Wednesday 8 May

As part of the University of Sussex’s Anime Symposium, Depot will be hosting the keynote speech titled Miyazaki’s Worlds of Women: Feminism in the Films and Working Practices of Studio Ghibli.

The symposium will focus on the films of Studio Ghibli co-founder and legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki, with an opportunity to watch his 1992 animated-comedy-adventure Porco Rosso on Tuesday 7 May, which follows the adventures of a former-pilot-turned-bounty-hunter after the end of World War I.

On Wednesday 8 May, Rayna Denison, Senior Lecturer in Film, Television, and Media Studies at the University of East Anglia will be giving the keynote speech for the symposium, Miyazaki’s Worlds of Women: Feminism in the Films and Working Practices of Studio Ghibli. Hayao Miyazaki has long been praised for his representations of women, especially his heroines, and this talk will seek to re-examine Miyazaki’s relationship to women in both his films and as employees of Studio Ghibli. In this talk, Rayna Denison uses Miyazaki’s depictions of women characters as a way into a discussion of his working practices as an animator and director. Rayna argues that Miyazaki’s animation practice has much to add to our understanding of the director’s relationship to both his female characters and to the women who surrounded him at Studio Ghibli.

Tickets for the keynote speech are available now.