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 Thanks to an incredible response from soccer fans across the world, "Rise and Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story" will be completed.
The fundraising project surpassed $215,000 in pledges on Friday, assuring that the documentary about the Green Bay native's incredible rise from the low levels of semipro soccer in England to the Premier League and the World Cup can be finished and distributed to a wide audience.
"WE DID IT!! Just like the story itself ... With belief and hard work, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN!! Congrats to you all. So proud. AMAZING!!" DeMerit posted on his Twitter account. "THANK YOU ALL for your efforts, big and small. A total TEAM effort was needed to pull this off, and I'm so honored to be a part of this team."
Pledges continue to come in – at the time of writing Saturday, 1,856 backers had pledged more than $219,000 through the Kickstarter website.
Producers Nick Lewis and Ranko Tutulugdzija, two of DeMerit's friends who made the documentary despite having no prior experience or knowledge of the film industry, needed the funding primarily to pay the expensive rights fees for match highlights in the 90-minute movie.
While there were some large contributions – five gave $10,000, while five more gave more than $5,000 – the vast majority of people pledged $25. Nearly 900 backers chose that option, for which they will receive a copy of the documentary on DVD and a thank you video from DeMerit.
To help spark interest and pledges, the producers allowed advance copies of the movie to be screened. Several screenings were held in Wisconsin, including in Middleton, Green Bay, Milwaukee and La Crosse, and included raffles and auctions. Several individuals raised money for the project, perhaps most notably Evan Mundine, a 13-year-old from Texas who went door-to-door and auctioned off memoribilia to fund his $1,500 pledge.
In many ways, the story of how the movie was funded is a story in itself.
"You guys did it. It is done. What can we say ... thank you isn't enough," Lewis and Tutulugdzija wrote in an email to project backers. "This movie will live on to future generations and everyone will know that it belongs to you all and was possible because of you. Everywhere we go, anywhere Jay's story is told, you will be the story behind the story – it is your movie."
If you're interested in pledging and receiving a DVD or other rewards, you can do so until 2:20 a.m. Monday through the Kickstarter website.
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