when an old man dies a library burns I
learned of this African proverb from a
friend of mine who told me that for the
majority of my career I’ve been like a
firefighter putting out the fires of
stories that were meant to be told
have you ever wished that you could have
interviewed somebody before they died
like a grandparent or a parent or think
about interviewing somebody now but you
just haven’t quite gotten around to it
we all have a story and whether we know
it or not we’re shaped by the stories
around this for the last 15 years I’ve
had the greatest opportunities to tell
stories I’ve traveled to all seven
continents I’ve been given access in the
world’s I would never have expected and
interviewed people I would have never
thought possible
my films have been portrayals of
visionaries and everyday heroes they’ve
been stories of creativity and
technology
they’ve been investigations into
humanitarian and environmental themes
but when I look back now on my career of
filmmaking I realized that my filmmaking
career was largely inspired by my
childhood my dad and grandfather both
Academy Award winners worked at the Walt
Disney Studios and they designed and
developed the cameras and projection
systems for the Disney films and theme
parks every now and then my dad had to
go down at Disneyland to work and if I
was lucky enough he’d take me with him
but we didn’t go in the main entrance
like everybody else we went in the back
entrance and I can tell you going
through that gate was like entering
Wonderland pulling back that curtain and
seeing that magic backstage was more
exciting to me than what was on stage
the people that designed the parks were
called Imagineers and I grew up learning
of their legendary stories of how Disney
Land was built such as how to get ghosts
to sing and dance in the Haunted Mansion
ride or how to get fireflies to glow and
the Pirates of the Caribbean ride or how
to get Abraham Lincoln’s body and hands
to move in the great moments with mr.
Lincoln attraction in fact this
is Lincoln’s hand and I grew up with
this hand always lying around our house
as a kid because my dad’s hands were the
actual molds for Lincoln’s hands now my
mom on the other hand did not appreciate
finding this in the freezer but I still
blame my sister for that so needless to
say I had a great time growing up behind
the scenes so by the time I graduated
from USC film school I got a job as a
directors assistant in Hollywood on some
big-budget studio films and it was
exciting because I got a behind the
scenes look at the sausage-making of
moviemaking but as the film ended and
production was over I remember my job
started to get mundane and I remember
driving across LA morning traffic every
day just to do a laundry list of gopher
jobs for the director you know like walk
the dog I hate to admit it you know meet
the housekeeper get the coffee and I
remember thinking is this what I’m
really supposed to be doing with my film
school degree so one day on this long
boring commute an image popped into my
mind a photo that my grandfather took
back in 1924 when he was driving across
country to Hollywood this was always
hanging in my grandparents house when I
was a kid this photograph see my
grandfather had met Walt Disney four
years earlier in Kansas City Missouri
they were teenagers and artists working
in an advertising agency
they were both passionate about
animation and they decided to form their
own business called Iwerks Disney but
only lasted a month then Walt decided to
go on his own inform his own company
called laughing Ram’s doing little
cartoons for the local theaters my
grandfather soon joined them and they
started innovating little cartoons
jerry-rigging animation cameras and they
came up with some really great
innovative cartoons including one that
started live-action girl and an animated
backdrop and this had never been done
before but soon Walt’s money ran out and
he had to declare bankruptcy so he took
off for Hollywood to go find work and my
grandfather returned to the advertising
agency for steady employment it was two
years later when my grandfather received
a letter from Walt asking
come out to Hollywood to join him as
chief animator on a new cartoon series
now my grandfather had a choice at this
moment he could put this letter in a
drawer and play it safe or he could you
know uproot his entire life move across
country and go work on some esoteric
cartoon they could totally go bankrupt
again but what does he do he trust his
gut listens to his instincts and moves
across country goes down a long dirt
road into an unknown future this and
storytelling terms is called the
inciting incident or the call to action
everything prior to this moment is the
backstory everything ahead of this
moment is the story it’s the moment that
sets the protagonist in motion and as
this story goes two years after my
grandfather arrived in Hollywood Walt
Disney did go belly-up again on a new
cartoon series called Oswald the Lucky
Rabbit when his animation staff JumpShip
the one person the one animator has
stood by his side was of Iwerks
he would go on to design and animate the
new cartoon character who would change
the world
Mickey Mouse or toe Polina as you all
know him here in Italy so I was one when
my grandfather died and needless to say
I was very bummed that I never got to
know him so by the time I got to junior
high I was tasked with doing a book
report on somebody famous and I decided
to do it on up so I started looking
through these books at an animation
history and biographies on Walt Disney
and what I started finding was that the
stories I was reading were different
than what I was hearing in my own family
system you know ABS contribution to
animation and visual effects and his
contributions to Mickey and Minnie Mouse
what I realized there’s a story of
collaboration that was missing and as a
result a piece of animation history was
missing and this discrepancy had always
bothered me so here I was driving across
town and morning traffic and route to
walk the directors dog and it dawned on
me I could save this library what if I
go and I interviewed the people that
knew my grandfather before they were
gone and maybe I could write
a book or make a film a documentary and
share his story with the world I didn’t
know it at the time but this is my call
to action so shortly thereafter I met
with Roy Disney the nephew of Walt and I
pitched him my idea of a documentary and
he told me that he had great respect for
AB and he felt that AB story was not
only meant to be told it needed to be
told and so he convinced the studio to
fund a documentary and before I knew it
I was on my way to telling my
grandfather’s story so I spent the next
eight months retracing their footsteps
back in Kansas City in Hollywood I
visited their old sites like the
laugh-o-grams building where they got
their start and I interviewed the people
that knew him and I learned that up and
Walt were like the yin and yang of
creativity and technology
Walt pictured left here whenever he had
a story idea that needed to be told I
would figure out a technical artistic
solution for it whenever I came out with
some technical invention Walt would find
a way to put it to use they were always
pushing the envelope so this is my first
documentary and I was having a blast but
I knew I needed to prove myself so when
the time came for me to show my first
cut to the studio executives I remember
feeling the sense of anxiety I was about
to show them a potentially controversial
retelling of the Mickey Mouse origin
story I mean this is from herbs point of
view what if they disagreed with it what
if they wanted me to change it how would
I go she ate this after all Walt’s most
famous quote arguably was it all started
with a mouse so fortunately because this
was a balanced and fair and honest
retelling the studio not only embraced
it they premiered it in Hollywood
distributed around the world now people
everywhere could experience the same
magic that inspired his life and mine
and I got to get to know the grandfather
I never knew not long after this I ran
into John Lasseter the co-founder of
Pixar Animation Studios and he invited
me to come screen my film up at the
studio for the employees and I remember
had a Q&A after the film somebody asked
me if I could have done anything
differently
in the making in my documentary what
would it have been and I remember
thinking you know if I could have gone
back in time and been a fly on the wall
and then creation of Mickey Mouse
recorded those early films and the
behind the scenes activity I would love
that opportunity so that answer seemed
to spark something I think in Jon’s mind
because afterwards they shared with me
their long risky journey into the
creation of computer animation and then
they invited me to actually be that fly
on the wall and go behind the scenes and
actually capture the goings-on and the
creative process at Pixar Animation
Studios it was very exciting and I
remember my interview with Steve Jobs he
told me that Pixar had combine the
creative culture of Hollywood with the
hi-tech culture of Silicon Valley two
cultures that previously did not
understand each other a place where as
John Lasseter says art challenges
technology and technology inspires art
but with all the advancements in
computer animation what didn’t change
was a need to create believable worlds
with living breathing characters as the
classic animators have taught us you
have to make your characters feel I
remember thinking if I had been a fly on
the wall during the creation of Mickey
Mouse would it have looked something
like this this is a scene that I filmed
during the making of Finding Nemo an
exchange between director Andrew Stanton
and animator Doug Sweetland
hey guess what all right sea turtles
I met one and he was a hundred and fifty
years old you know Nemo should be
looking at his dad at the beginning of
the shot all the time yeah he looks like
he’s dead give it up he looked at his
dad and I looked at his spin and he
should be like looking at him for
acknowledging the whole time okay fin
they stay looking at each other
[Laughter]
I was focusing primarily on father and
not on really not on Nemo so I just kind
of had Nemo default to this kind of eyes
forward pose not even thinking about
like how it would read except that
hopefully you’re looking at father right
but Andrew read it and he was totally
right that it looks completely
indifferent and so now I have to give
this entry when I came father know Nemo
but you know it’s you know it’s not like
starting over anything but I have to in
view that character with something so
now what I can do is just go back into
the thumbnails and what I could do is
just use these same drawings it would be
good so the shot will be a lot better I
had done all this stuff to where the fan
is like this symbol of the movie his
accepting of his sign is also the
letting go of the past or the loss of
the trauma and what is it what is it to
take someone’s hand not only isn’t an
opportunity just to physically kit like
touch and connect with his son it also
marks the new relationship
[Music]
I’m so sorry
[Music]
so this behind-the-scenes access really
gave me a deeper understanding for the
human journey through the creative
process or that courage to create I
learned through my own filmmaking that
risk-taking is all about sort of
trusting your gut and having that
confidence to go down an unpaved road
much like my grandfather did and much
like the founders of Pixar did so when I
started receiving letters from students
telling me that this film the Pixar
story inspired them to pursue a career
in animation that gave me more
motivation to go out and find more
stories that were meant to be told more
stories of risk and survival risk and
adversity but how do you find these
stories I can tell you that you will
often find them in the most surprising
and unexpected places I would never have
guessed that my next film would have
landed me in the trash literally the
Guatemala City garbage dump the largest
landfill in Central America
were thousands of families who had fled
Guatemala’s 36 years civil war had found
refuge recycling the city’s trash
Outsiders saw these people as
degenerates and I saw them as
hard-working survivors vultures and
stray dogs and people were all vying for
the same half-eaten banana just dumped
from a trash truck yet children were
joyful here they played with broken toys
and hula hoops and even Mickey Mouse
dolls we asked one woman what was the
best thing you ever found in the garbage
dump
she said my husband this was a story of
risk courage survival and dignity I grew
up in the world of Disneyland and this
was their playground so I was finding
commonality in a place far from home and
how I grew up when people learned I was
doing a documentary about people living
in a garbage dump they thought I was
crazy for doing this film but when it
was nominated for an Academy Award and
benefits screenings raised three million
dollars to help build schools in the
surrounding areas of the garbage dump
our film recycled life is proof that
films that are meant to be told can make
a difference I found as we get older we
start to look back at the stories of our
lives
we start to want to fill in the blanks
and answer the questions that we never
thought to ask because we were so busy
living and doing but when we start being
our own history starts to matter more if
we could just have one more day with
that loved one or we could have been
that fly-on-the-wall to learn about
their processes their perspectives and
their lessons in life stories are all
around us and we have the tools and the
technology today like never before to go
out and capture them and share them with
others I challenge you I dare you go out
find those magical stories and others
and then yourself because when we listen
to our own instincts and we answer our
own calls to action our stories become a
gift to everyone they become the tribal
knowledge to pass down remember that old
African proverb when an old man dies or
a woman a library burns go save some
burning libraries I dare you
thank you
[Applause]
learned of this African proverb from a
friend of mine who told me that for the
majority of my career I’ve been like a
firefighter putting out the fires of
stories that were meant to be told
have you ever wished that you could have
interviewed somebody before they died
like a grandparent or a parent or think
about interviewing somebody now but you
just haven’t quite gotten around to it
we all have a story and whether we know
it or not we’re shaped by the stories
around this for the last 15 years I’ve
had the greatest opportunities to tell
stories I’ve traveled to all seven
continents I’ve been given access in the
world’s I would never have expected and
interviewed people I would have never
thought possible
my films have been portrayals of
visionaries and everyday heroes they’ve
been stories of creativity and
technology
they’ve been investigations into
humanitarian and environmental themes
but when I look back now on my career of
filmmaking I realized that my filmmaking
career was largely inspired by my
childhood my dad and grandfather both
Academy Award winners worked at the Walt
Disney Studios and they designed and
developed the cameras and projection
systems for the Disney films and theme
parks every now and then my dad had to
go down at Disneyland to work and if I
was lucky enough he’d take me with him
but we didn’t go in the main entrance
like everybody else we went in the back
entrance and I can tell you going
through that gate was like entering
Wonderland pulling back that curtain and
seeing that magic backstage was more
exciting to me than what was on stage
the people that designed the parks were
called Imagineers and I grew up learning
of their legendary stories of how Disney
Land was built such as how to get ghosts
to sing and dance in the Haunted Mansion
ride or how to get fireflies to glow and
the Pirates of the Caribbean ride or how
to get Abraham Lincoln’s body and hands
to move in the great moments with mr.
Lincoln attraction in fact this
is Lincoln’s hand and I grew up with
this hand always lying around our house
as a kid because my dad’s hands were the
actual molds for Lincoln’s hands now my
mom on the other hand did not appreciate
finding this in the freezer but I still
blame my sister for that so needless to
say I had a great time growing up behind
the scenes so by the time I graduated
from USC film school I got a job as a
directors assistant in Hollywood on some
big-budget studio films and it was
exciting because I got a behind the
scenes look at the sausage-making of
moviemaking but as the film ended and
production was over I remember my job
started to get mundane and I remember
driving across LA morning traffic every
day just to do a laundry list of gopher
jobs for the director you know like walk
the dog I hate to admit it you know meet
the housekeeper get the coffee and I
remember thinking is this what I’m
really supposed to be doing with my film
school degree so one day on this long
boring commute an image popped into my
mind a photo that my grandfather took
back in 1924 when he was driving across
country to Hollywood this was always
hanging in my grandparents house when I
was a kid this photograph see my
grandfather had met Walt Disney four
years earlier in Kansas City Missouri
they were teenagers and artists working
in an advertising agency
they were both passionate about
animation and they decided to form their
own business called Iwerks Disney but
only lasted a month then Walt decided to
go on his own inform his own company
called laughing Ram’s doing little
cartoons for the local theaters my
grandfather soon joined them and they
started innovating little cartoons
jerry-rigging animation cameras and they
came up with some really great
innovative cartoons including one that
started live-action girl and an animated
backdrop and this had never been done
before but soon Walt’s money ran out and
he had to declare bankruptcy so he took
off for Hollywood to go find work and my
grandfather returned to the advertising
agency for steady employment it was two
years later when my grandfather received
a letter from Walt asking
come out to Hollywood to join him as
chief animator on a new cartoon series
now my grandfather had a choice at this
moment he could put this letter in a
drawer and play it safe or he could you
know uproot his entire life move across
country and go work on some esoteric
cartoon they could totally go bankrupt
again but what does he do he trust his
gut listens to his instincts and moves
across country goes down a long dirt
road into an unknown future this and
storytelling terms is called the
inciting incident or the call to action
everything prior to this moment is the
backstory everything ahead of this
moment is the story it’s the moment that
sets the protagonist in motion and as
this story goes two years after my
grandfather arrived in Hollywood Walt
Disney did go belly-up again on a new
cartoon series called Oswald the Lucky
Rabbit when his animation staff JumpShip
the one person the one animator has
stood by his side was of Iwerks
he would go on to design and animate the
new cartoon character who would change
the world
Mickey Mouse or toe Polina as you all
know him here in Italy so I was one when
my grandfather died and needless to say
I was very bummed that I never got to
know him so by the time I got to junior
high I was tasked with doing a book
report on somebody famous and I decided
to do it on up so I started looking
through these books at an animation
history and biographies on Walt Disney
and what I started finding was that the
stories I was reading were different
than what I was hearing in my own family
system you know ABS contribution to
animation and visual effects and his
contributions to Mickey and Minnie Mouse
what I realized there’s a story of
collaboration that was missing and as a
result a piece of animation history was
missing and this discrepancy had always
bothered me so here I was driving across
town and morning traffic and route to
walk the directors dog and it dawned on
me I could save this library what if I
go and I interviewed the people that
knew my grandfather before they were
gone and maybe I could write
a book or make a film a documentary and
share his story with the world I didn’t
know it at the time but this is my call
to action so shortly thereafter I met
with Roy Disney the nephew of Walt and I
pitched him my idea of a documentary and
he told me that he had great respect for
AB and he felt that AB story was not
only meant to be told it needed to be
told and so he convinced the studio to
fund a documentary and before I knew it
I was on my way to telling my
grandfather’s story so I spent the next
eight months retracing their footsteps
back in Kansas City in Hollywood I
visited their old sites like the
laugh-o-grams building where they got
their start and I interviewed the people
that knew him and I learned that up and
Walt were like the yin and yang of
creativity and technology
Walt pictured left here whenever he had
a story idea that needed to be told I
would figure out a technical artistic
solution for it whenever I came out with
some technical invention Walt would find
a way to put it to use they were always
pushing the envelope so this is my first
documentary and I was having a blast but
I knew I needed to prove myself so when
the time came for me to show my first
cut to the studio executives I remember
feeling the sense of anxiety I was about
to show them a potentially controversial
retelling of the Mickey Mouse origin
story I mean this is from herbs point of
view what if they disagreed with it what
if they wanted me to change it how would
I go she ate this after all Walt’s most
famous quote arguably was it all started
with a mouse so fortunately because this
was a balanced and fair and honest
retelling the studio not only embraced
it they premiered it in Hollywood
distributed around the world now people
everywhere could experience the same
magic that inspired his life and mine
and I got to get to know the grandfather
I never knew not long after this I ran
into John Lasseter the co-founder of
Pixar Animation Studios and he invited
me to come screen my film up at the
studio for the employees and I remember
had a Q&A after the film somebody asked
me if I could have done anything
differently
in the making in my documentary what
would it have been and I remember
thinking you know if I could have gone
back in time and been a fly on the wall
and then creation of Mickey Mouse
recorded those early films and the
behind the scenes activity I would love
that opportunity so that answer seemed
to spark something I think in Jon’s mind
because afterwards they shared with me
their long risky journey into the
creation of computer animation and then
they invited me to actually be that fly
on the wall and go behind the scenes and
actually capture the goings-on and the
creative process at Pixar Animation
Studios it was very exciting and I
remember my interview with Steve Jobs he
told me that Pixar had combine the
creative culture of Hollywood with the
hi-tech culture of Silicon Valley two
cultures that previously did not
understand each other a place where as
John Lasseter says art challenges
technology and technology inspires art
but with all the advancements in
computer animation what didn’t change
was a need to create believable worlds
with living breathing characters as the
classic animators have taught us you
have to make your characters feel I
remember thinking if I had been a fly on
the wall during the creation of Mickey
Mouse would it have looked something
like this this is a scene that I filmed
during the making of Finding Nemo an
exchange between director Andrew Stanton
and animator Doug Sweetland
hey guess what all right sea turtles
I met one and he was a hundred and fifty
years old you know Nemo should be
looking at his dad at the beginning of
the shot all the time yeah he looks like
he’s dead give it up he looked at his
dad and I looked at his spin and he
should be like looking at him for
acknowledging the whole time okay fin
they stay looking at each other
[Laughter]
I was focusing primarily on father and
not on really not on Nemo so I just kind
of had Nemo default to this kind of eyes
forward pose not even thinking about
like how it would read except that
hopefully you’re looking at father right
but Andrew read it and he was totally
right that it looks completely
indifferent and so now I have to give
this entry when I came father know Nemo
but you know it’s you know it’s not like
starting over anything but I have to in
view that character with something so
now what I can do is just go back into
the thumbnails and what I could do is
just use these same drawings it would be
good so the shot will be a lot better I
had done all this stuff to where the fan
is like this symbol of the movie his
accepting of his sign is also the
letting go of the past or the loss of
the trauma and what is it what is it to
take someone’s hand not only isn’t an
opportunity just to physically kit like
touch and connect with his son it also
marks the new relationship
[Music]
I’m so sorry
[Music]
so this behind-the-scenes access really
gave me a deeper understanding for the
human journey through the creative
process or that courage to create I
learned through my own filmmaking that
risk-taking is all about sort of
trusting your gut and having that
confidence to go down an unpaved road
much like my grandfather did and much
like the founders of Pixar did so when I
started receiving letters from students
telling me that this film the Pixar
story inspired them to pursue a career
in animation that gave me more
motivation to go out and find more
stories that were meant to be told more
stories of risk and survival risk and
adversity but how do you find these
stories I can tell you that you will
often find them in the most surprising
and unexpected places I would never have
guessed that my next film would have
landed me in the trash literally the
Guatemala City garbage dump the largest
landfill in Central America
were thousands of families who had fled
Guatemala’s 36 years civil war had found
refuge recycling the city’s trash
Outsiders saw these people as
degenerates and I saw them as
hard-working survivors vultures and
stray dogs and people were all vying for
the same half-eaten banana just dumped
from a trash truck yet children were
joyful here they played with broken toys
and hula hoops and even Mickey Mouse
dolls we asked one woman what was the
best thing you ever found in the garbage
dump
she said my husband this was a story of
risk courage survival and dignity I grew
up in the world of Disneyland and this
was their playground so I was finding
commonality in a place far from home and
how I grew up when people learned I was
doing a documentary about people living
in a garbage dump they thought I was
crazy for doing this film but when it
was nominated for an Academy Award and
benefits screenings raised three million
dollars to help build schools in the
surrounding areas of the garbage dump
our film recycled life is proof that
films that are meant to be told can make
a difference I found as we get older we
start to look back at the stories of our
lives
we start to want to fill in the blanks
and answer the questions that we never
thought to ask because we were so busy
living and doing but when we start being
our own history starts to matter more if
we could just have one more day with
that loved one or we could have been
that fly-on-the-wall to learn about
their processes their perspectives and
their lessons in life stories are all
around us and we have the tools and the
technology today like never before to go
out and capture them and share them with
others I challenge you I dare you go out
find those magical stories and others
and then yourself because when we listen
to our own instincts and we answer our
own calls to action our stories become a
gift to everyone they become the tribal
knowledge to pass down remember that old
African proverb when an old man dies or
a woman a library burns go save some
burning libraries I dare you
thank you
[Applause]
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