Exclusive: The director is behind My grandfather is nihonjinand Animation about the experience of Japanese immigrants in BrazilShe said she did not want to tend so hard Anime But formulating a unique mixture of its Japanese style and South America.
Speak before displaying it in Annecyand Celia Katonda She revealed her desire to “create another style to make this movie”, combining the tradition of Japanese animation and Brazil to give the film a completely new flavor.
The film comes 30 years after the signing of the friendship treaty between Brazil and Japan In Paris and Brazil is now home to the largest Japanese community outside Japan, where an estimated 2 million people are believed with Japanese descendants that they live there. Pre -approval follows the flag of Noboro, a young boy from SOu Paulo, who discovers his Japanese roots. When he commissioned the mission of homework for his family, Noboro resorted to his grandfather Heido to learn more about his heritage. Although he always avoids his past, Hido agrees to share his story.
The film is designed in the style of two -dimensional animation drawn by hand, and includes Japanese cultural influences.
“From the beginning My grandfather is nihonjin project Pinguim content. “The Japanese animation is very strong. I wanted to create another style that was a little bstilate and was not quite Japanese.”
The film depends on the famous novel by Oscar Nakazato and Catuunda, which includes its own experiences that arose with friends who have a Japanese heritage. She worked closely with Oscar Owa, a contemporary artist born in Sao Paulo for Japanese immigrants who helped prepare and visuals.
Caunda does not have a Japanese heritage itself and shares a creative consultant to ensure that it did not get away from the stereotype, especially when it comes to music, which was a great challenge. The film performs a musical style that combines Japanese and Brazilian music from the countryside.
She added, “Sometimes, you do not realize the stereotypes that fall into it, so it was important that you have a Japanese advisor who supervised the text programs and worked on the characters.” “When the grandfather opened his arms on a large scale, she was telling us that this would not work as a Japanese person who would not open his arms like that, he would be closed. The music may seem” general Japanese “a little sometimes, so we needed to be specific.”
Experience of migrants
Looking at her upbringing in a Brazilian melting crucible, Catuunda was an inspiration to film a movie about the experience of migrants, and many Noboro’s friends in the movie have different wallpapers including one of the descendants of slavery.
Caunda believes that animation is the ideal means of transferring topics about immigration and said that one of her favorite films is Donia and Aleppo PrincessWhich was in Annecy three years ago.
She added: “The way in which personalities are designed that convey a lot of cultural aspects, and you can also invite different voices to make things more realistic.” “But at the same time, you don’t need to get a lot of different actors from many different places. Animation can be more symbolic.”
Katonda explained that the main struggle for these issues is the conflict between Noboro and his grandmother.
For most of his life [the grandfather] “The grandson was the opposite, as he wanted to re -confirm his Brazilian identity.” We wanted to be the arc of both people about the discovery of the complexity of their identities. This is the beauty of the immigration process and what makes the Brazilian culture very rich. “
My grandfather is nihonjin It fell a desirable show in Annecy on Thursday, and this comes at an appropriate time for independent animation, after the La Valin movie Flow Oscar, who witnessed the film about a cat trying to survive in the post -terrible world in the large budget competition of American studios.
“flow “It has been very good for all people who work in animation because we need to search for different things and sometimes the budgets may be so large that they are so -called us. I am a very strong believer in stories on the budgets. I think we can always dream big and that being in Annecy will give us the vision we need.”
Catunda hopes that there will be a “happy path forward” My grandfather is nihonjin. He was appointed to the screen in many festivals in the coming months.
Along with marketing My grandfather is nihonjin CATUNDA also develops Luna and lost rivers – Amazon adventureCross for popular TV series Earth to Luna It is located in the Amazon, which deals with climate change topics.
