Sita Sings the Blues
Jan. 9th, 2010 10:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroseroseA while back, I read a blog post by Roger Ebert on a film called Sita Sings the Blues, which he enthusiastically recommended whilst bemoaning the fact that most of his readers would be unlikely to see it due to distribution problems. I was intrigued by the description - in no small part because after reading it I still had no idea what to expect - but filed it away under "see if it's available through Netflix later" in my head, and forgot about it.
About a week ago, I came across a YouTube link to the movie. Failing to get studio support, the author had released it for free via the Internet. I asked Brian if he wanted to watch it, and got an ambivalent response - expecting something well-done but depressing, along the lines of Persepolis, he offered to keep me company with his laptop and listen to it a bit. I acquiesced, and started the movie.
A minute or so in, during the remarkably eye-catching opening sequence, he lowered the lid of his computer halfway, watching with interest. Less than ten minutes along, he closed the computer completely and set it aside, and we both sat back, entranced with the story that managed to be sweet and fun and heartbreaking all at once.
It's been two days since then, and I'm still honestly not sure how to describe it. The single-sentence summary floating around on the Internet - An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw - is technically accurate but completely fails to capture the sense of whimsical joy that pervades the whole work. So let me see if I can describe it a bit, and therefore explain why you need to see it.
The story, as befits a retelling of an ancient text, is multilayered. One plotline, done in simple hand-drawn animation, tells the author's own story in broad strokes - living happily with her husband in San Francisco, until her husband gets a "temporary" job in India that magically extends its duration. Joining her husband there and getting the cold shoulder from him. Leaving for a conference in New York, only to be dumped - via email, no less! - and the depression that followed. Reading a copy of The Ramayana, seeing parallels in Sita's story, and thus beginning work on "The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told".
Of course, there's also the story of Rama and Sita themselves, done in simple vector graphics and told through a series of musical interludes set to Annette Hanshaw's sultry jazz vocals. But overlaid on that tale are the hysterical Shadow Puppets - a group of three Indians who, using collages of traditional Hindu artwork, narrate the story (or try to). A sort of post-modern Greek chorus, they frequently they get bogged down in conflicting details, compare the differences in the story as they learned it, and analyze it through a more recent perspective. ("What a challenge, these stories.")
Another story, though not a part of the film's plot, is related and equally fascinating. Nina Paley, the film's author, spent months trying to negotiate with the corporation that holds the copyright to Hanshaw's (eighty-year-old!) vocals. Initially, they demanded $220,000, far more than a single author with no studio support could afford. Eventually, they negotiated a fee of $50,000 for a single DVD pressing of 4,999 copies; Paley took out a loan to pay the fee. Because the music still isn't licensed for general distribution, finding a studio willing to show it in theaters was problematic as they would need to initially shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for the rights. Instead, Paley released the film on YouTube (downloaded copies are considered "promotional" and therefore not subject to copyright fees), and depended on merchandise sales and donations to pay back the loan.
The upside is that the movie is available, for free, to anyone with an Internet connection. (Links to additional versions, including high-definition downloads and subtitled versions, available here.) I highly recommend it to just about everyone - it's a delightful story, equal parts whimsical and tragic, clever and genuine. And it's free! Hard to beat that.
In case you need more convincing, here's a sample of the Shadow Puppet narration, along with a trailer for the rest of the film:
About a week ago, I came across a YouTube link to the movie. Failing to get studio support, the author had released it for free via the Internet. I asked Brian if he wanted to watch it, and got an ambivalent response - expecting something well-done but depressing, along the lines of Persepolis, he offered to keep me company with his laptop and listen to it a bit. I acquiesced, and started the movie.
A minute or so in, during the remarkably eye-catching opening sequence, he lowered the lid of his computer halfway, watching with interest. Less than ten minutes along, he closed the computer completely and set it aside, and we both sat back, entranced with the story that managed to be sweet and fun and heartbreaking all at once.
It's been two days since then, and I'm still honestly not sure how to describe it. The single-sentence summary floating around on the Internet - An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw - is technically accurate but completely fails to capture the sense of whimsical joy that pervades the whole work. So let me see if I can describe it a bit, and therefore explain why you need to see it.
The story, as befits a retelling of an ancient text, is multilayered. One plotline, done in simple hand-drawn animation, tells the author's own story in broad strokes - living happily with her husband in San Francisco, until her husband gets a "temporary" job in India that magically extends its duration. Joining her husband there and getting the cold shoulder from him. Leaving for a conference in New York, only to be dumped - via email, no less! - and the depression that followed. Reading a copy of The Ramayana, seeing parallels in Sita's story, and thus beginning work on "The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told".
Of course, there's also the story of Rama and Sita themselves, done in simple vector graphics and told through a series of musical interludes set to Annette Hanshaw's sultry jazz vocals. But overlaid on that tale are the hysterical Shadow Puppets - a group of three Indians who, using collages of traditional Hindu artwork, narrate the story (or try to). A sort of post-modern Greek chorus, they frequently they get bogged down in conflicting details, compare the differences in the story as they learned it, and analyze it through a more recent perspective. ("What a challenge, these stories.")
Another story, though not a part of the film's plot, is related and equally fascinating. Nina Paley, the film's author, spent months trying to negotiate with the corporation that holds the copyright to Hanshaw's (eighty-year-old!) vocals. Initially, they demanded $220,000, far more than a single author with no studio support could afford. Eventually, they negotiated a fee of $50,000 for a single DVD pressing of 4,999 copies; Paley took out a loan to pay the fee. Because the music still isn't licensed for general distribution, finding a studio willing to show it in theaters was problematic as they would need to initially shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for the rights. Instead, Paley released the film on YouTube (downloaded copies are considered "promotional" and therefore not subject to copyright fees), and depended on merchandise sales and donations to pay back the loan.
The upside is that the movie is available, for free, to anyone with an Internet connection. (Links to additional versions, including high-definition downloads and subtitled versions, available here.) I highly recommend it to just about everyone - it's a delightful story, equal parts whimsical and tragic, clever and genuine. And it's free! Hard to beat that.
In case you need more convincing, here's a sample of the Shadow Puppet narration, along with a trailer for the rest of the film:
