both of them are very irrepressible so I'm going to speak really fast in case you don't know these facts about them the peerless marjan satrapy filmmaker illustrator graphic novelist and children's book author was born in Iran and lives in works in Paris she combines political history and memoir in her debut feature animated film Persepolis and autobiographically based coming-of-age story that begins during the Islamic Revolution and is told through hood adventures as a young Iranian girl it premiered in Kon in 2007 her most recent film chicken with plums which you will see tonight tells the story of her great-uncle Nasser Ali Khan a renowned musician and it made its New York debut just a few weeks ago at the Tribeca Film Festival each of these films began first as a graphic novel this is something she holds in common with France Waze muli born in Paris and living in New York since the 1970s she has been the art editor of The New Yorker since 1993 where she has overseen over 900 daring innovative New York covers I'm hope I hope I'm right with that number she launched raw the large format magazine of comics graphics and illustrated text and co-edited with Art Spiegelman from 1980 to 1991 Co AG co-edited magazine she is also the founder of toon books a collection of hardcover comics for emerging readers which she started in 2008 and she is considered by many to be the most important comics editor of the last 30 years so without further ado thank you very much it's such a pleasure yep yep that's working now fun work yeah it came on okay such a pleasure to be here because I get to see my dad um otherwise she's so busy um just whizzes in and out in your new incarnation Mao Shan as the metal meters onsen the film when we met I don't know if you remember but do you remember when we met absolutely it was a book convention yes in LA and you got lost in the street because we didn't understand it was the blocks they were very good a little bit where roughly I am very scared that something bad would happen to us yes yeah mahjongg coming from Paris and me coming from New York we meet in the Convention Center the Staples Convention Center in in LA and we say let's go out for a cup of coffee and a cigarette ha ha in LA and then we start walking down the street and like 15 minutes later there's still not a street another place to have coffee and no place to smoke but at the time you had books coming out so how does it go from being even at the time a lot of what we talked about is how you got to do graphic novels and then now after that I also want to hear you talk about how you move from one medium of graphic novels to films but first whatever brought you to doing comics or graphic novels but first of all I have to say how impressed I am to be here sitting just here because one day I was a art student and from far I was hearing momomo my MoMA but you know today I had my mom a day you know to to feelings and yeah I'm sitting at the MoMA talking so I'm really really very impressed I am like the art student that I used to be so it's it's not easy but I the reason actually that I started making comics or graphic novels was because of our speaking man because your husband so because of course you know like everybody else who does not know anything about this this media because this is what it is is not a genre but it's really a way of expressing you know like everybody else I had this idea about what a comic was that meant that means that was reading for children or adolescent or adult that is what is what the majority of people think you grew up in Iran so it's aware know comics know that was comics but that was really Tintin and as the reset was not the kind of thing that you know I could be attracted to because that was no female character that then it was not really you know like a literature yes my cousins they would read it a lot but not me so you know I had this general idea that everybody else had and you know then I came to France and my for the first birthday that I was celebrating there and I was 24 by then they they have offered me Mouse and I really didn't know what to expect I didn't know the book and I started reading it and it was really write like a biggest revelation in my life because suddenly I said my god this story said in this form so you know it was really something that was stucked in my head because I'm somebody who think with image who you know image is part of my narration as it is in graphic novels that means that it's not unlike the illustration where you write something and then you make an illustration cop within the graphic novels actually whatever you don't write you draw and whatever you write you don't draw so it's a really specific language so having had somebody had done that it was not right away that I started writing the books that I wrote because I think I needed some time also to cool down to understand what happened to us heydon't and in art school you were in art school for how long but I was in art school in Fort Rick I mean I was in art school forever at first I made our school for years in France and then to be to get a French visa I had to be a student again so I am made at another art school for another three years what River which was which was good because you know that was so many things that we were not able to make it in Iran for example you know to draw nudes it was impossible you know or you know that was many things that we didn't have we had also lost you did go back to Tehran at some point and I said did you also try to go to an art school there and how did the deal with life drawing and drawing from nudes I mean it was well you know but that was not wrong often youth as you can imagine under the Islamic Republic so at one point you know we had these models that was you know that was us but all of us we were covered by very you know like big motto and you know the scarf and they and you know like when you say anatomy you have to have to see the body movement I mean if you have tissue everywhere then you draw the happy he'll draw a human being it goes really good again I think you know that the teacher obviously Patrick I'm very very very good so at one point we asked so if the boys they could see it because they were dressed but at least we could see you know how the knee was a new thing and one day that was your friend of us actually who were sitting and we were drawing him and one of this guardian of the revolution of our art school came and I was drawing here and I say don't look at him why are you looking at him and I was like I'm drawing him and he was like no you cannot look at him and I was like so am I supposed to look at the door and draw him he was use a guardian of the revolution that was also you are a teacher no no he no in the in the universe you and I go guys that there there you know for the discipline they call them so you know they told us you know put your veil down for you put your veil up why do you talk with that one go from these stairs don't walk there then art school you've been in college yes of course I mean it was just completely ridiculous like we had like two stairways and what's one stairways was work for girls and the other server was for boys but then we went up and up we're all mixed so we do you know it is not because something is forbidden that you won't make it of course you know later on we when we started knowing each other you know then we we gathered in each other's house and you know we draw each other so but and also our teachers they were not like our teachers they were very good teachers so you know then we could go later on to the studio of our teachers to work with them you know there was no other private way so it is it does not mean you know I learned a lot actually being in Iran because also it was so many amenities that were forbidden we had this thirst to know - we had this church to try you know that that's was trying on American students to try to tell them to look at the door was it drawing somebody absolutely I mean maybe then they would be interested in the freedom that they have to actually look at the exact I can draw whenever they want but it made us really thirsty to to really to try and I and all of that so but when I came to France it was good because I think I put in general I think that our school is really useless because like ignored you know the thing that you have to learn you will never learn it studying there everything that you have to know you just know it by experience later in life but it's a good moment when you can try things and you know the good people try different techniques etc and at the time that actually I was doing that I was absolutely not thinking you know that one day I would make you know graphic novels that I would make cinema none of that I I knew I knew that I wanted to roll I knew that I wanted to write I had a vague idea like always I have a vague idea about everything and then you know and then you know I came to Paris and then nobody wanted my drawings and is true and at one point I really say to myself this is maybe I'm really not good at it so I tried to find other jobs and it didn't work neither what did you try I went every side first I wanted to become a private detective and I think with your Mac for being inconspicuous that would have been like the perfect choice for you yes and but then you know the private detective you just have to go and find the women that are cheating at their husband in vice versa and in a tickly it was a problem for me you know like I why would I follow somebody who is like sleeping with somebody else out of my business so that didn't work done since I was depressed I was sitting there I was watching this Siri that was that was called a headhunter no no something other hunter would leave major but then I saw this ad in the in the magazine and they was asking for headhunter that is somebody who takes you know like the CEO of one company for another company but I thought that it was a job you know that they would give me gone and I would just you know like I swear it's true you know I bought you know all this thing you know with a pants with lots of okay then you have commotion I go and again to be inconspicuous yeah and then there is all this girl sitting you know with tights and very nice and I was like these guys they're going to be hunter like me and I went in the interview and a lady who was making the interview and I was like on you know like give me the guns and she was like do you know what his job is I was like yeah we're going to chase the criminal so that didn't work and the third job that was latter I decided that I will sell a fur on the show so easy but the only fur that I know is a the Fox so they showed me first like that and they - so they said you know first and I was like yeah of course and it was you had to speak for a European language that I knew and you had to have a knowledge about fur so what is this Fox and it was fun so it is these Fox Fox so then after that I understood that I could not make any other work there's a problem so I had and that is when I started Persepolis and that is the way I became so that's what you that's when you became a cartoonist because it's much easier than being a headhunter but then did you expect that you booked it were you working with a publisher did you did you did you have a book in mind and a venue and did you expect that it would be as well received no no no not at all I mean when I started you know to write Persepolis believe me I mean I was convinced that first of all no publisher wants to publish it so my goal was to make it because it was very important to me to have just one other version of the story not the other version but just to say you know you know because it it was in a way that you know we had a government that really confiscated from us you know our identity made out of us you know just a population and this thing was built was believed by the other one that means suddenly we became just the theories our problem was only the veil and the beard and the nuclear weapon nobody remembered that you know this country had the biggest poet of the of the world and the philosopher and 4000 years of history so all of that it was just saying hey we are just human beings so that was it so I just wanted to write this book and I said to myself yeah maybe you know like ten nine people you know I can make a Xerox and give it to them then you know the book was published so I thought that you know like 300 people that really like you know this third word people and they had bad costumes they would buy my book to feel better you know like we did something for this poor girl and then suddenly it became a big success but I really really don't know not even publish it in four volumes and France yes it was four volume in France and the reason of the success I have to say I kept on saying I wanted to be modest but I'm not modest in reality so it's not necessary to lie I was like yeah because I am a woman because I was in the right time etc I think the books are good that's why I think I think it's it's absolutely as the reason why there was such a great success and did you at that time expect that that story would then be picked up in other countries once because France is the receiving end of a lot of American culture anything that is a big deal and a big bestseller here makes it will be translated in France and will actually sell well in front but it's very rare that French books actually cross books from any other country cross a barrier or into the u.s. so how did that happen and what did that feel well it happened that you know that was big you know where pantheon that day you know that was this great girl Anjali Singh who read the book in French and she was in love with the book and then you know she presented to Pantheon and that at the time you know my publisher was Johnny's court clang so everybody was very happy about the book and then suddenly they published it and it was bizarre but you know it was as bizarre for me to make the book as making a film because of course I didn't plan neither to make films as I didn't plan to make books and you know now for examples I have two films here it's a big lock because there is so few foreign fields actually that come outside of America but I have a lot to work with my coworker and tomber knows at Sony classics and their job is really not easy to make subtitle film coming to the u.s. is what is easy so so how did you go into the first and then the new movie I mean why why if you had such a success with the books that actually like obviously talked to people across our culture why not stick with that is a very good question and I still don't have the answer I mean now that'd be the film they work I can invent reason to say yes I wanted this and that and there is no reason why would I tell the story four years in one way because it's an you know the language of the of the common sense and the language of the cinema is really two completely different language just you know the relationship that a viewer of the or a reader of the book has with the media you know when you read a comic you are always active between two friends you have to imagine everything you know you have to imagine the movement while you're watching a movie at the time we're watching it you're always passive so already to start with that you know it's a complete different thing and of course when they proposed me to make Persepolis you know I was like why should I do that and at the same thing that was this lead somebody proposed it to you it wasn't your idea no it was not my idea at all it was a friend of mine who wanted to become a producer is that one song no no no there are somebody else another another one and so he wanted to he said okay let's make that and you know at the same time I was like why should I do that and at the same time that was this little Jiminy Cricket who was telling me thank you God and give you a couple of million dollars so you can make a new experience why would you say no and I really did everything for this book before this not to happen because I say okay then we are going to make an animation in black and white then it should be in 2d then I won't get in the net and it should be hand drawn them in a net all these things and you know but you weren't flexible no no because I didn't want to do it so you know I didn't all that was was no I just said that you died like that they were give up and after one and a half months the guy they said yeah okay and then I was like now I have to make it was really like that really and I didn't know really how to do it you know I was learning at the same time of doing it and I think that was the fear to do really a crappy film because normally the adaptation is really bad made by the author is really really bad so I was like I have to do something so I worked a lot and this thing this incredible thing happened because you know I'm a very solitary in person I like you know like every cartoonist to sit in my studio that nobody bothers me you know I have my pages I have my paper my ink everything and nobody no producer nobody is yelling at me no actor is fainting nobody is why everything was fine and suddenly you know I started making Persepolis that was really difficult for me just a simple thing like like in the morning like when I wake up I'm like really bad you know like in a bad mood and just I had to say hello and be nice 200 people already that was but because you're not only like was he also but you actually put together a team you wanted to have hand animation why I mean there's also CGI you give them the script let other people figure it out well because they because Snow White is made in 1937 and they're 75 years after is still a very beautiful animation and the CGI the problem is that five years later is dated and you know when you put three years of your life doing something you don't want it to be dated you know after one year you know you and the beauty of of the drawing by the hand you never ever have it on the computer it's I don't like the effect I mean when I see it I know it's fake and it always something is just I think it's a question of case but but you really moved mountains I mean I remember like being in your Studios or one that you set up in Paris I mean even when you do hand animation in France and there are a number of things that are produced for European usually TV channels there's a few towns they outside of Paris where we rent is cheap and they give some of it to you know stay just be animated you wanted everything right there and instead of Paris you set up a studio but you know the reason we could make it is that we made a communist system that means everybody was paid the same thing including myself so that was the same salary for everyone for the director everybody who was playable working so everybody felt that they were equal and everybody gave whatever they had but if you had this hierarchy that them I'm the director I have to have 10 times more than you et cetera et cetera and is an alchemy that it works or not and it was the same thing you know for this new film you know after of course you know I made this first well yes like again you discovered like graphic novels and you give yourself all the skills to do a major work and then you trick yourself into doing an animated movie and then I'm sure you were offered to do a second film or you were eager to do a second film but why not use what you had so obviously setup of animation why switch to yet another medium because it's completely different isn't it yes of course because I'm not an animator you know I made one film in animation and I believed it that animation just I commit is not a genre it's just a media for Persepolis it was necessary to make it in animation you know if I put it to a type of human being in you know a specific geography people they have a lots of problem identifying themselves with somebody who does that look like them exactly or in geography that they don't know but the abstraction of the drawing that makes that anybody can can relate to a drone people they can even relate to a mouse to Mickey Mouse so Donald oh that is no problem but if it's another human being that the skin is not the same color or the geography is not the same they don't relate so that's why I thought that it was important to make Persepolis in animation and when I did that I never thought okay now I'm the new Miyazaki of Europe and I have this perfect style now I'm going to make thirty five movies like Miyazaki who is great but this new film and believe me it was not easy because of course if you have made an animation in black and white at work then everybody gives you money to make another animation in black and white that we work so you know I it was you know and you know since I had all these awards and Oscar and you know nominee and all of that I said cool neither giving going to give me all the money easy nobody you know they were like why do you want to do that I was like well because I want to try something new and so so here you knew Zach you would when you you seem to say that like in part is because Persepolis was your story but here you were choosing the story of your uncle so it wasn't quite as much so why could you conceive of putting pudding of chicken with palms with actors when you couldn't see first because they children would plum you know it you know it is not a specific story you know on the period of time of one country that you for opening it you have to make it more abstract is a love story and a love story this love story could happen in Paris in Tehran in your anywhere in the world so and you know that is the story of this man you know so he you know that remember so you will see the films I'm not going to tell you all about it but so you know the fact of being in the room and remember you know you're we had to construct a whole word for him and that happens in the 50s and I'm such a big fan you know of all the Powell and Pressburger movie and you know Hitchcock and Douglas Sirk you know all this aesthetic of the studio and I really wanted to make a studio movie and so the you know and you know in Technicolor and beautiful and glamorous this is really something that I wanted to do because you know I thought it is okay now I made Persepolis I have said whatever I knew about Iran about what I experienced because more than that and not a political expert but it is also important to you know to say you know in in 1958 in Iran glamorous people they fall in love you know they even got sick of love and the pool I would not sell the end of the movie but so and and that was also you know this the you know and talk about the poetry and the beauty of of this culture and beauty of of the love itself and so and what what did you are learn from the making of the movie I mean what was so different from your expectation is there something that got to be better or worse than what you thought you would get really you know animation is a long thing so you know it take you now after you have three years you can change whatever you want etc etc so I think what I did making a movie it's for me I mean I think it's a like taking hard drugs you know like you take the drugs you get really high and you're really happy and then it's finished and you get down and you're like never ever I will do that again but then you forget you only remember the moment that you were hiking and then you start over this is how its first so that's why I will continue and you know what you will be doing that and yes now I'm preparing an exhibition of painting but yeah I have a yet another incarnation as a pain yes you know I mean you know think of hospice is that you know not 41 and probably you know I will have about 30 years you know to work really good you're not the iboga so instead of 40 but not 30 you know if I want to be pragmatic it's dirty and then yeah like each project takes about three years for me so three years in 30 years is 10% and ten times 10% and my life is done so you know I have 10 big project in front of me that I can do so I have to know exactly what I want to do and not to forget why I do that I do it because it's really fun to work if I consider it as a job then I have to quit with that so if I think that painting would give me something I will do it you know if I had a back-up plan of the career I was certainly not do that but life is too short I hope we remain friends and that we can meet again when you're 70 and your headhunting detective we're in a story I hope so too and I hope that you will enjoy the film and you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed doing it thank you very much you