The Story of Yanagawa's Canals (1987)

I used to slip into seeing Ghibli as the creative combination of Miyazaki's bold eco-fables and Takahata's subtler dramas (Pom Poko notwithstanding) but here it's so clear Takahata hews to the same earthy environmentalism as Miyazaki. Beautiful wordless cinematography mingles with interviews and footage of local events to tell the story and show the results of Yanagawa's waterway regeneration. Complex systems are re-implemented to unite the town through the commons (how different to fenced gardens). Inescapable interconnectedness. One time when I was a kid I saw my house and realised how every part—brick and mortar, window and frame, gutter and tile, all of it—was designed and made piece by piece with intent and forethought and even before that there were blueprints and land surveys, all to make a single house. This film gives me the same feeling.