Last month, I told you that the Another Hole in the Head Film Festival would be the last Bay Area film festival of 2019. I was wrong.
Just this afternoon, I discovered another one. Five days after the Hole in the Head got plugged, Miyazaki Mania opens Friday and runs through Sunday at the Roxie.
If you’re not familiar with Hayao Miyazaki, you’ve got something to discover. This Japanese animator has made some of the best animated works in recent years.
His masterpiece, at least in my opinion, is Spirited Away. This is a beautiful, complex, and occasionally scary tale of a young girl cast into a strange and magical world. The intriguing and imaginative creatures, not to mention the moral dilemmas, are beyond anything that Dorothy ever had to deal with in Oz. A truly amazing work of animation.
Spirited Away
Most of the films will be screened in 35mm, in the original Japanese with English subtitles. Alas, Ponyo and Porco Rosso will be screened in dubbed versions.
Here’s the full lineup:
Friday, 12/20
6:30p – Spirited Away (35mm, subbed)
9:15p – Princess Mononoke (35mm, subbed)
Saturday, 12/21
1:45p – My Neighbor Totoro (digital, dubbed)
4:00p – Ponyo (digital, subbed)
6:45p – Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (35mm, subbed)
9:30p – Spirited Away (35mm, subbed)
My Neighbor Totoro
Sunday, 12/22
4:00p – My Neighbor Totoro (35mm, subbed)
6:15p – Porco Rosso (digital, subbed)
8:30p – Princess Mononoke (35mm, subbed)
It’s a great way to spend the weekend.
Bayflicks 