Studio Ghibli: The next generation

The Cultural Frontline

This week, The Cultural Frontline explores family, legacy and creativity.

Studio Ghibli is one of the biggest names in animation, famous for films such as The Wind Rises, My Neighbour Totoro and the Oscar winning Spirited Away. For years, Studio Ghibli was led by its co-founder, the visionary director, Hayao Miyazaki. Since Hayao‘s retirement in 2014 there have been changes at the iconic animation house, with the emergence of Hayao’s son, Goro Miyazaki as a new leading force. Our reporter Anna Bailey speaks to Goro about the challenges of continuing his father’s legacy and his new film Earwig and the Witch, a story about magic and family.

Is there a work of art - a song, a poem or a film that makes you think of your family? The music producer Fatima al-Qadiri shares the story of how the soundtrack to her favourite game evokes the memories of her childhood in Kuwait during the First Gulf War.

Two mothers determined to do what’s right for their children. That simple premise is the starting point for the new novel What’s Mine and Yours, a multigenerational story of race, family and identity in America by the acclaimed writer Naima Coster. Chi Chi Izundu speaks to Naima about how her novel was shaped by her experiences of childhood and motherhood.

Family history, identity and voicing the challenges faced by young working class women, that’s the focus of the poetry collection, Where the Memory Was, by British-Somali poet Hibaq Osman. For The Cultural Frontline, Hibaq shares the influences that shaped her writing and reads one of her poems.

Presented by Chi Chi Izundu

(Photo: Earwig and The Witch. Credit: Studio Ghibli)