A short documentary filmed in Japan, Toy Film Story (working title) is a character study that doubles as an unconventional tour of Japanese history. Blending observational footage, oral storytelling, and rare archive material, the film offers a look into the world of Yoneo and Fumiyo Ota, the founders, owners, and sole operators of the Toy Film Museum in Kyoto. In telling the Otas’ story, the film presents a meditation on labors of love, community, and the strange power of the moving image over our collective memories.

See my press kit for the film here.

The backstory 📽

My first visit to the Toy Film Museum, in August 2024, felt a bit like stepping into an eccentric friend’s house–if that friend were absolutely obsessed with Japanese cinema history.

In a cozy machiya townhouse, surrounded by relics of cinema history, Yoneo and Fumiyo have tirelessly preserved and restored some 900 films–among them such gems as Tomiyasu Ikeda's The Loyal 47 Ronin and an early Yasujirō Ozu comedy that was once considered lost.

Frustrated that there was no film history museum in Kyoto (despite a filmmaking legacy that once earned this city the nickname “the Hollywood of Japan”) the Otas simply…made their own museum, pouring into it their own time and resources. It’s an act that feels almost punk to me.

Ten years later, the Toy Film Museum has become a hub for silent cinema culture, and boasts an archive of recovered films: anime, samurai films, period dramas, newsreel footage, home movies, and a short-lived Japanese format called “paper film.”

From my initial visit, I was fascinated by the Otas’ tenacity in maintaining this museum/archive/community space with little outside resources. I also wondered what their eclectic archive of recovered films could tell us about the past, and how they felt as private individuals having assumed guardianship of these culturally significant artifacts. From this curiosity, the documentary was born.

Making the documentary 🎬

As it happened, I pitched this documentary at a time when the Toy Film Museum’s 10-year lease was expiring. For this reason, I decided the best way to tell the story was over two trips.

The first visit took place in November 2024. With a small local crew, I interviewed the couple and documented the museum’s original space before it closed. Fortunately, the museum quickly secured a new location with the help of the community.

In April 2025, I intend to make a second trip to capture the reopening of the museum, catch up with the Otas, and give the story the satisfying conclusion it deserves. This crowdfunding effort will directly support my final trip.

How your support comes in 💰

This is my most ambitious project to date, owing to the costs of travel and the added challenges of collaborating on a film across a language barrier! I can’t do it alone, so in addition to self-funding and seeking grant opportunities, I’ve created this page.

Each filmmaking trip costs about $6,000, which includes flights, accommodation expenses, and the costs of a cinematographer and interpreter. My previous filmmaking trip was self-funded and came in under budget. After applying the leftover funds toward the second visit, I’m looking to raise $5,000 to cover the remaining costs.

Anything left over afterward will be applied to these post-production costs: transcription, translation, and subtitling of the film’s Japanese dialogue).

Why fund this project? 🤷‍♀️

You might be here because you’re interested in Japanese culture and history, are a fan of silent cinema, or just love yourself a good documentary–all of these are great reasons to take part! You’ll get to watch the finished product and think, damn, I helped make that happen.

Then there are the actual perks, of course! From a streaming link to the film, to regular updates, merchandise, a film credit, and an invitation to the premiere screening, I’ve come up with loads of ways to say the same thing, over and over again, to folk who care about independent films: THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!