SitaSingsTheBlues Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Get Creative with 'Sita' Source Files
Filed under: Fandom », Tech Stuff », DIY/Filmmaking »
When faced with copyright lemons, Sita Sings the Blues creator Nina Paley made some delicious lemonade. Since Sita uses songs in the film by Annette Hanshaw that are copyrighted, and as an indie filmmaker she can't afford to purchase the rights to them, her hands were tied when it came to distribution. So she came up with a plan that worked with (and around) the copyright issues so the movie's admirers could see the lovely film for themselves. Read a more detailed explanation of the issue here at Question Copyright. [Edited to add: Nina explains on her blog and in the comment section below: "Sita Sings the Blues is 100% legal. I am free to release it commercially, which is why the film is gaining a number of commercial distributors in addition to its free sharing/audience distribution, which is also legal, and wonderful." Read the full explanation here.]Not only is her beautiful film available to watch online for free, it was also briefly available on PBS last March in for lucky viewers in NYC.
But now Paley has gone a step further with it comes to using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license that is really cool for creative types -- you can download her source files for free to make your own mashups, add Sita-tweaks to your own creative ventures, and do whatever else online arty folks do with Flash files.
Discuss: Are We in a Golden Age of Animation?
Filed under: Animation », Fandom »
Are we in a golden age of animation? To start, Pixar just keeps getting better and better; critics almost unanimously voted WALL-E the best picture of 2008 -- not just the best animated film, but the best film. And their new Up has racked up nearly equal praise. So far two of the best films I've seen in 2009 are animated features, Henry Selick's Coraline and Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues. Coraline was filmed in stop-motion 3D, and Sita was mostly hand-drawn with some computer assist. Filmmakers seem to have perfected 3D this year, not only in live-action features, but in animated features like Coraline, Monsters vs. Aliens, Battle for Terra and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
Computer animation, which recently looked like it was going to take over for good, has now simply become one of the many tools an animator can use: Disney has gone back to hand-drawn this year with the upcoming The Princess and the Frog, and Hayao Miyazaki's hand-drawn Ponyo is also opening Stateside soon. And best of all, some animated features are being aimed at grown-ups, such as Sita Sings the Blues and Tatia Rosenthal's terrific $9.99. In recent years, even the Oscar-nominated short films have been released to theaters as a collection. And there are still at least half-a-dozen more big films coming out by the end of the year (including 9, Astro Boy, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, etc.)
400 Screens, 400 Blows - See 'Sita Sings the Blues'
Filed under: Animation », Columns », 400 Screens, 400 Blows »
400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.
Of the 100 or so new movies I've seen so far in 2009, only two of them have been great, and both of those have been animated. The first was Henry Selick's Coraline (111 screens), about which you've no doubt heard. The second one has been quietly playing on a few screens around the country and it opens this week at the Red Vic Movie House in San Francisco. Oddly, if you go to the film's official website, you'll find that it's also available for free streaming or download, and you can request that your local PBS station broadcast it. You can also order DVDs -- when they're finished. The film is not in 3D, it's not CGI-animated, and it has no fart jokes. It's Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues.
Billed as "the Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told," Sita Sings the Blues is based on the epic Ramayana. It tells the tale of Sita, who falls in love with the king's son Rama. Rama is banished from his kingdom for 14 years, and Sita accompanies him; they make the best of their life in exile. Unfortunately, an evil multi-headed king kidnaps Sita. Rama eventually rescues her with the help of a monkey-man called Hanuman, but he can no longer trust her "purity." Paley does not adapt this story literally. Rather, she takes several, simultaneous approaches, with several different artistic styles. In one version, Sita lip-syncs to old records by jazz singer Annette Hanshaw and magically, the songs ("Lover Come Back to Me," etc.) fit exactly.
Asian Cinema Scene: 'Ip Man' Awarded, Indian Fest Opens in LA
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Documentary », Foreign Language », Independent », Awards », Cinematical Indie »
This week's Asian Cinema Scene travels to Hong Kong and Los Angeles, showcasing recent and upcoming films.
Hong Kong Film Awards. Wilson Yip's galvanizing martial arts biopic Ip Man won the Best Film award at the annual ceremony held on Sunday, according to China Daily. Donnie Yen stars as a respected Wing Chun master who ultimately is forced to use his martial arts skills to defend his country's honor against the invading Japanese in the late 1930s. Sammo Hung and Tony Leung Siu-Hung deservedly won the Best Action Design award for their work on the film. (My capsule review and the trailer.)
The other big winner doesn't feature any martial arts or big battle scenes. Low-budget drama The Way We Are won for Best Director (Ann Hui), Best Actress (Bau Hei-Jing), Supporting Actress (Chan Lai-Wun), and Best Screenplay (Lui Yau-Wah). Edmund Lee in Time Out Hong Kong sniffed that it's a "crowd-pleasing film that, lamentably, is a contrived attempt at social commentary," while Lunapark6 was more impressed: "Ann Hui ... creates a quietly moving arthouse film ... to show life as it is for at least some of the Hong Kong regular folks." The trailer is embedded below.
Nick Cheung was honored as Best Actor for his haunting portrayal of a murderous child stealer with his own emotionally-wrenching back story in Dante Lam's Beast Stalker. Liu Kai-Chi took Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the same film. (My capsule review.) John Woo's big budget Red Cliff received five awards in the technical categories. The complete list of winners and nominees can be found at LoveHKFilm.com.
After the jump: Highlights of the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, which starts tomorrow.
'Sita Sings the Blues' Online for Free
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Independent », Romance », Distribution », Exhibition »
Here's a link that may have made some of the rounds yesterday, and I apologize for the delay, but I honestly wanted to watch it for myself before vouching for it. Sure enough, the award-winning distributor-less Sita Sings the Blues is as much the uniquely charming semi-autobiographical animated break-up story that I had heard it was, and due to some copyright issues, it has been wholly thrust by creator Nina Paley upon the Internet and our good fortunes, in its entirety and very much for free.
It's not often that Roger Ebert, Neil Gaiman and I agree on something, but if those ringing endorsements plus a price tage of $0.00 (plus $0.00 shipping and handling) isn't enough to sell you on this fine film, perhaps you don't deserve it. For those more patient readers in the NYC area, PBS is scheduled to show the film this Saturday night, March 7th. As for everyone else, getting your own local affiliate on the horn might see similar rewards. And for all who are willing to contribute donations to get this film a proper release, here would be the place to do just that.
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