Miyazaki at the Academy
IN HOLLYWOOD, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is arguably the gold standard of unparalleled film appreciation and cinema history. In September 2021, they will be opening a museum in the heart of Los Angeles, allowing visitors to experience insights of movies and moviemaking through programs and exhibitions dedicated to the celebration of film worldwide. In collaboration with Studio Ghibli, the Academy Musuem’s inaugural temporary exhibition will be a retrospective on Hayao Miyazaki, the first of its kind in North America. Layered Butter’s Editor-in-Chief, Marc Winegust, spoke with Curator Jessica Niebel and Assistant Curator J. Raúl Guzmán to discuss their experience in creating this exhibition that is dedicated to the acclaimed artist and director.
Marc Winegust: What was your first exposure to Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki’s work?
J. Raúl Guzmán: The first Studio Ghibli film I saw was Spirited Away in 2001, when it was released in theaters, and that just really opened my eyes to a whole different world of animation. It really stuck with me, the immense creativity in each of his films. When I started at the Museum, Jessica asked me if I wanted to work on the exhibition with her, and it was a no brainer of course, I said yes. I was thrilled. We’ve been a great team since and working on this show with her has been my highlight so far.
Jessica Niebel: It’s been a special journey we’ve been on, and I feel like that’s why we feel so connected with each other. To me, it’s super important to have someone by your side who you can play with, someone who’s critical of your thoughts, and someone who is creative and has ideas on their own and understands the direction you’re going, and is willing to stay at your side the entire journey no matter how difficult or how fun it is. So, we’ve been sharing a lot these past years. We’ve went to Japan several times together, which was great. But to answer your question, my first exposure to Miyazaki was when I was a child growing up in Germany, I was allowed to watch the TV series Heidi, Girl of the Alps (1974). But of course, I had no idea that Miyazaki was the animator on that series, and I didn’t even know that it was made in Japan, because it takes place in the Swiss Alps. In Frankfurt, a city I lived in for many years, that’s where I worked as a curator for the German film museum and curated an exhibition on anime back in 2008, it was then that I first watched his feature films, and the movie that impressed me the most back then was Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984). I really was flabbergasted by that movie in so many ways, I mean, the complexity of the main character, the rhythm of the whole film, how courageous he was in slowing down, and I really felt like I’d never seen an animated film like that one on the big screen before. So then subsequently, I watched all the other Miyazaki films, and also some Takahata films. I have to say, I’m also a big Takahata fan. I think he’s a great director. I started working for the Academy Museum in 2016, and when it was determined that Miyazaki would be the opening show, I mean, I was thrilled, and I still feel honored that I can work on this project with Studio Ghibli. Also with the team at the Academy Museum, this is one of the few opening shows that’s been designed in house by our own design team, so we’ve been able to work very closely together in this same location, which was very helpful.
How did the Academy Museum decide to do Miyazaki as one of their first inaugural exhibitions?
Niebel: So the way we understand ourselves as an international film museum, we’re looking at international filmmaking and international filmmakers from all around the world. What’s challenging is that most people have an affinity for this medium and love film in one way or another. So as a film museum, you want to reach that audience, that wide of a spectrum. You want to reach people from Los Angeles, people from around the world, people of all ages, people of different generations, different cultural backgrounds, and we were looking for the work of a filmmaker or a theme that would address this kind of audience. While Hayao Miyazaki is a unique filmmaker from Japan - and his films are very Japanese in many ways - his films are also very universal. On the other hand, he’s making films for children, but they’re really multi-generational. Film is sometimes very hard to exhibit in exhibitions, which is a spatial experience, but with animation, you have all the drawings, and especially with Ghibli, who’ve done hand drawn animation for so long, you’ve got plenty of material to show and you can put something amazing in the space. So, there’s many reasons why Miyazaki ticked all the boxes. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he was also an Oscar winner, even though that was never a criterium, but he’s definitely admired around the world. Even though some people may not have heard his name, they have probably heard of one of his movies at least. We felt that this is a great exhibition to do, because it reaches such a broad audience, and at the same time, his body of work is still small enough. 11 feature films is still a good amount to do an exhibition on.
Guzmán: I think one of the great things about this exhibition is that visitors will actually see the production materials that were used for the films, like amazing hand painted backgrounds. These are elements that visitors will be able to appreciate because of their beauty. As a film museum, it was important to be able to showcase the craftsmanship that goes into Miyazaki’s filmmaking, and that’s been one of the highlights, actually seeing these stunning works in person to be able to bring these materials to Los Angeles for the first time.
Imageboard, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Hayao Miyazaki, © 1984 Studio Ghibli - H
What I found very interesting while doing research is that this is the first timethat a retrospective on Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli’s work has been presented in a museum or curated setting of this caliber outside of Japan. The Academy Museum is setting the bar in a way. Jessica, I read an interview where you’ve mentioned that you didn’t want to make this into a chronological retrospective, but rather do it thematically. How are you able to curate that in a way where you can have something for both avid fans and new fans of his work?
Niebel: I learned so much from the master himself. I tried to figure out how he makes movies that are very complex and very simple at the same time. I feel like the key to this exhibition is exactly the same thing. If you want to, you can dig deep into the content, but at the same time, you won’t have to. We’re not prescribing a certain way; to go through this exhibition. Though what is important to me is to create a learning experience that is experiential. This is why we have included these installations and large projections. I feel that just by looking at selected film clips from his movies, you can get a sense of what he’s trying to express thematically in many of his films. For example, we have a montage on the idea of pollution. Watching the film clips you’ll get a sense of it without actually having to say it in a gallery text, and I feel like that works across language barriers, cultural backgrounds, and different ages. I’m not an expert on how kids learn, I’m really not, but I have a sense, and Miyazaki says that himself as well, that kids understand much more than you can fathom. So if kids are able to understand his films, and can watch his films and get their own idea of what his films are about, that is the way to go and I hope that we’re going to achieve the same with this exhibition.
Guzmán: When we first conceived of the exhibition, it was important to make it a journey with an emotional impact, so that you could come into the exhibition without any knowledge of Miyazaki, and encounter different layers, and it’s up to the visitor to really engage with the exhibition as they wish. The scores of Joe Hisaishi can really drive the point, and the average fan will be able to recognize some of those details that we’ve included. Kids that have never seen a Miyazaki film will be transported into his world from the very first gallery, the intro tree tunnel.
How has the collaboration process with Studio Ghibli been between reaching out to them and knowing what elements the Academy Museum wanted to borrow, such as image boards, layouts and backgrounds?
Niebel: They are the sole lender of this exhibition, with the exception of one piece that Raúl has lent to us [laughs], but they also wanted to be the sole lender. Once they were on board, they were like, “No, let’s make this very exclusive.” And this exhibition will only show artwork from Studio Ghibli’s archive. But to your question, when we reached out to them initially, of course, they were uncertain, they didn’t know who we were, we’re not an open museum, we’re not up and running yet. So far, they have not collaborated with other museums that would curate shows about them, they’ve only done their own exhibitions. They do organize their own exhibitions, and they’re very particular about their own philosophy, and protective of it, rightfully so. First of all, we needed to establish a relationship of trust, and both take a leap, meet in the middle and find the common ground. What was really important to them is that they wanted to understand our intentions. They wanted to see the exhibition concept, so we had to go through it, and they asked a lot of very good, very hard questions. But once we were able to answer all of those questions to their satisfaction, they thought about it and came back saying “Yes, this is something we can support, we’re all in,” and I have to say, from that moment on, they’ve been incredibly supportive of our efforts. They have worked very hard to support our vision and make it a reality, not only by providing artwork, but they’ve also contributed a lot to the catalog. They did all the fact checking, and came up with suggestions for artworks to display, which was super helpful because we don’t know what they hold in their archives, only they know. When we said we wanted to do a section on aviation, because we feel like that’s an important and unique aspect of his work, they would go to their archives and find some artwork that they would propose to us. They pulled up some key animation from Porco Rosso (1992), and that was just amazing, because it doesn’t only show very vividly how important the idea of flight is to him, but also how Miyazaki is involved in every detail of production, even in the animation process. In many ways, this has been super helpful. They have also really opened up their doors. We were able to go into the studio, see him at work, talk to him, and also talk to key staff over there. They organized interviews for us, so we were able to sit down with animators, background artists, people from the cinematography department, and the sound department, to find out what the Ghibli process is, and how it’s like to work with Miyazaki. Pretty much everything we know came from talking to them.
Then in terms of the actual layout and design, when you reached out to Studio Ghibli about your approach to this exhibition, what did they agree or not agree with? I’ve read all of the press releases and news reports about how this exhibit is thematically designed, but how were you able to distill Miyazaki’s work into seven sections?
Niebel: That’s going back to the question you had before. In terms of visitor experience, you have to make sure that you’re not overwhelming the visitors. That’s the curator’s task. You have to make a selection, because you can’t include everything that is relevant about this outstanding filmmaker, it’s absolutely impossible. So you have to be brave and bold enough to pick the things that you think are most interesting for the people who are going to visit this show. There are some things that Raúl and I wanted to exhibit, but did not end up including, so there are many aspects to Miyazaki’s work that will not be reflected in the show. I’m always saying that this is not just an exhibition for the Academy Museum, it’s a whole project that other departments are working on as well. We’re going to screen all of his films, we’re going to have conversations, our education team is working on workshops, special tours, and so on and so forth. There are so many layers of how to convey information to visitors, including in the digital space online. The physical exhibition is just one pillar of the overall project, and I’m still happy with the choices we’ve made. the overall concept has never changed. It’s still the same as it was in the beginning.
Layout, Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), © 1989 Eiko Kadono - Studio Ghibli - N
Did you take any inspiration from the Ghibli Museum in Japan or from other exhibitions that you’ve visited worldwide? Just to give this as a little anecdote. A couple years ago at the V&A in London, I saw the Winnie the Pooh exhibit that was there, and what was great about that exhibition, was how it was very interactive for both adults and children. Now, I know that COVID might have thrown a curveball regarding the exhibition’s design, but is there still something like that in mind for both adults and children?
Guzmán: One of the biggest inspirations was actually the films themselves, and one of the things I appreciate about Miyazaki is his ability to really take you back to your own childhood, to show you the world again through the eyes of a child. When you watch [My Neighbor] Totoro (1988) or Ponyo (2008), all these movies really take you back to those early stages. Watching the movies at the beginning of the conceptual phase was crucial because that really opened up our eyes to really seeing the world again through that lens. Incorporating elements that bring that magic and wonder of discovering the world for the first time, as you begin to understand how things work. I think it was important to have that lens included in the exhibition. I have nephews that are really at that prime age, and I thought about what things would they like to see when the show opens. So that was really magical, seeing the films again, and really drawing inspiration from the master himself.
Niebel: I want to give a concrete example of what Raúl was saying, because this is 100% true. You remember this opening scene from Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) where Kiki’s lying down in the grass listening to the radio looking at the sky? This is a sequence that I always found very impressive, because it’s so dreamy, slow, and contemplative, and I think it’s appealing to kids and adults as well. We took that as an inspiration to create a similar experience for our visitors by creating an installation where you can lie down on the grass like Kiki, look up at the sky and see animated clouds passing by. We’re really happy now because one of Studio Ghibli’s artists painted the clouds for that experience for us. It’s a bespoke piece for the exhibition, which is amazing. We’re really happy about it. But that’s the kind of experience we’re creating that I feel will appeal to a lot of people of different ages, and I think this is exactly how Miyazaki films work. When you’re a kid, these kinds of experiences that his younger characters have are familiar to you, but if you’re an adult, you may remember this from your own childhood. You may remember what that feeling was like when you were just hanging out, wasting time looking up at the sky, something like that, or Mei’s curiosity from My Neighbor Totoro, when she’s going through that tree tunnel, she wants to explore that magical world, and she’s following these creatures she discovers. As an adult, you don’t do that anymore, but you may remember how that felt like when you were a child and you did those kinds of things. So it also has to do with memory as well, and this is a great way that Miyazaki has found to connect people of different ages, and bring them together. Because as different as our experiences are in different generations, we also have very basic experiences in common and it doesn’t matter if you’re in Japan, or if you grew up in Europe or the US. There are certain things that connects us as human beings, and he’s somehow able and sensitive enough to find these themes, we just riffed off of that really. Miyazaki is the master, and he inspired us to do the exhibition the way we did it, and we wanted to be very mindful about how he thinks about how he approaches things. His works were the main inspiration.
Are you borrowing any elements from the Ghibli Museum other than stuff from their archives?
Niebel: Yes, we are also showing his Academy Awards and some models that Ghibli produced for their own exhibitions. They are also producing some goats for us as they were seen in Heidi.
Guzmán: I think the fact that the Ghibli Museum doesn’t allow photography really encourages you to be in the moment to not have your experience be mediated by technology. I think that’s one thing that we’ve embraced. If you’re a visitor coming to the exhibition, we want you to experience the exhibition and to really be in the moment, to look at the artwork, it’s going to be one of the few chances you have and to treasure the time that you’re in the exhibition, and to really just observe and be in the moment.
[Editor’s note: Photography will be permitted in other exhibitions at the Academy Museum. Photo rules in the Miyazaki exhibition are not museum-wide]
Key Animation, Porco Rosso (1992), © 1992 Studio Ghibli - NN
What’s your favorite artifact or piece of artwork that you’re going to be displaying?
Guzmán: I think one of my favorite ones is the long background of the forest of the Deer God from [Princess] Mononoke (1997). When I saw it in person, I was just blown away by the miraculous depiction of the light falling in the forest, and to see it in person after seeing it in books, that has stuck with me. How masterfully the background artists are at depicting light, and the enormous scale of it, I just really appreciate it.
Niebel: I’m super excited about the artworks that Miyazaki created himself. These include imageboards and character design drawings, layouts, storyboards, and key animation. For the Porco Rosso scene I mentioned earlier, we have the first set of the drawings made by the key animator, and then the second set with Hayao Miyazaki’s hand-drawn corrections. Then the third one is the cleaned-up version by the supervising animator, so it’s really interesting to see how nitty gritty he gets, but it’s all visual, and he’s such a talented draftsman. What I also really love are the two poems he’s written about the Kodama spirits in Princess Mononoke, and about the Deer God, also from Princess Mononoke, to share with his crew to better explain to them the sensibility of these characters, their personality, what’s special about them, and he did that in the form of a poem. I found that very impressive. I don’t know of many filmmakers who write poems for their staff to better describe their intention, and I thought, that’s just so Miyazaki because his films are like visual poetry, in a sense. I think people will be surprised to see poems in this exhibition. They probably expect to see drawings, but not necessarily to see poetry.
Guzmán: Maps too, he has amazing maps. He thinks about so many details in these environments that he creates. He really situates the location, as he thinks about the surroundings, and many of those details may not end up in the final film, but the fact that he’s thinking about that as he’s conceiving of these environments is so impressive once you actually see them. These imageboards are then distributed to the crew, and they really give a spatial arrangement to these locations. It’s just wonderful to see that there’s so much thought in everything that he does.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the opening of the museum, and subsequently the exhibit, have there been any pieces or artifacts that you’ve decided to bring in because of the extra time you both had? Is there anything exclusive that has never been on display in the Ghibli Museum that you’re proud to showcase?
Niebel: A lot of his archive has never been shown before, neither in Japan nor anywhere else. In terms of the [exhibition’s] checklist, it has slightly changed, but it hasn’t changed dramatically. Certainly not in the nature of the material that was selected, it was just a matter of certain pieces that weren’t available anymore and could be replaced with similar pieces. I’m always trying to find a good balance between artwork and film projections, so we’ve had more time to work on the film projections and give them a little more nuance. We have tried to include more of Miyazaki’s words, meaning his quotes. I believe at the beginning, we were trying to discover Miyazaki solely through the lens of his films. During the course of the project, we found that he has a lot to say not only about movies, but about humanity, about the world, and how we coexist. It was Ghibli’s encouragement to include his voice a little more. So now we’ve not only included quotes from him in the gallery texts, but also in the montages that we found were fitting.
Guzmán: One thing we did add was the Studio Ghibli animation desk. Which I think will be good for visitors to see. Especially because the environment of Studio Ghibli is so cozy and intimate. To get a glimpse of that I think will be exciting, especially for the avid fans.
What’s an interesting fact that you found out about Studio Ghibli or Miyazaki while curating this exhibition?
Niebel: Oh, so many. I don’t think I was aware how deep of a philosopher he is. This whole idea that he’s not just an animator, not just a director, not just a filmmaker, but an auteur and a philosopher who’s expressing his thoughts through the medium of animated films. I don’t know that I was aware of what a profound thinker he really is, as well as all the work he’s done outside the world of film. He can be very demanding in a way, I mean, you expect that of an auteur, right? That’s the cliché. But also, he’s really trying to enhance the work environment and conditions for everybody who’s working with him. He really changed the way animated films are made. A different way of working within the Japanese animation industry. At Ghibli, they’re trying to foster talent, they’re retaining long term staff, they’re paying a better salary, and he founded this kindergarten for the kids of the Ghibli staff. He was involved in the design of the Studio and, of course, the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka.
Guzmán: One of the most magical moments was to actually see him in his studio, because you read about him as a filmmaker, but to actually be in the space that he creates all of these wonderful films, and to see that he’s so down to earth. Like Jessica said, he doesn’t have a separate office, he’s really engaged with the staff. Spending time with him in Tokyo, seeing all the different facets of him. He’s an animator, a museum curator, he designed a kindergarten, there’s so much depth to him that I think his filmmaking side is just one aspect of an exceptionally creative thinker. It’s been an incredible journey for the past few years to be able to be in his world and to learn so much from him. Hopefully, visitors will be able to appreciate these aspects as they see the exhibition.
Imageboard, My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Hayao Miyazaki, © - Studio Ghibli
To extend on that thought, what is one thing that you hope visitors will take away from this exhibit after experiencing Miyazaki in the way that you two perceive him?
Guzmán: If visitors can walk through the exhibition, remember their childhood, and regain a little bit of that magic of seeing the world through those eyes, that would make me really happy as a curator.
Niebel: To me, it was important to try and create different emotions throughout the exhibition. You start out with a childlike playfulness, you have learning experiences, encounters with his characters, moments of relaxation and immersion in the beauty of nature, but also more difficult moments, where visitorsare confronted with the challenges of human industry, war and pollution. Like Miyazaki is saying, conflict is part of life. So how do we deal with this conflict? Hayao Miyazaki’s answer is that we have to embrace contradictions. We have to be able to live with it and keep on living. At the end of his films he always finishes on a hopeful note, and I think that is what we wanted to do in this exhibition as well. When people leave this exhibition, I hope that they've been on this journey, and have gone through something that feels profound, and maybe hard at times. But at the end, they feel hopeful about the future, believe that they can go on living, and that there are beautiful moments in life that you can embrace, no matter what's going on, especially in these horrible times of COVID, and what we've gone through here in the US. We're not addressing pandemics in this exhibition particularly, but understanding that there are hardships and challenging times in life, times where you might not necessarily be able to controlor overcome them right away, there are still moments of beauty, so let's be hopeful. I think that's a beautiful message in Miyazaki’s films, and I hope that we can convey this sense of hopefulness with this exhibition as well.
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