Miyazaki: Spirit of Nature
Documentary about the life and work of Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki, the director of enchanting animation classics such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. The relationship between humans and nature is a recurring theme in his work.
For over fifty years, Japanese animator and director Hayao Miyazaki has enchanted the world with films like Spirited Away (2001), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), and The Boy and the Heron (2023). While his films unfold in fantastical worlds, they almost invariably contain autobiographical elements and serve as a reflection of the state of the world, and the turmoil caused by wars and ecological disasters.
In Miyazaki: Spirit Of Nature, the viewer gets to know the tireless, obsessive, and mysterious filmmaker through excerpts from his work. Born in Japan in 1941, Miyazaki immersed himself in drawing manga as a child, but after watching the animated film The White Snake Enchantress (1958) by Taiji Yabushita, he decided to devote his life to animation. Creating animated films allowed him to overcome the darkness that had always tormented him deeply.
For this documentary, director Léo Favier had access to numerous film clips from Studio Ghibli and archival footage from Japanese television networks. In his documentary, we discover Miyazaki's life and a body of work that questions our relationship with the natural world and other living beings.