A documentary film, Pure Land, is an independent project created by a Japanese filmmaker, Nori Mizukami with his friends in New York and Bogota. Despite the global pandemic and the ongoing political unrest in Colombia, Nori’s team has not stopped developing the project. It’s time to give a final push!

The term “pure land” comes from the pure land/Shin branch of Japanese Buddhism. It is commonly mistaken the term “pure land” is somewhere such as Heaven that one arrives afterlife, but in Shin Buddhism and especially in this film, we define it as a place where life problems stop being an obstacle. The ultimate and only goal for many Shin Buddhists is to find a Pure Land here and now.

As an introspective journey to living and suffering, the film invites the viewers to “home” where Shin Buddhism is practiced and allows an intimate look into the heart of Pure Land through the eyes of two Japanese Buddhists, Miki and Toni. 

From the beginning, I’ve intended to make this film for an audience who knows nothing about Japanese Buddhism. The film highlights the importance of listening to ourselves as individuals and as the whole society and it gives us an opportunity to explore the state of mind where we are free from the mundane world filled with greed, ignorance, and hatred. In short, you become your own therapist by engaging in Zen moments cinematically expressed by the filmmaker.

While the focal point of this documentary is to observe Home Buddhism in action, the film is also a portrait of two Japanese immigrants—an ordained priest in his 50s and his student who passionately dived into finding the awakening at the age of 89.

The student, Tsune Katz, aka Toni married an American soldier, Bernie, 75 years ago. Toni migrated from the defeated country to the US without knowing that she would never meet her mother again. Using archival photography and recent interview footage, we trace Toni’s life after the war until today. With a glimmer in her eye, she reflects on the love story including the first encounter with Bernie. Throughout the film, we closely listen to Toni as she shares turning points as wife and mother.  

Miki Nakura, a former banker, is a Buddhist priest from Higashi Honganji Temple in Kyoto. He spent his 20s in a fury of resentment against his mother. Before becoming a banker, Miki was accepted to work his dream job. His mother’s suicidal threat, however, forced him to give up his dream and led him to work at a bank for nearly 20 years. When he was 43, he finally decided to become a Buddhist priest and crossed the ocean for his life mission. In the film, Miki shares his path as a Buddhist and also how he came to forgive his own mother.

To launch this campaign, I cannot skip talking about the pandemic. When it started, I don’t think any of us knew how long this was going to last. Looking back in March of the last year, I was underestimating the impact of this global phenomenon while we were finishing our second fundraising and started editing the film. It’s not as simple as accusing the virus of the delay of the production, but to be honest, we could have finished editing the film last year if this didn’t happen. What’s more, Pandemic was not the end of the tragedy for Colombia. The political unrest triggered by many domestic issues has put more burden to make a living.

As a leader of this project, I felt the responsibility of pushing the members to meet the deadline and deliver the film to our funders, but at some point, I had to acknowledge the necessity of taking care of the physical and mental health of everyone including myself.

For those who have been tired of waiting for the completion of the project and kept supporting us, I want to express my deepest gratitude. Emails from the funders that I have never met in person have motivated us to the finishing line. ARIGATO!

Watch the pitch video about our journey.  

You might have known the project or actually made a contribution before. This is our third crowdfunding campaign. The first campaign was launched before the principal shooting in 2018, and the second time before post-production advanced – before the pandemic.

There is more to be discussed distribution-wise, but we are releasing the film with subtitles in English, Spanish, and Portuguese simply to reach more audiences around the world. And, we start with film festivals. 

The finishing fund raised by this campaign goes into:

• Staffs’ salaries until the completion
• Animation (photo & title)
• Multi-lingual subtitles
• Colorization (It was paid by the filmmaker and completed in June, 2021)
• Original film scores
• Sound mixing
• Distribution
• Legal fee (e&o)

Our delivery will be 100 minutes with a professional look and sound of 5.1ch.

Please spread the word about the campaign and share the link. Talking directly to your friends helps a lot! And, if you have some money to share for the project, please consider your contribution!

Director // Nori Mizukami

(Our key talents in New York)

NY Producer // Ma Luyao

Location Sound // Miguel Carrascal Del Riego

Cinematographer // Scott Ruderman

Cinematographer & 1st AC // Shounan Liu (Liam)

Original Music // Masatora Goya

(Our key talents in Bogota)

Editor & Production Coordinator // Giselle Geney

Editing Supervisor // Ivan Sierra

Translator (English, Japanese, Spanish) // Gabriel Garcia

Sound Designer and Mixer // Andres Montana