"THU Storytelling 2025" by George Miller: Humans are hardwired to crave stories [CINEMORE ACADEMY Vol. 41]

The retreat event "THU Storytelling" was held in Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture in September 2025. The second interview with creators from around the world was with none other than the master director George Miller! We spoke directly with George Miller, who had just finished a heated talk session with Hideo Kojima titled "Why We Tell A Story."

What is THU Storytelling?

"THU Storytelling 2025" Interview Part 1: Hideo Kojima's Concerns About the Disappearance of "Storytellers" - Click here

THU Storytelling 2025 | Kaga City, Japan

Index

• We are all storytellers
• Built-in "hardware" for stories

We are all storytellers

Q: What are your thoughts on the theme of "storytelling"?

Miller: I love that this event focuses on storytelling. Storytelling is universal across all cultures, all time periods, and all stages of life, starting from early childhood. It's how we engage with life. And it's so important that this program takes a broad view of storytelling, because storytelling is at the heart of almost everything we do. We are all storytellers.

Q: As a film director, how do you each approach the role of creating a "story" in "storytelling" and "telling" it?

Miller: I write the script for almost every film I've directed. It starts with putting an idea into words, and then I move on to preparing to shoot. These are driven by two factors: a gut reaction that brings about an idea, and an intellectual reaction to the material from which the story is crafted. This interplay between intuition and intellect continues into the actual filmmaking, which involves many skills and technologies, but at every stage there is an interplay between the gut reaction and the intellectual foundational work.

Q: When it comes to storytelling, how do you balance the subjectivity that immerses the audience and the objectivity that allows them to grasp the whole story?

Miller: This balance is something that needs to be cultivated. Some people have the ability to see things in terms of the big picture, while others look at the finest details, the tiniest particles. But the most important skill is seeing those details in the context of the whole. Ultimately, you should always keep in mind that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Built-in "hardware" for stories