary films
Category:Documentary films about the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
Category:Japanese documentary films
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