(Ketchum, ID) – Beer Hunter: The Movie completed a successful round of fundraising this week using Kickstarter. Filmmaker, John Richards, set a goal of $30k but grabbed 577 backers on the way to raising nearly $45,000. Richards followed famous beer writer, Michael Jackson, around from 2004 to 2006. The film features footage from those years. Jackson passed away in August of 2007 from a heart attack.

The success of the campaign came, in part, thanks to virality in social media channels. The Kickstarter link got passed around nearly 1,800 times on Facebook and over 600 times on Twitter.

Below is an excerpt from the movie’s Kickstarter page.

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Beer Hunter: The Movie is a documentary film about the British journalist and author Michael Jackson, who’s books and television series about beer inspired the global phenomenon that is the craft brewing renaissance. An intimate portrait based on over 60 hours of rare, recent video footage, Beer Hunter sheds insight into the life and contributions of this brilliant and beloved man, who, while quietly battling Parkinson’s, became the leading voice and inspiration behind the craft brewing movement. For those who had ever met Michael Jackson, or were deeply inspired by his work, it’s hard to imagine that he is no longer with us.

Based on the huge success of his books and magazine articles about beer, Michael wrote and starred in a six-part television series, called The Beer Hunter, which was released in 1989 by Channel 4 in the UK, and aired in the early 90’s on the Discovery Channel in the U.S. While the show became an instant classic and has since aired in over 30 different countries, Michael was never able to get another episode produced before he passed away suddenly in 2007. Now, with the help of the international craft beer community, we can produce another beer hunting adventure in his honor.

Beer Hunter: The Movie is our attempt to follow up the original Beer Hunter series with a rare library of more recent footage, showing Michael on – and “off” camera throughout the great beer cities, breweries, and pubs of Europe and the United States. The footage will form the basis of a movie about Michael’s life, with the remaining footage edited into a series to be released as an open-source public resource. The unprecedented growth and popularity of craft brewing and distilling, and the ever-expanding field of beer and whisky writing, would never have been possible without Michael’s ground-breaking efforts and uniquely engaging voice. It’s important that we tell his story and recognize his contributions before his memory fades.