The Brief

An exhibition that takes visitors through the magical water worlds of the 2008 film Ponyo and the hand-drawn artistry of Studio Ghibli is now open at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

The films from the Japanese animation studio and director Hayao Miyazaki have captivated imaginations around the world for decades — this reporter with my four tattoos of favorite Studio Ghibli characters included.

This is now the second time the Miracle Mile museum has dedicated an exhibition to Miyazaki’s works, with the focus on Ponyo arriving more than four years after the retrospective of all his animated feature films.

“These drawings have never been shown outside of Japan,” Shraddha Aryal, the museum’s executive vice president of exhibitions, told LAist. “We have an amazing conservation team who actually cell by cell took care of these, conserved these and that was what led us to say let’s do another exhibition really highlighting their artwork.”

The exhibition includes more than 100 items from Studio Ghibli, including animation cells from Ponyo.

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The cult of Studio Ghibli

Since Studio Ghibli’s founding in 1985, the animation powerhouse has created more than 20 feature films, including My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service and most recently The Boy and the Heron, steadily gaining international acclaim.

Its Spirited Away is among the most celebrated animated movies of all time, becoming Japan’s highest-grossing film and holding that record for 19 years. It was also the first hand-drawn film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2003.

The studio and Miyazaki would achieve the same feat again two decades later with The Boy and the Heron in 2024.

Studio Ghibli’s films are often fantastical with a lens of childlike wonder, but they also touch on difficult topics like the horrors of war, fascism, greed and environmental destruction. Characters are complex, with women and girls regularly in strong roles, such as the spear-wielding San or the brave but stubborn Kiki.

For me, there’s something about the carefully crafted storylines and colorful style that still make me feel like I’m exploring the forest with Princess Mononoke or stuck in a secret world of sorcery with Spirited Away, even as an adult.

Miyazaki's magical world

Ponyo is one of Miyazaki’s most kid friendly films — with positive themes of courage and curiosity as the audience tags along with the adventures of the young main characters. Plus, there’s no unnerving scenes of parents being turned into pigs like in Spirited Away (if you know you know).

The 2008 film tells the story of its namesake, the magical goldfish-like creature, Ponyo, and her budding friendship with a 5-year-old human boy named Sōsuke. The film follows Ponyo’s desire to leave her underwater world and become a human to be with Sōsuke, disrupting the balance of nature and having to contend with challenges like a tsunami along the way.

The exhibit creates a 3D version of the filmic world where visitors can climb inside an interactive version of Sōsuke’s green bucket or walk on wave displays like Ponyo in the tsunami.

“Ponyo exhibition is all about this character’s perseverance, and the joyful nature and triumph through ups and downs, [being] willing to explore a new world,” Aryal said. “And it's such a beautiful love story about friendship.”

Reimagining Ponyo

The exhibition includes rare Studio Ghibli donations on display in North America for the first time ever, such as original Miyazaki drawings and Ponyo animation cells, according to the Academy Museum. Guests can explore more than 100 items hand-picked by the studio, including an original animation desk and a make-your-own stop-motion station.

The experience is designed for all ages, reporter superfans with several tattoos of Studio Ghibli characters included.

But Jessica Niebel, the museum’s senior exhibitions curator, told LAist she hopes the Ponyo exhibition helps children feel inspired by the "beautiful messages” of the movie, especially after last year’s L.A. fires and the COVID pandemic.

“Sometimes you live through times where you have a tsunami, where you lose your magic or your mojo, you know, you're not quite sure of your identity,” she said. “[Miyazaki] gives us hope and courage that we can be free and run on the waves like Ponyo.”

“And instead of seeing things as a threat, maybe we use them to carry us,” she continued.

Dipping into the 3-D world

The exhibition is split into four sections focused on different aspects of the film.

The first dives inside Ponyo’s magical underwater home, introducing some main characters with a scene played on a screen spanning nearly the entire room.

The Ponyo exhibition takes visitors inside the 2008 film's magical water worlds.

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The first section includes Ponyo's goddess mother.

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A portrait of Ponyo’s goddess mother, Granmamare, is set up behind a few bean bag chairs in the space, giving guests the sense she’s watching the sea creatures over your shoulder.

The second section centers on Ponyo leaving her home, following her curiosity to dry land where she meets Sōsuke.

The room intentionally reflects the green and blue tones of the film, with curved designs and an interactive bucket that mirrors Miyazaki’s spirit, according to Aryal.

The second section includes the original Japanese release posters from Studio Ghibli’s other famed films, including Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and The Wind Rises.

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The walls are lined with the original Japanese release posters from Studio Ghibli’s other famed films, including Howl’s Moving Castle, Porco Rosso and The Wind Rises.

The third section takes you inside “the animators’ imaginative world,” Niebel said. The centerpiece is an original animation desk donated by Studio Ghibli and surrounded by Miyazaki’s detailed drawings for Ponyo.

The exhibition includes rare materials, such as a Studio Ghibli animation desk with drawing supplies.

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Stations are set up where guests can make their own stop motion animation using sea creature cut-outs.

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Two stations are set-up on the side where guests can create their own stop motion animation scene using some of the sea creature cut-out materials sent by the studio, according to Arturo Arias, an Academy Museum educator and gallery attendant.

“It's really nice to have the sort of underwater theme happening and so people submerge — no pun intended — into it and just kind of play along,” Arias told LAist.

The final section focuses on the scene where Ponyo runs on waves instead of being swallowed by the water.

“That's a moment that's really close to my heart and I think it's sensational and only [something] Hayao Miyazaki could do,” Neibel said. “[Ponyo]'s just so joyful and so free.”

Painted waves cascade on the exhibition walls as a bright Ponyo pokes out, with behind-the-scenes clips showcased on the side.

The film follows Ponyo’s desire to leave her underwater world and become a human disrupting the balance of nature with a tsunami along the way.

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Behind the scenes clips from the making on Ponyo were showcased on the side in the last section of the exhibition.

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The movie may be nearly 20-years-old, but Aryal said the hopeful messages of Ponyo are still “really relevant” in the current world and political climate.

“It kind of becomes a refuge, if I may say that, this joyful refuge,” she said. “There is an option for you, even in this sort of disruptive climate that we're living in right now, that you can come and go through this joyful immersive experience.”

Details

The Academy Museum’s “Studio Ghibli’s PONYO” exhibition is open until Jan. 10, 2027. General admission to the museum is free for children and $25 for adults.

A former Southern Poverty Law Center official has been charged in the Department of Justice’s broader criminal case against the Alabama-based civil rights group, a frequent target of conservative critics who claim the nonprofit is politically biased.

Heidi Beirich, a political extremism expert who left the law center about six years ago, was named in an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Beirich, 59, of Palm Springs, is charged with wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. She was charged in the government’s existing case against the SPLC in Montgomery, Alabama.

In ankle cuffs and wearing a red T-shirt, Beirich made her initial court appearance for a bond hearing in Riverside on Wednesday afternoon. She did not enter a plea, and U.S. Magistrate Judge David T. Bristow ordered her to surrender her passport and appear in court in Alabama within two weeks.

The judge released Beirich on her own recognizance after prosecutors declined to file a request for detention. Her lawyer, Michael Proctor, said in court that Beirich is a “highly, highly responsible, pro-social and trustworthy” member of society with no criminal history.

Outside the courthouse, Proctor said his client is innocent of the charges and described the case as politically motivated.

“She has dedicated her life to fighting the KKK, neo-Nazi groups, extremists. And for all of that life’s work, we’re all safer. We’re all better as a community,” he told The Associated Press. “It is not just ironic, but terrible, that for this work she’s been indicted by the current Department of Justice.”

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the new charges at a news briefing in Washington but did not name Beirich. CNN was first to report on the charges against Beirich.

“This is exactly what we said would happen in a case like this,” Blanche said. “Our investigators and the U.S. attorneys and the agents working the case will keep on working it even after the initial indictment.”

An SPLC spokesperson said the case against it and Beirich “will not shake our resolve.”

“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We are confident in our position and look forward to presenting the evidence and making our case in court.”

Beirich led the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, which incurred the anger of conservatives with its annual report on organizations that it classified as hate groups. Critics accused the law center of unfairly tarnishing right-wing groups with the same label that it applied to white supremacists.

Beirich co-founded the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism in 2020 after leaving the SPLC. She has testified before Congress about far-right extremism and is frequently interviewed about the subject by news outlets. Her current organization did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday.

A superseding indictment filed in June appears to refer to Beirich as “Employee-2” and by her former title as director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project.

The indictment alleges that between 2007 and 2023, more than $4 million in donated funds were secretly funneled to people who infiltrated or were associated with violent extremist groups. Prosecutors said some of the money was used for recruiting new members and purchasing Ku Klux Klan robes and materials for cross-burning ceremonies.

The indictment says “Employee-2” oversaw the payment of donor money to SPLC informants or “field sources,” including KKK members and white nationalists who initially approached the SPLC for help leaving the extremist organizations. The SPLC employee was in a romantic relationship with a source who infiltrated a neo-Nazi group at the direction of the law center, the indictment alleges.

Proctor said Beirich “won’t be silenced or intimidated by the government’s false and politicized allegations.”

Kunzelman reported from Washington and Chandler from Montgomery, Alabama. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer and Collin Binkley in Washington and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

A U.S. District judge will soon decide who controls hundreds of millions in federal funding meant to address L.A.’s homelessness crisis, as the Trump administration looks to sideline the region’s embattled lead homelessness agency.

The court will determine whether the L.A. Homeless Services Authority can submit an application for $240 million in federal funding this year and, if not, who can step up to apply for the homelessness money instead.

Homeless services providers across L.A. County rely on the annual funding to pay for shelter beds, housing and services for 11,000 people, according to local homelessness officials.

This year, the crucial federal funds are in limbo after the federal housing department suspended the agency, known as LAHSA, from grant activity in June, citing mismanagement. LAHSA responded by suing the Trump administration and asking the court to block the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s suspension while the broader legal fight plays out.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter is expected to decide soon whether to temporarily block the suspension and allow LAHSA to continue to receive federal funding and perform other responsibilities while the case proceeds to a trial next year.

In a crowded hearing in Los Angeles Aug. 6, Carter appeared to be searching for a middle path that would acknowledge legitimate concerns about LAHSA’s history of dysfunction but avoid what he described as “the stark, god-awful situation of 11,000 people hitting the streets” if none of L.A.’s federal homelessness grants came through this year.

“If that occurred … I’d want to know what’s happening on the national level with HUD,” Carter continued. “And I want to know if Los Angeles was being punished.”

A woman pushes her belongings past a row of tents on the streets of Los Angeles on Feb. 1, 2021.

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What’s the backstory? 

LAHSA applies for and distributes federal funding for the entire regional homeless response system, including various other local government agencies and hundreds of nonprofit service providers across 85 cities within L.A. County.

The federal government argues LAHSA should not get to play that role anymore because it failed to meet federal oversight requirements, pointing to longstanding concerns about the agency's financial management and accountability.

“We simply cannot continue to fund failure,” said Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. Attorney, in court last week. “We are the federal government, and it is our money.”

LAHSA’s attorneys and local officials dispute the characterization the agency had violated any federal grant requirements. They said the suspension was abrupt and politically motivated.

“The actions will hurt the unhoused in Los Angeles and all of the stakeholders that service them — and that is the whole point,” Keri Curtis Axel, an attorney representing LAHSA, argued during the hearing last week.

Scott Turner, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, speaking at the Dream Center in Los Angeles in August 2026.

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How does L.A. receive federal homeless dollars?

LAHSA is a joint powers authority established by the city and county of L.A. to coordinate and manage public homelessness funds. One of LAHSA’s many responsibilities is serving as the region’s designated applicant for federal homeless assistance grants.

That responsibility was delegated to LAHSA by a separate federally mandated regional body called the L.A. Continuum of Care.

Run by a 21-member board, the L.A. Continuum of Care is responsible for setting regional funding priorities and designating the local entity that applies for federal homelessness grants. Continuums of Care are required across the country to apply for and receive federal money.

The under-the-radar coalition is the one forum where various government agencies and nonprofits are forced to sit down at the same table and collectively set priorities for how to spend homelessness funding.

“HUD chose instead to drop a bomb into the region and disrupt the most stable part of the homeless services response system,” said Shayla Myers, an attorney representing the L.A. Continuum of Care, who intervened in the lawsuit.

After it suspended LAHSA, the region’s chosen applicant, HUD said the local Continuum of Care no longer met federal requirements, and “remedial action” was necessary.

HUD proposed opening the application process up to allow homeless services providers to ask the federal government for money directly, bypassing LAHSA entirely.

The federal housing department has said it would delay starting that direct application process until after an order from the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Myers called the suspension of LAHSA an “end-run around the congressional mandates” that require the decisions be made locally.

“This is just HUD’s latest attempt to take community control away and insert its own priorities into that funding stream,” she said.

LAHSA Commissioner Stephanie Graves and Gita O'Neill, LAHSA's interim CEO, at the press briefing for the 2026 homeless count at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Commission Room in Los Angeles, on July 24, 2026.

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If not LAHSA, then who?

LAHSA’s attorneys argue it’s the only agency equipped for the task, and point out that HUD has consistently awarded it grants for decades.

City and county officials have offered to potentially step up and submit the application in LAHSA’s place, but last week Carter, the federal judge, questioned their ability to do so, especially on such short notice.

Until last week, the deadline to submit the application for federal funding was Aug. 26, a factor pressuring Carter to act quickly.

That changed a day after the L.A. hearing, when a federal judge in Rhode Island struck down HUD’s grant regulations for this year's federal funding competition.

With that ruling, the application deadline no longer exists.

This year’s grant application process will start over after the federal government publishes new regulations later this year.

In the short-term, LAHSA is asking for temporary relief on the suspension from federal grant activity while awaiting trial.

Ultimately, the homelessness authority is hoping for a permanent injunction throwing out its suspension by HUD as illegal.

Carter said he was interested in setting a trial date as early as February 2027.

Many immigrants come to Southern California to start businesses. But with federal raids targeting them and the cost of starting an enterprise rising due to inflation, learning how to become an entrepreneur has become increasingly challenging.

Some small business owners are getting help navigating this tough economy from the government of the country where they were born. Mexico’s consulate in Los Angeles held a graduation ceremony on Tuesday for its yearly Consular Entrepreneurship Program for Mexican Women Abroad.

It took place in a lecture hall at the consulate’s MacArthur Park offices without the musical fanfare of academic ceremonies but very much with the same feeling that the graduates accepting their certificates of accomplishment marked a learning milestone that will open better economic opportunities for this target demographic.

Consul General Carlos González Gutiérrez said the program’s goal is to help “the mothers, the women who are at the center of our community and who want to develop their own businesses … in order to raise a family.”

Consul General of Mexico Carlos González Gutiérrez, left, talks about organic soaps with a small business owner who graduated from the consulate's business training program.

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This is the program’s seventh year. A total of 112 women have now participated in the program. Organizers and graduates told LAist that this year’s training felt more significant due to the tension in Latino immigrant communities in the wake of federal raids that ramped up last year, along with sharp cost-of-living increases.

Help with business plans, finances and permits

The program enlists professionals working in credit unions, small business development groups and businesses large and small to train budding entrepreneurs.

Maricela Martinez is the director of Mariachi Lindas Mexicanas.

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“It is important for me to learn about taxes, how to register the brand, how to promote and do branding,” said Maricela Martinez, who signed up for help with her musical group, Mariachi Lindas Mexicanas.

She’s run the band for 20 years, but nearly stopped after the pandemic and federal immigration enforcement led many Latinos, she said, to forgo mariachi entertainment.

Martinez was one of about nine graduates who showed off their businesses in a post-graduation reception. The tables were filled with products ranging from rosemary-infused essential oils and organic soaps to desserts and notary services.

“I signed up for this program because I had the dream of having my own business,” said Saray Pallares, who stood behind marketing material she created for her budding notary business. “I am a single mother of four.”

Saray Pallares signed up for a business training program offered at the Mexican consulate in L.A. to start her notary business, La Firma Latina.

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The items on Pallares’ table included a black polo shirt embroidered with her business’s branding. Her company’s name, La Firma Latina, can be translated as The Latina Firm, or The Latina Signature.

Pallares said she learned the most from training given by a marketing professional with a Guadalajara-based restaurant chain that has opened in Montebello. Sharing a culture and language with the trainer and the other budding entrepreneurs gave her the kind of support she felt was missing from business classes she took at community college, Pallares said.

Help mustering up courage as a woman and an immigrant

Extensive arrests of immigrants in Southern California by federal agents last year sowed fear in immigrant communities. But some of the participants in this program said that’s not holding them back.

“That's more of a motivation to keep going, to keep fighting, to keep pushing back,” Pallares said. “I was thinking of having my business name in English, and I said, ‘No, I want to help my community. I want them to be able to say I trust her because she speaks Spanish.’”

That environment has been another roadblock for these participants, who also need to balance their work at home with their entrepreneurial dreams.

Claudia Shah, a consultant at the L.A. County-based Small Business Development Center and a program trainer, said that this program has its own challenges. Twenty-nine women started the course, but only 15 reached graduation, she said, because of family and work responsibilities as well as the fears women have that keep them from finishing the course.

“[For] some of them, it’s the language. Some of them, it’s technology,” Shah said. “Fear is always there, not knowing what to expect.”

Wendy Alvarez, right, describes her graphic design business at the offices of the Mexican consulate in L.A.

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Shah said some even asked whether registering their businesses could lead to negative consequences for their immigration status.

But for those who completed the course, she said, the positive economic ripple effects will be felt in their households, their neighborhoods and the region.

The city of Irvine is one step closer to adopting an ordinance to protect grocery workers from being laid off during a store ownership change.

The City Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday night (Aug. 11) to direct city staff to draft the ordinance. Councilmembers James Mai and Mike Carroll opposed the move.

The law would apply to grocery stores that are less than 15,000 square feet and employ more than 300 employees nationwide, according to memo from the council to the city manager. If a store is sold, new management would be required to keep employees for at least 90 days. Businesses that don’t follow the law could face fines.

Irvine’s proposal extends protections in place in California since 2024 for grocery store employees who work at markets larger than 15,000 square feet. For example, under Irvine's proposal workers at stores with smaller footprints like Trader Joe’s would qualify for these protections.

What officials had to say

Councilmember Melinda Liu said the city has a responsibility to protect residents.

“This is a protection of local workers and not an anti-business proposal,” Liu added. “This is not something that is going to turn any business away from the city of Irvine.”

Carroll, one of the two council members opposing the ordinance, said it seemed like local overreach.

“The way I look at it, my job is to focus on parks, police, public works, and property land use,” Carroll said. “This feels like something that needs to be taken up by the state.”

What’s next? 

City staff will draft an official ordinance for a first reading at the next Irvine City Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 22.

Where: City Council Chamber, Irvine City Hall
Address: 1 Civic Center Plaza, Irvine
When: 4 p.m.
How to participate: Visit the ICTV page for information on remote viewing and how to submit public comment