Skip to main content

Zaki Con 2019: The Movies

Zaki Con was created when a group of teens in our Teen Advisory Group decided they wanted to host a Studio Ghibli movie marathon. Movies like Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, and Spirited Away have been favorite during Young Adult programs here at the library for years and they wanted a way to share that with more people. The idea blossomed to include crafts for kids and families, games, food, and art made by local (mostly teen) artists. 

But the movies are where we started and what gave our mini convention its name. Hayao Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 and directed many of its most famous films. His birthday is January 5th and we try to hold Zaki Con as close to that date as we can. 

Every year we screen four movies. Three from Studio Ghibli and a fourth highlighting a different studio that we think our attendees will enjoy. Here is some info about the movies we'll be showing this year to help you plan your Zaki Con experience.

Porco Rosso 1992 Rated PG - Friday 12/4 12:30pm

Porco Rosso is an ex-fighter ace and veteran of WWI afflicted with a mysterious curse that transformed him into a pig, he makes his living as a bounty hunter. When he runs foul of air pirates, Porco may be in for his final high-flying showdown. 




Grave of the Fireflies 1988 Rated PG - Friday 12/4 4:30pm

Based on the retellings of survivor Nosaka Akiyuki, Grave of the Fireflies is the story of siblings Seita and Setsuko in the days after World War II. When firebombings separate them from their parents the young brother and sister must rely on each other for survival. Haunting and heart-wrenching, this movie may be a lot to handle for younger, more sensitive viewers. However, many who have watched this movie claim it is one of the best movies ever made and even that it made them a better person.   



Howl's Moving Castle 2004 Rated PG - Saturday 12/5 11:00am

My personal favorite Ghibli film (and just one of my favorite movies in general), Howl's Moving Castle, based on the book by Diana Wynne Jones, is the story of Sophie, a quiet hatmaker. A chance encounter with the infamous Wizard Howl (who is rumored to eat the heart's of beautiful girls) leads to a curse by the Witch of the Waste which transforms Sophie into an old woman. In an effort to find the Witch and break the curse, Sophie finds herself in Howl's Moving Castle and part of his household where she finds out there's more to the wizard and herself than she knew. Oh yeah, and there's a fire demon!



Mary and the Witch's Flower 2017 Rated PG - Saturday 12/5 3:00pm

A film from Studio Ponoc, the animation in Mary and the Witch's Flower may seem familiar. That's because the studio founder Yoshiaki Nishimura and the film director Hiromasa Yonebayashi are former members of Studio Ghibli. Based on the novel The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart, Mary and the Witch's Flower is about a young girl who discovers a flower with magic properties and a broom that allows her to fly. These new items whisk her away to Endor College a magic school where Mary tells that a lie that could be impossible to fix. 



These are the films we'll be watching at Zaki Con 2019, what films do you want to see at Zaki Con 2020?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Origami Racer/Cicada 8 and up craft!

If you'd like to craft along with Ms. Sti on Zoom at 1:30 today (June 23), click this link!  Otherwise, you can follow these instructional pictures below! (Make sure you don't glue the yarn!) Loop the yarn around something solid and tug at the loose ends of the yarn to watch your origami climb!  

Summer 2021 Recommendations for Your High School Reader!

  Summer is fast approaching and if you have a high school reader, you might be looking for new titles to engage them this summer. Librarian, historian, and author Alexandria Brown has allowed us to share their recommended lists to help make that easier! Per their blog*: As a high school librarian, offering reading recommendations for students is one of my favorite parts of my job. These lists are for parents, library workers, and teen readers... I created these lists through an alchemy involving age of the protagonists, themes, genre, tone, complexity, reader skill/comfortability level, events and topics a student will likely encounter in their studies during the school year, and books they are unlikely to read for school. I also tried to pick materials that published in the last few years or will be published by June 2021. Preference to #ownvoices and marginalized authors. Below you'll find links to their lists broken up by grade level. Whether you know an avid reader who always

Coraline Trailer!

Here's the best trailer for Coraline so far. And it's actually Neil Gaiman's (he wrote the book) favorite! The movie comes out February 6th and I'll definitely be seeing it that weekend, so if you want to see it with me let me know and we can get a group of people to see it together! I know Kathleen and Mallory are already on board! dftba, Sti