To the People of Japan

AUSTIN, TEXAS—I am here at South by Southwest, ready to begin the deluge of cinephilia that awaits me in the next nine days. And yeah, I'm excited.

For now, though, a brief moment of prayer for the victims of another deluge: the tsunami that came about as the result of the 8.9 earthquake that hit the coast of Japan today. This morning, I woke up and watched pieces of video footage of the earthquake and tsunami...and my God:





After I spent a few minutes looking at videos like these, I called my dad—who was born and raised in Japan—and asked him if any of our relatives in the country were affected by this. He said he would make some calls later tonight to make sure, but that he didn't think they were hit; apparently they live far away from where the worst damage took place.

In any case, my thoughts are with all of the people of Japan—personal relatives and everyone else—and with the people of other nations who have been affected by the tsunami (as of this writing, much of the West Coast had been put on alert).

If you want to donate money to help with the inevitable relief effort in Japan, the American Red Cross has come through again with this link.