Interview with Helen Hilario, Director of the animation short, “Umbrella

On What She Could Tell us of the True Story of Umbrella

Maryam (M): I’m so curious to ask you about the true story behind Umbrella. Is it your family’s story?

Helena (H): Everyone asks me. After people watch the film and see that it’s inspired by a true story they feel like, “Oh my God, what happened?! They all want to know what the true story was. 

 It’s hard to talk about the story without giving away any spoilers. So basically in 2011, I had just moved to LA from New York. My whole family lives in Brazil and my sister, who lives in my hometown, Palmas, she does volunteer work at this orphanage. In December 2011, she went close to Christmas time to give toys to the kids. And like in the film, she brought a big box full of toy. The kids were super excited and happy because it was close to Christmas. And then one little boy, he was about 5 at the time, he saw the box and he went there and searched for toys. And then he was so sad, he didn’t pick any of the toys, and he went close to the window and kept staring outside. And my sister saw that something was wrong with him, so she goes up to him with some other toys and asks him, ‘what would you like, we have so many toys here?’ And then he said that he wanted an umbrella. And she was like, ‘what do you want an umbrella for, it’s such a beautiful day outside? It’s sunny, it’s not raining, why do you want an umbrella?’ […] And that’s when he told her why. It’s the essence of what was shown in the film, but we don’t want to give it away here. 

And then my sister called me when she left and we both cried over the phone. For us it touches so deep because you know, we always judge people, we judge by the actions or by the way that they look. The way that we wrote the story was about empathy. Because in the film, the little girl, she’s in that place that she doesn’t want to be there. And for him, the umbrella represents a special memory. So, the message that we wanted to put out there is about empathy, it’s about kindness, that you cannot judge people, you never know what the other is going through, we don’t know what it takes. I feel that we just expose only the good side, especially with social media: our own life is not like a perfect story. You have no idea what’s going on in other people’s lives.

On the Production Process and Her First Foray into Animation

“Umbrella” was a long-time dream. It was 8 years, not in the making but in wanting to bring this project to life.

I wrote my script for over a month over the holidays in 2011-2012. I really saw this as an animation. But back then, I didn’t work with animation, I didn’t even know what it would take to film an animation. I was so naïve.

And then in 2014 I went to Brazil and I opened my company there with my husband Mario, who directed Umbrella with me, and we decided we wanted to get better in animation and this was one thing that we needed in order to make this film and tell this story. I planned it over the years financially, so I’d be able to produce it.

As for the design of the characters, I wanted to work with Victor Hugo: he’s an amazing 3D artist, and worked on many great projects at Disney, Marvel, etc. When I met him and told the story of Umbrella, he was he said, ‘I love this project, I really want to help’. It was so interesting that along the way, the people that came on board were touched on a personal level and it was so amazing to see how everyone graced the project. 

We had a very small team, we repeat a lot of the credits, but in fact we had like five 3D artists lead by Alan Prado, our 3D supervisor and 5 animators led by Hannry Pschera, our animation supervisor.  

We got an amazing composer involved as well, Gabriel Dib, he’s Brazilian but he lives in LA. He put all his heart and soul in the original music, it’s such an important piece. We had a five hour recording session with an orchestra of 30 musicians as well and I cried from the beginning to the end, because I was feeling like here was my baby, being played out with violins; it was such an emotional ride. 

On the Animation Design Inspired by Her Family

Most of the characters in the film are inspired by someone from my family. The mom, she looks like my sister; the little boy Joseph, he looks like my nephew; and the old lady from the orphanage, she looks like my Mom. And one of the kids- the little boy who grabs the rocket- he looks like my father: his skin is a little dark and his hair has this particular cut. There’s my two aunts, one with short hair and another with long hair; my grandmother, and my grandfather who passed away many years ago. So we tried to have a little thing of each of our family members; it’s a very personal film.

 Since the beginning we chose to tell the story without dialogue because we felt it could be more universal, that people could understand it anywhere the film goes. Especially with it being a Brazilian production, then we wouldn’t have to subtitle it everywhere that we go. And the music has a very important role because it helps to tell the story. 

We are developing other projects right now, 2D and 3D animations and features. I feel that it’s good to give a voice to women in animation, to show that we are able to tell stories. It’s such a boy’s club, right? It is mostly men. It’s good timing also to show that as a small studio, with Brazilian talent as well, that we’re able to produce animation, not only big, mainstream animation studios. 

It was a truly beautiful process, for real. I’m not just saying it now that the film is completed. I never thought I would direct something in my whole career, it was not something that I aimed for or dreamed of doing. The whole work that I do is production and business development of the company, but for Umbrella I couldn’t see anyone else doing this beside me, because it’s such a personal story. 

The most rewarding thing is when people come to talk to us after the film. It’s amazing the response that we’re having: so many people cry when they’re watching it. 

My nephew, he’s 11 now, what’s interesting is, I was in my hometown a few months ago and I screened it at home to him and to his friends, and then some of his friends were emotional. I thought they wouldn’t care about it, but they were crying, and they were saying ‘oh, remember the classmate that we had at school that did this, we shouldn’t judge, we don’t know what they’re going through.’ It was so nice to see that they understood the message. I feel that this is the most powerful thing, to put the message of kindness and empathy out there. 

More on the Film’s Inspiration

M: I’m guessing the kid who inspired this story, you haven’t had a chance to meet him again, he hasn’t seen the movie?

H: No, we haven’t met him since. A particular situation inspired the story but we changed quite a bit to turn it into a screenplay. I was talking to my sister the other day and we really, really hope that this umbrella thing for him was like kid’s thoughts, that it did not affect his life the way it affected ours, that it was not something that he carried for his whole life. 

M: How did you come up with the idea for the umbrella store?

Two years ago, I was in London and I was walking on the street with Mario my husband and his family, and when I looked on the side, they had this huge store, James Smith and Sons. It’s in the middle of a very modern area of London, and they have this umbrella store that is from the 1800s. I’d never seen an umbrella store. I never saw that in Brazil. I spent over an hour in there taking photos of everything and looking at the umbrellas, and I was like, ‘Mario, we need an umbrella store for “Umbrella.” Like imagine if Joseph, with his fascination for umbrellas, spent his life having umbrellas and sharing this with other people. And funny, after that, I went to Japan and other places and I always see umbrella stores now. I see umbrellas everywhere.

And then recently I went to London before going to a film festival and 2 years later I came back to the umbrella store and I bought a beautiful yellow umbrella. I didn’t cry this time because the first time that I was there I looked like a crazy person, crying in the middle of the store, like people must have thought ‘what’s wrong with this girl?’ And now in my living room I have a beautiful, handmade yellow umbrella.