http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/movies/15roch.html?_r=4&scp=2&sq=Sita%20Sings%20the%20Blues&st=cse February 15, 2009 Film Hindu Goddess as Betty Boop? It’s Personal By MARGY ROCHLIN OAKLAND, Calif. WHAT do a 3,000-year-old Sanskrit epic, a ’20s-era jazz singer and Indonesian shadow puppets have in common? They’re all part of the eclectic cultural tapestry that is “Sita Sings the Blues,” an 82-minute animated feature that combines autobiography with a retelling of the classic Indian myth the Ramayana, and that required its creator, the syndicated comic-strip artist Nina Paley, to spend three years transforming herself into a one-woman moving-picture studio. “At some point everything went through my computer,” said Ms. Paley, who is self-taught and whose longest animated film before this — of a dog chasing a ball — clocked in at just over four minutes. Her decision to do it herself may have satisfied her creative urges, but it also put her more than $20,000 in debt. “That’s why not everyone does it,” she said. It’s hard to imagine how Ms. Paley, 40, could have farmed out the writing, directing, editing, producing and animating of “Sita Sings the Blues.” As engaging as the film is, explaining it is tricky: along with traditional 2-D animation there are cutouts, collages, photographs and scenes with hand-painted watercolors as the backdrop. At certain points Ms. Paley mixes laughs with exposition by having three flat silhouette characters dispute the details of the Ramayana’s tragic saga of the Hindu goddess Sita, who is exiled by her husband, Rama, who fears she has been unfaithful after she is abducted by a demon king. At other points Ms. Paley weaves in the story of her own collapsing marriage, and the time switches from ancient India to present-day San Francisco and Manhattan, the images hand-drawn and jittery. In between everything else are flash-animation musical numbers featuring Sita in voluptuous Betty Boop-like form — almond-shaped head, saucer eyes and swaying hips — accompanied by the warbling voice of a real-life flapper-era singer named Annette Hanshaw. For fans of “Sita Sings the Blues” Ms. Paley’s imaginative leaps and blend of styles are part and parcel of the film’s visual and aural originality. “You can actually feel how much time went into it,” said Alison Dickey, a film producer and one of the jurors who nominated Ms. Paley for Film Independent’s Someone to Watch honor, to be announced at the Spirit Awards next Saturday. “We see so many films, and when you come across one like this, you just feel like you’ve stumbled upon a gem.” In 2002 Ms. Paley followed her husband, an animator, from their home in San Francisco to a town in western India. It was there that she first learned of the tale of the Ramayana. When she reached the part when Sita kills herself to prove her fidelity, she said, she thought, “That’s just messed up and wrong.” An idea for a postfeminist comic strip began brewing. In it her new ending would still have Rama rejecting Sita, but instead of committing suicide she would become empowered. “She says, ‘To hell with you. I’m going to go join a farming collective.’ ” Before Ms. Paley could commit her I-will-survive strip to paper, though, life intervened. While she was on a business trip to New York, her husband sent her an e-mail message telling her not to return. In a state of “grief, agony and shock,” she remained in Manhattan, camping out on friends’ sofas. One of her hosts, a collector of vintage records, played Annette Hanshaw’s shiny rendition of Fred E. Ahlert and Roy Turk’s bluesy lament “Mean to Me.” “A friend of mine joked, ‘That’s your theme song,’ ” Ms. Paley said. And while “Mean to Me” and Rama’s rejection of Sita made sense together, she didn’t have the money or the emotional energy to envision more than a short film. That film, “Trial by Fire,” was so successful on the festival circuit that Ms. Paley kept expanding the project, using successive chapters of the Ramayana and Ms. Hanshaw’s songs as Sita’s sung narrative. “It sounds dumb, but the movie wanted to be made,” she said. “There was this music and this story. It was like: ‘Someone’s got to make this movie. I guess it’s going to be me.’ ” When Ms. Paley recounted this, it was back in November and she was sitting in the dining room of a friend’s house in Oakland. That evening “Sita Sings the Blues” would open the San Francisco International Animation Festival. (It also opened the Museum of Modern Art’s annual series Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You in New York that month and went on to win a Gotham Award.) After the final credits rolled, the gangly, curly-haired Ms. Paley bounded onstage and announced, “You’ve all just participated in an illegal act.’ ” Though Ms. Hanshaw’s recordings are not protected by federal copyright, those who own the rights to the songs themselves charge tens of thousands of dollars that Ms. Paley does not have to use them — which is also more than independent distributors have offered for a theatrical release. Because of an exception in the copyright act, public television stations can broadcast music without having to clear individual licenses, and “Sita” will be shown on the New York PBS station WNET on March 7, after which it will be available on the station’s Web site. “My thing,” Ms. Paley said in November, sounding glum, “is that I just want people to see it.” Recently, though, the licensing fee was negotiated down to approximately $50,000, and “Sita” is close to being sprung from what Ms. Paley calls “copyright jail.” Still, she hopes to release it in a manner as alternative as her film. Using the free software movement — dedicated to spreading information without copyright restrictions — as her model, she has decided to offer “Sita” at no charge online and let the public become her distributor. After all, it’s a movie that even one of the least sympathetic characters — her ex-husband — might endorse. “He was relieved,” Ms. Paley reported. “He told a friend of mine he thought it was tactfully done.”

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/12/having_wonderful_time_wish_you.html Having a wonderful time, wish you could hear By Roger Ebert  on December 23, 2008 5:36 PM 
It hardly ever happens this way. I get a DVD in the mail. I'm told it's an animated film directed by "a girl from Urbana." That's my home town. It is titled "Sita Sings the Blues." I know nothing about it, and the plot description on IMDb is not exactly a barn-burner: An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw. Uh, huh. I carefully file it with other movies I will watch when they introduce the 8-day week. I get an e-mail from Betsy, my old pal who worked with me on The News-Gazette. "Did you see the film by the mayor's daughter?" This intrigues me. The daughter is named Nina Paley. I do a Google run and discover that Hiram Paley was mayor from 1973-1977. I am relieved. This means the "girl" probably didn't make the film as a high school class project. In fact, by my rapid mathematical calculations, she may have been conceived in City Hall. I used to cover City Hall. Worse things have happened there. By this point, I'm hooked. I can't stop now. I put on the DVD and start watching. I am enchanted. I am swept away. I am smiling from one end of the film to the other. It is astonishingly original. It brings together four entirely separate elements and combines them into a great whimsical chord. You might think my attention would flag while watching An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw. Quite the opposite. It quickens. I obtain Nina Paley's e-mail address and invite the film to my film festival in April 2009 at the University of Illinois, which by perfect synchronicity is in our home town. 
Rama, Hanuman the Monkey Warrior, and Sita (click) To get any film made is a miracle. To conceive of a film like this is a greater miracle. How did Paley's mind work? She begins with the story of Ramayana, which is known to every school child in India but not to me. It tells the story of a brave, noble woman who was made to suffer because of the perfidy of a spineless husband and his mother. This is a story known to every school child in America. They learn it at their mother's knee. Paley depicts the story with exuberant drawings in bright colors. It is about a prince named Rama who treated Sita shamefully, although she loved him and was faithful to him. Of course there is a lot more to it than that, involving a monkey army, a lustful king who occasionally grows 10 heads, synchronized birds, a chorus line of gurus, and a tap-dancing moon. It coils around and around, as Indian epic tales are known to do. Even the Indians can't always figure them out. In addition to her characters talking, Paley adds another level of dialogue: Three voice-over modern Indians, ad-libbing as they try to get the story straight. Was Sita wearing jewelry or not? How long was she a prisoner in exile? How did the rescue monkey come into the picture? These voices are as funny as an SNL skit, and the Indian accent gives them charm: "What a challenge, these stories!" 
Nina Paley: Could possibly be free for lunch Sita, the heroine, reminds me a little of the immortal Betty Boop. But her singing voice is sexier. Paley synchs her life story and singing and dancing with recordings of the American jazz singer Annette Hanshaw (1901-1985), a big star in the 1920s and 1930s who was known as "The Personality Girl." Sita lived around 1000 BCE, a date which inspires lively debate among the three Indians discussing her. But when her husband outrageously accuses her of adultery and kicks her on top of a flaming pyre, we know exactly how she feels when Annette Hanshaw sings her big hit, "Mean to Me." There is another level. In San Francisco, we meet an American couple, young and in love, named Dave and Nina, and their cat, named Lexi. Oh, they are in love. But Dave flies off to take a "temporary" job in India, Nina pines for him, she flies to join him in India but he is cold to her, and when she returns home she receives a cruel message: "Don't come back. Love, Dave." Nina despairs. Lexi despairs. Cockroaches fill her apartment but she hardly notices. One day in her deepest gloom she picks up the book Ramayana and starts to read. Inspiration begins to warm the cold embers of her heart. There are uncanny parallels between her life and Sita's. Both were betrayed by the men they loved. Both were separated by long journeys. Both died (Sita really, Nina symbolically) and were reborn--Sita in the form of a lotus flower, Nina in the form of an outraged woman who moves to Brooklyn, sits down at her home computer for five years and creates this film. Yes, she reveals in her bio that her then-husband "terminated" their marriage while he was still in India. No ex-husband has inspired a greater cultural contribution since Michael Huffington. One remarkable thing about "Sita Sings the Blues" is how versatile the animation is. Paley works entirely in 2-D with strict rules, so that characters remain within their own plane, which overlaps with others. This sounds like a limitation. Actually, it is the source of much amusement. Comedy often depends on the device of establishing unbreakable rules and then finding ways to cheat on them and surprise you. The laughs Paley gets here with 2-D would be the envy of an animator in 3-D. She discovers dimensions where none exist. Annette Hanshaw: Why are you so mean to me? 
Consider Sita's curvaceous booty. When she sings an upbeat or sexy song, it rotates like a seductive pendulum, in counterpoint to her bodacious boobs. Look at those synchronized birds overhead. When they return they have a surprise, and they get a surprise. Regard the marching greybeards. Watch Hanuman's dragging tail set a palace on fire. The animation style of the scenes set in San Francisco and Brooklyn is completely different, essentially simple line drawings alive with personality. Look how Paley needs only a few lines to create a convincing cat. Sometimes, a little photography sneaks into the cityscapes, although you might overlook it. I communicated with Paley about inviting her film, and then went to the film's website here to find out about her. She teaches at the Parsons School of Design, won a Guggenheim, and has come up with a plan that may be useful to all starving teachers of art: If you are a blogger and will take her out to lunch, she will plug your blog on her blog. That's how to have lunch with Paley. But how can you see her film? "Sita" had its premiere at Berlin in February 2008, where it won a Silver Bear, and had its U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. It has not found a distributor. Times are hard, and indie distributors are not rolling in available funds. To them, no doubt, this doesn't have the ring of box office gold: An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw. Once they read that, and they're like me: Uh, huh. And if you were to read that description in the mailer from your local art house, would you drop everything and race through driving rain see it? Uh, uh. So here is my plan. Beginning in Chicago, I will enlist a cadre of starving art teachers, vengeful wives and resourceful Indian-Americans to work with the mailing lists of Facets, the Music Box, the Landmark and the Gene Siskel Film Center. They will break into the houses of those film lovers, throw mails bag over their heads, chain them to seats in a movie theater, and allow them to watch "Sita Sings the Blues." If they don't love it, let 'em sue me.

Berlinale, Feb ‘08 (Special Mention, Gen-14+)
Annecy, June ‘08 (Cristal for best feature film)
Avignon, June ‘08 (“Prix Tournage” for Best American Feature Film)
Athens Int’l Film Festival, Sept ‘08 (Best Script Award)
Ottawa International Animation Festival, Sept ‘08 (Honorable Mention for Best Animated Feature)
Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma, Oct ‘08 (Grand Prix Z Télé, Grand Prize chosen by the public)
Expotoons, Oct ‘08 ("First Mention" [runner-up], Feature Films)
Leeds International Film Festival, Nov ‘08 (Golden Owl Competition - Special Mention)
Asheville Film Festival, Nov ‘08 (Runner-up, Best Feature, Fiction)
Starz Denver Film Festival, Nov ‘08 (Fox 31 Emerging Filmmaker Award)
Gotham Independent Film Awards, Dec ‘08 (Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You)
Les Nuits Magiques, Dec ‘08 (Audience Award for Best Feature Film)
Santa Fe Film Festival, Dec ‘08 (Best Animation)
Boulder International Film Festival, Feb ‘09 (Best Animated Film)
Film Independent’s Spirit Awards, Feb ‘09 (Nominee, Acura Someone to Watch Award)
Fargo Film Festival, March ’09 (Ruth Landfield Award; and Honorable Mention, Best Animation)
Festival MONSTRA, March ’09 (Jury’s Special Prize)
Cairo International Film Festival for Children, March ’09 (Jury’s Special Mention)
Tiburon International Film Festival, March ’09 (Best Animation)
Big Cartoon Festival, March ’09 (Grand Prix Sirin)
ANIMABASAURI5-ANIMABASQUE, March ’09, (Jury Special Award)
Akron Film Festival, April ’09 (Best Feature Film)
Philadelphia CineFest, April ’09 (Archie Award for Best First Time Director)
Salem Film Festival, April ’09 (Grand Jury Award)
Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, April ’09 (Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature)
Talking Pictures Festival, May ’09 (Best Animated Film)
Silk Screen Film Festival, May ’09 (People’s Choice Award)
Connecticut Film Festival, June ’09 (Best Animated Film)
Festival Internacional de Cine DerHumALC, June ’09 (Signis Award, Best Film of the Official Competition)
Indianapolis International Film Festival, July ’09 (American Spectrum Feature Award for best feature film)
Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival (SICAF), July ’09 (Jury Special Prize, Feature Films Category)
Hardacre Film and Cinema Festival, August ’09 (Best Narrative Feature)
International Film Festival NUEVA MIRADA for Youth and Children, Sept ‘09 (Best Animated Film for Youth)
SoDak Animation Festival, October ’09 (Golden Cowbell Award, Best Feature Animation)