Watch Sita Sings the Blues (yes, the whole movie!)
Way back in November, loyal Coilhaüsers, we reported on animator Nina Paley’s struggle to get Sita Sings the Blues, her brilliant, beautiful retelling of the Ramayana set to Annette Hanshaw’s immortal jazz standards, released.
Well, that struggle has been won and now, through the public television program Reel 13, you (or anyone in the world with an internet connection) can see the entire movie.
Sita is a full-length film, produced by a single artist working on a shoestring budget, on her home computer and backed almost entirely by the film’s enthusiastic audiences around the world. Paley and her allies have now overcome the considerable hurdles, including archaic copyright laws put in place to keep exactly this sort of truly independent, eclectic art from standing on its own two feet.
Get some popcorn. Click. Watch. Enjoy. This is a bold day: something big just changed.
P.S. – Also, for y’all television-watching Yankees out there, it will be broadcast in the NY area on Channel Thirteen/WNET at 10:45 pm on Saturday, March 7.
February 27th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Nina Paley’s blog states that higher resolution versions will soon be available to freely copy and share under a Creative Commons license.
February 27th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Well then, I know what I’m doing tomorrow night. David, thank you! Ben, that’s excellent news!
February 28th, 2009 at 2:16 am
it was so lovely :)
February 28th, 2009 at 2:58 am
Yes, do this! This movie is fantastic! Everyone should watch it!
February 28th, 2009 at 11:00 am
I just finished watching it. Truly amazing work and a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I will definitely be sharing this with many of my friends.
February 28th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Thank you David, and thank you Nina. To see something that beautiful and personal made by essentially one person is beyond inspiring.
Stunning. That is all I can say. Watch it now.
February 28th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Oh, man! I love this piece so much, and then was terribly embarrassed when I realized the jerk dude is an old friend of mine. Now I feel awkward.
March 1st, 2009 at 4:18 pm
So wonderful to finally see the full film, thanks for the heads up, David. Triple thanks to Nina Paley! Poor Sita… nice to see her get some props. I especially love the three shadow puppet narrators; what a refreshing, funny way to get all of that expository info across!
Thirteen dot org in general is such wonderful thing. (I’m writing a piece right now about the amazing Soul television series they were finally able to release after several decades of obscurity.) Yayz!
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:37 am
That was a genuine experience of pure, uncut awesome! Thanks David.
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
The film is now available for download from archive.org in a variety of resolutions.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Huzzah! Thank’s D! Extra thanks to Ben!