Jewish Film Festival starts with ‘Monkey Business’

Ema Ryan Yamazaki grew up reading books about Curious George as a child in Japan.

The tales of the mischievous monkey and his friend, the Man in the Yellow Hat, captivated her.

It wasn’t until she was older that she learned Curious George was internationally popular, not just in Japan.

However, Yamazaki mostly forgot her love of Curious George as she grew up — until she had graduated from New York University with a degree in film studies, and was looking to make a feature-length film of her own.

“I (was) actively looking for a story to tell,” Yamazaki said. “A mutual friend of mine asked me if I knew anything about the Curious George authors, and I didn’t.”

She learned that the fun-loving chimpanzee was created by Margret and Hans Rey, two German Jewish people who had fled the country to escape Nazism.

“It kind of triggered my memories. I loved him, and a lot of people do. It triggered my interest,” Yamazaki said.

She began doing research, forging relationships with people who knew the Reys, and putting together a collection of newspaper clippings and anything else she could find that mentioned them.

A collection in Mississippi that included more than 300 boxes of the Reys’ personal items, including never-published sketches of George, helped Yamazaki put her story together.

“I wasn’t lucky enough to meet them, but somehow, through these various ways, I really did feel like I got to know the spirit of them. I did a lot of research to gather all the words they ever said,” Yamazaki said.

The story she learned inspired her to begin raising money to make a feature-length film.

Margret Rey worked in advertising in Germany until 1935, when she fled to Brazil to escape the rising tide of Nazi rule.

By then, Hans Rey had been living in Brazil for 10 years and had been drawing monkeys, since the animals were common there.

He and Margret married in 1935 and the following year the couple moved to Paris. Hans’ monkey drawings appealed to a French publisher, who asked the couple to write a children’s book.

That book, “Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys,” features Curious George as one of its characters, and he proved so popular that the Reys wanted to craft a separate series to focus on him.

At that time, the Nazis were threatening France. Hans began working on a pair of handmade bicycles that he and his wife could use if they needed to make a quick getaway.

Just a few hours before Nazi forces seized Paris, the bicycles were finished, and Hans and Margret Rey fled the city, with little other than an illustrated manuscript of “Curious George.”

The couple moved to New York City via Brazil, and published six more “Curious George” books.

Hans Rey died in 1977, and Margret Rey died in 1996 after a career as a professor of creative writing at Brandeis University, and some collaboration on several “Curious George” short films.

Yamazaki speaks with clear admiration of the couple and their dedication to their craft.

“I really feel like sometimes I catch myself, like, ‘Oh, Margret would say this right now.’ ‘Hans would have answered that way.’ It really does feel like I know them,” she said. “I was obsessed with them. I wanted to do what I could to show their stories to the world.”

Finding enough information to make a thorough testament to the Reys was a challenge, Yamazaki said.

“I never made a film about people who are long dead. I know that people do that all the time, but oftentimes, there was more material available than what I had,” she said.

There are very few photographs of the human faces behind the watercolor monkey and his yellow-capped friend, and even less archival film.

So Yamazaki decided to work with multiple media to produce the film. About one-third of it is animated, in a style she thought was true to the Reys’ art.

It took Yamazaki about three years to make the film, which she titled “Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George’s Creators.”

It’s screening July 12 at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community of Greater Stowe, kicking off the third annual Jewish Film Festival at the community center.

Yamazaki is glad to see her film making the rounds at festivals such as Stowe’s.

“The fact that they were (Jewish) made the stakes so much higher” when fleeing the war, she said, admiring the Reys’ bravery. “We live in a time right now where it’s kind of more closed up. People from different backgrounds are being less and less accepted, especially in America. This idea of immigrants is kind of difficult for them right now. A lot of people were surprised to learn that Curious George was created by German Jews who came to America.”

She thinks if cultural and artistic sharing is encouraged more, it could help break down barriers that can lead to discrimination.

“I’m excited that Jewish film festivals like this one are showing it,” Yamazaki said. “We can all learn from the spirit of the Reys, their courage and approach to things — having the best, most positive approach. They called surviving the war an adventure. I think we can all learn from that.”

The Jewish Film Festival, in its third year, aims to introduce Stowe audiences to films focusing on issues near to the heart of the Jewish faith and cultural community, as well as celebrating its heritage, past and future.

It will show four films this year. The others are “Itzhak” on July 25, presented as part of Stowe Arts Week, “Shekinah Rising” on Aug. 9, and “On the Map” on Aug. 23.

All films are shown at JCOGS and begin at 7 p.m.