Thursday, 5 March 2009

'Sita Sings the Blues' now online

http://media.tribecafilm.com/images/318*182/sita.jpg

Joy! Sita Sings the Blues is streaming, free, online!

The indie animated sensation blends '20s jazz music from Annette Hanshaw, the writer/director/animator Nina Paley's autobiographical story of divorce, and the complicated saga of Sita and Rama from the Ramayana. It's a brisk 82 minutes, covering everything from a monkeyman army to getting dumped by e-mail, and the inventively stylish animation manages to be both evocative and lovely.

Sita Sings the Blues has been a festival darling, but the licensing fees for Hanshaw's music have been prohibitively expensive, essentially ruining the film's chance of distribution. But copyright law is a many-headed beast, so public television stations can air the film without violating it -- which is how Sita is going to find its widest audience, starting with New York–area airings next month.

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