Sita Sings the Blues
Encyclopedia
Sita Sings the Blues is a 2008 animated
feature film
written
, directed
, produced
and animated
entirely by American
artist Nina Paley
(with the exception of some fight animation by Jake Friedman in the "Battle of Lanka
" scene), primarily using 2D computer graphics
and Flash Animation.
It intersperses events from the Ramayana
, illustrated conversation between Indian shadow puppets
, musical interludes voiced with tracks by Annette Hanshaw
and scenes from the artist's own life. The ancient mythological and modern biographical plot are parallel tales, sharing numerous themes.
; in the director's words, the film is "a tale of truth, justice and a woman’s cry for equal treatment."
The plot joins the legend at the exile of prince Rama
from his father's court, at the behest of his father's favorite queen, Kaikeyi
. Having earned the right to any single favor by saving the king's life, Kaikeyi attempts to secure her own son's inheritance over the eldest and favorite, Rama, by ordering him banished from the court. Sita determines to accompany her beloved husband, although the woods are dangerous and over-run with demons and evil spirits. The demon king Ravana
, encouraged by his spiteful ogress sister, hears of Sita's beauty and determines to kidnap her. He sends a golden hind past their dwelling to distract Rama, who tries to impress Sita by hunting the hind into the woods. In his absence, Ravana abducts Sita and demands that she submit to him on pain of death. Sita remains staunchly devoted to Rama and refuses to entertain the idea; Ravana sets a deadline for the ultimatum and Sita waits faithfully for Rama to rescue her.
Aided by the monkey prince Hanuman
, Rama eventually discovers Sita's location and brings the monkey army to assist in her rescue. Ravana is slain and Sita restored to her husband, although he expresses serious doubts concerning her fidelity during her confinement. She submits to a trial by fire, a test of her purity; upon throwing herself into the flames, she is immediately rescued by the gods, who all proclaim her devotion and fidelity.
She accompanies Rama back to the palace, and soon falls pregnant. Lingering doubts still play on Rama's mind, however, and after overhearing one of his subjects beating and ejecting an unfaithful consort (claiming he is no Rama to accept and forgive her unfaithfulness), he orders his reluctant brother Lakshman to abandon Sita in the forest. In the company of ascetics she gives birth to her sons and raises them to love and praise their absent father. Years later, Rama overhears their hymns of adoration to their father and locates their dwelling. Distressed and disappointed by her reunion with Rama, Sita prays to the earth to swallow her as final proof of her purity and devotion and the prayer is duly answered, despite the pleas of Rama and Lakshman.
, and moves there alone to take up the position. After several months of very little contact, he calls to inform his wife that the contract has been extended.
Bewildered by his callous indifference to their separation, Nina sublets their apartment, leaves their beloved cat behind and joins her husband in India. Upon her arrival he appears deeply unenthusiastic to be reunited and demonstrates neither affection nor sexual interest. A while later, Nina flies to a meeting in New York, where she receives a brief e-mail from her husband telling her that their relationship is over. Sad and alone, she stays in New York, finding comfort in a new cat and her study of the Ramayana.
are enacted using painted figures of the characters in profile, which strongly resemble the 18th-century Indian tradition of Rajput painting
. The Rajput style of brush painting was principally enacted on manuscripts and commonly employed in the telling of epics such as the Ramayana. In the film they serve as a more traditional style of dramatic narrative, although the dialogue is frequently ironic, inappropriately modern or otherwise humorous.
The background in each scene is usually static and the poses of each character are kept minimal, with movement achieved by simply transporting the character across the screen in its set position. Speech is enacted by alternating the set pose of the face with a slightly liquified version where the jaw is lower.
. They link episodes of the Ramayana with a lively, unscripted, discussion of their personal impressions and knowledge of the epic. They provide context and commentary for the story, which has innumerable incarnations and regional variations.
The voices are clearly contemporary and somewhat irreverent, unlike their visualisations, which further establishes the theme of contrast between "ancient tragedy and modern comedy"; Chhaya Natak shadow theatre, for example, was commonly used in retellings of the Ramayana.
During these sections, the ideas and contradictions raised over the course of the puppets' discussions are visualised in animated photographic compositions in the background.
are visualised, with Sita as the singing performer, using the strikingly modern technique of vector graphic
animation.
The slick, bold style – driven by digital animation software – is at odds with the somewhat rustic quality of the old musical recordings but allows close synchronisation with the vocals. The smooth, repetitive, side-scrolling movement it effects assists in suspending the musical episode from the more consistent narrative plot.
technique of traditional animation. It conveys the kind of restlessness inherent in the story and achieves a more light-hearted, universal tone with its simple, highly-stylised renderings of character and environments.
, Nik Phelps, Todd Michaelsen and Reena Shah of the duo My Pet Dragon and by Pierre-Jean Duffour composer, musician for the band Masaladosa. Reena Shah contributed the voice of the Sita
character, in addition to choreographing and performing the dance sequences rotoscoped by Paley for the animation.
recordings. Although the filmmaker initially made sure these recordings were not covered by US copyright law, a number of other copyright issues surfaced, including state laws prior to US federal copyright law on recordings, rights to the compositions and the right to synchronize the recordings with images. These recordings were protected by state commerce and business laws passed at the time in the absence of applicable federal laws and were never truly "public domain". In addition, the musical composition
itself, including aspects such as the lyrics to the songs, the musical notation, and products derived from using those things, is still under copyright.
Without a distributor, Nina Paley was unable to pay the approximately $220,000 that the copyright holders originally demanded. Eventually, a fee of $50,000 was negotiated. Paley took out a loan to license the music in early 2009.
In July 2011, Nina Paley made a protest video regarding the film's deletion from YouTube
in Germany
due to what she regards as fraudulent take-down notice under the aegis of GEMA
, Germany's major performance rights or music collection organization, but which may be an instance of a larger on-going conflict regarding copyright and royalties between YouTube and GEMA.
Attribution-Share-alike
3.0 Unported license. The freely downloaded files will count as "promotional copies" and will thus be exempt from payments to the copyright holders of the songs.
The full film can also be viewed in low-resolution streaming video on the web site for WNET
, a PBS member station in New York City
. WNET broadcast the film on March 7, 2009.
Nina Paley plans to make money through voluntary payments, ancillary products, sponsorships, the aforementioned limited DVD sales, and possibly other methods.
A cornerstone of the distribution model is the "creator-endorsed" logo, developed by Nina Paley in cooperation with QuestionCopyright.org. Although anyone is free to distribute the film, distributors who do so while giving a part of the profits to the artist can get the artist's endorsement and use the "creator-endorsed" logo on their promotional materials. Exclusive right to distribute 35mm and HDCam prints of the film is split between Gkids for all theaters East of the Mississippi River, and Shadow Distribution for all theaters west of the Mississippi River.
The film can also be rented via DVD on Netflix
as of March 17, 2010. When asked by a media provider on behalf of Netflix in April 2010 if she would also offer the film via the company's on-demand streaming service in exchange for a limited amount of money, Nina requested that the film be streamed either DRM-free or with an addendum telling viewers where the film was available for download. When the internet television service refused to meet these conditions due to a "No Bumpers" policy, Nina refused to accept their offer, citing her desire to uphold her principled opposition to DRM.
Paley has qualified this distribution strategy as a financial success, citing that it earned $132,000 from March 2009 to March 2010.
reports that 100% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 29 reviews, with an 8.3/10 review average. The film also holds a score of 94 on the review aggregator website Metacritic
.
Film critic Roger Ebert
on the Chicago Sun-Times
enthused, "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... To get any film made is a miracle. To conceive of a film like this is a greater miracle."
The New York Times
too praised the film's ingenuity, commenting that "[it] evokes painting, collage, underground comic books, Mumbai musicals and 'Yellow Submarine' (for starters)," and praised Paley for her use of 2D animation: "A Pixar or DreamWorks extravaganza typically concludes with a phone book’s worth of technical credits. Ms. Paley did everything in “Sita” — an amazingly eclectic, 82-minute tour de force — by herself."
Although The Hollywood Reporter
declared the film to be "a rather rarified effort that will probably appeal more to adults than to children," it described it as "charming" and commented that, "Arriving amidst a tidal wave of overblown and frequently charmless big studio efforts, "Sita Sings the Blues" is a welcome reminder that when it comes to animation bigger isn't necessarily better."
started a petition calling for a complete ban on the movie and initiation of legal action against all those who have been involved in its production and marketing, believing its portrayal of the Ramayana to be offensive, with some members even going so far as to call it "a derogatory act against the entire Hindu community." Nina Paley was surprised by the hostility, saying "I thought it might be a bit controversial, but I wasn’t fully aware of how art and artists are major targets of some right-wing nationalist groups in India. I always imagine an audience of smart, compassionate people I’d enjoy spending time with." Aseem Chabra, who was one of the shadow puppets in the film, said "In the last two decades, the right-wing religious forces in India — Hindu and Muslim — have become very strong, vocal and sometimes violent. But I also know that there are enough sane, balanced, liberal people in India who take art for what it is."
Nina Paley has said that some left-wing academics have also been critical of the film, describing their position as "any white person doing a project like this is by definition racist, and it's an example of more neocolonialism
."
high fashion line designed by Roj Singhakul, titled "Sita Sings the Blues".
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
written
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, produced
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and animated
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
entirely by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist Nina Paley
Nina Paley
Nina Paley is an Americancartoonist, animator and free culture activist.She directed the animated feature film Sita Sings the Blues. She was the artist and often the writer of comic strips Nina's Adventures and Fluff, but most of her recent work has been in animation...
(with the exception of some fight animation by Jake Friedman in the "Battle of Lanka
Lanka
Sri Lanka is the name given in Hindu mythology to the island fortress capital of the legendary king Ravana in the great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata...
" scene), primarily using 2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
and Flash Animation.
It intersperses events from the Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
, illustrated conversation between Indian shadow puppets
Shadow play
Shadow play or shadow puppetry Shadow puppets have a long history in China, India, Turkey and Java, and as a popular form of entertainment for both children and adults in many countries around the world. A shadow puppet is a cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen...
, musical interludes voiced with tracks by Annette Hanshaw
Annette Hanshaw
Catherine Annette Hanshaw was born at her parents' residence in New York City on October 18, 1901. [Ed. While Annette sometimes gave her birth date as 1910, nephew Frank W. Hanshaw III confirms 1901 as the date on Annette's birth certificate.]-Biography:...
and scenes from the artist's own life. The ancient mythological and modern biographical plot are parallel tales, sharing numerous themes.
The Ramayana
The film uses a pared-down adaptation of the legend that retains many of its finer details while adopting a perspective sympathetic towards SitaSITA
SITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the air transport industry...
; in the director's words, the film is "a tale of truth, justice and a woman’s cry for equal treatment."
The plot joins the legend at the exile of prince Rama
Rama
Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...
from his father's court, at the behest of his father's favorite queen, Kaikeyi
Kaikeyi
Kaikeyi , in the Hindu epic Rāmāyaṇa, was the second of King Daśaratha's three wives and a queen of Ayodhyā. She was the mother of Bharata...
. Having earned the right to any single favor by saving the king's life, Kaikeyi attempts to secure her own son's inheritance over the eldest and favorite, Rama, by ordering him banished from the court. Sita determines to accompany her beloved husband, although the woods are dangerous and over-run with demons and evil spirits. The demon king Ravana
Ravana
' is the primary antagonist character of the Hindu legend, the Ramayana; who is the great king of Lanka. In the classic text, he is mainly depicted negatively, kidnapping Rama's wife Sita, to claim vengeance on Rama and his brother Lakshmana for having cut off the nose of his sister...
, encouraged by his spiteful ogress sister, hears of Sita's beauty and determines to kidnap her. He sends a golden hind past their dwelling to distract Rama, who tries to impress Sita by hunting the hind into the woods. In his absence, Ravana abducts Sita and demands that she submit to him on pain of death. Sita remains staunchly devoted to Rama and refuses to entertain the idea; Ravana sets a deadline for the ultimatum and Sita waits faithfully for Rama to rescue her.
Aided by the monkey prince Hanuman
Hanuman
Hanuman , is a Hindu deity, who is an ardent devotee of Rama, a central character in the Indian epic Ramayana and one of the dearest devotees of lord Rama. A general among the vanaras, an ape-like race of forest-dwellers, Hanuman is an incarnation of the divine and a disciple of Lord Rama in the...
, Rama eventually discovers Sita's location and brings the monkey army to assist in her rescue. Ravana is slain and Sita restored to her husband, although he expresses serious doubts concerning her fidelity during her confinement. She submits to a trial by fire, a test of her purity; upon throwing herself into the flames, she is immediately rescued by the gods, who all proclaim her devotion and fidelity.
She accompanies Rama back to the palace, and soon falls pregnant. Lingering doubts still play on Rama's mind, however, and after overhearing one of his subjects beating and ejecting an unfaithful consort (claiming he is no Rama to accept and forgive her unfaithfulness), he orders his reluctant brother Lakshman to abandon Sita in the forest. In the company of ascetics she gives birth to her sons and raises them to love and praise their absent father. Years later, Rama overhears their hymns of adoration to their father and locates their dwelling. Distressed and disappointed by her reunion with Rama, Sita prays to the earth to swallow her as final proof of her purity and devotion and the prayer is duly answered, despite the pleas of Rama and Lakshman.
Contemporary parallel
In an episode taken from the director's own life, animator Nina Paley starts the film living happily in a San Francisco apartment with her husband and cat. Her husband then accepts the offer of a six-month contract working in Trivandrum, IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and moves there alone to take up the position. After several months of very little contact, he calls to inform his wife that the contract has been extended.
Bewildered by his callous indifference to their separation, Nina sublets their apartment, leaves their beloved cat behind and joins her husband in India. Upon her arrival he appears deeply unenthusiastic to be reunited and demonstrates neither affection nor sexual interest. A while later, Nina flies to a meeting in New York, where she receives a brief e-mail from her husband telling her that their relationship is over. Sad and alone, she stays in New York, finding comfort in a new cat and her study of the Ramayana.
Style and narrative
The film uses several different styles of animation to separate and identify the parallel narratives.Episodes from the Ramayana
Episodes with dialogue from the RamayanaRamayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
are enacted using painted figures of the characters in profile, which strongly resemble the 18th-century Indian tradition of Rajput painting
Rajput painting
Rajput painting, also known as Rajasthani Painting, is a style of Indian painting, evolved and flourished during the 18th century in the royal courts of Rajputana, India, flowing from the style of Mughal painting, itself derived from the Persian miniature. Each Rajput kingdom evolved a distinct...
. The Rajput style of brush painting was principally enacted on manuscripts and commonly employed in the telling of epics such as the Ramayana. In the film they serve as a more traditional style of dramatic narrative, although the dialogue is frequently ironic, inappropriately modern or otherwise humorous.
The background in each scene is usually static and the poses of each character are kept minimal, with movement achieved by simply transporting the character across the screen in its set position. Speech is enacted by alternating the set pose of the face with a slightly liquified version where the jaw is lower.
Narration and discourse on the Ramayana
Aseem Chhabra, Bhavana Nagulapally, and Manish Acharya provided the voices for three silhouettes, traditional Indian shadow puppetsShadow play
Shadow play or shadow puppetry Shadow puppets have a long history in China, India, Turkey and Java, and as a popular form of entertainment for both children and adults in many countries around the world. A shadow puppet is a cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen...
. They link episodes of the Ramayana with a lively, unscripted, discussion of their personal impressions and knowledge of the epic. They provide context and commentary for the story, which has innumerable incarnations and regional variations.
The voices are clearly contemporary and somewhat irreverent, unlike their visualisations, which further establishes the theme of contrast between "ancient tragedy and modern comedy"; Chhaya Natak shadow theatre, for example, was commonly used in retellings of the Ramayana.
During these sections, the ideas and contradictions raised over the course of the puppets' discussions are visualised in animated photographic compositions in the background.
Musical episodes from the Ramayana
Episodes set to certain songs performed by jazz singer Annette HanshawAnnette Hanshaw
Catherine Annette Hanshaw was born at her parents' residence in New York City on October 18, 1901. [Ed. While Annette sometimes gave her birth date as 1910, nephew Frank W. Hanshaw III confirms 1901 as the date on Annette's birth certificate.]-Biography:...
are visualised, with Sita as the singing performer, using the strikingly modern technique of vector graphic
Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
animation.
The slick, bold style – driven by digital animation software – is at odds with the somewhat rustic quality of the old musical recordings but allows close synchronisation with the vocals. The smooth, repetitive, side-scrolling movement it effects assists in suspending the musical episode from the more consistent narrative plot.
Contemporary parallel
The modern, more personal element to the contemporary part of the story is narrated using the rough, energetic SquigglevisionSquigglevision
Squigglevision is a patented method of computer animation in which the outlines of shapes are made to wiggle and undulate. Tom Snyder of Tom Snyder Productions invented the technique, which his animation studio Soup2Nuts subsequently popularized in several successful animated series.Compared with...
technique of traditional animation. It conveys the kind of restlessness inherent in the story and achieves a more light-hearted, universal tone with its simple, highly-stylised renderings of character and environments.
Production
In addition to the central numbers recorded by Hanshaw, music was provided by Rohan, Rudresh MahanthappaRudresh Mahanthappa
Rudresh Mahanthappa is a New York-based jazz alto saxophonist and composer.Mahanthappa was born in Trieste, Italy, and grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1992 and received his Master of Fine Arts degree in jazz composition from Chicago's DePaul University...
, Nik Phelps, Todd Michaelsen and Reena Shah of the duo My Pet Dragon and by Pierre-Jean Duffour composer, musician for the band Masaladosa. Reena Shah contributed the voice of the Sita
SITA
SITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the air transport industry...
character, in addition to choreographing and performing the dance sequences rotoscoped by Paley for the animation.
Copyright problems
The film uses a number of 1920s Annette HanshawAnnette Hanshaw
Catherine Annette Hanshaw was born at her parents' residence in New York City on October 18, 1901. [Ed. While Annette sometimes gave her birth date as 1910, nephew Frank W. Hanshaw III confirms 1901 as the date on Annette's birth certificate.]-Biography:...
recordings. Although the filmmaker initially made sure these recordings were not covered by US copyright law, a number of other copyright issues surfaced, including state laws prior to US federal copyright law on recordings, rights to the compositions and the right to synchronize the recordings with images. These recordings were protected by state commerce and business laws passed at the time in the absence of applicable federal laws and were never truly "public domain". In addition, the musical composition
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
itself, including aspects such as the lyrics to the songs, the musical notation, and products derived from using those things, is still under copyright.
Without a distributor, Nina Paley was unable to pay the approximately $220,000 that the copyright holders originally demanded. Eventually, a fee of $50,000 was negotiated. Paley took out a loan to license the music in early 2009.
In July 2011, Nina Paley made a protest video regarding the film's deletion from YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
due to what she regards as fraudulent take-down notice under the aegis of GEMA
Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte
Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte is a performance rights organization from Germany. It is the only such institution in Germany and a member of BIEM and CISAC...
, Germany's major performance rights or music collection organization, but which may be an instance of a larger on-going conflict regarding copyright and royalties between YouTube and GEMA.
Unorthodox distribution
Due to terms of the music license, one limited DVD pressing of 4,999 copies was printed. The film was released for free download starting in early March, 2009 "at all resolutions, including broadcast-quality, HD, and film-quality image sequences", licensed under the Creative CommonsCreative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
Attribution-Share-alike
Share-alike
Share-Alike is a descriptive term used in the Creative Commons project for copyright licenses which include certain copyleft provisions. The Share-Alike license comes in two varieties, CC-BY-SA and CC-BY-NC-SA.-Share-alike license types:...
3.0 Unported license. The freely downloaded files will count as "promotional copies" and will thus be exempt from payments to the copyright holders of the songs.
The full film can also be viewed in low-resolution streaming video on the web site for WNET
WNET
WNET, channel 13 is a non-commercial educational public television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey. With its signal covering the New York metropolitan area, WNET is a primary station of the Public Broadcasting Service and a primary provider of PBS programming...
, a PBS member station in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. WNET broadcast the film on March 7, 2009.
Nina Paley plans to make money through voluntary payments, ancillary products, sponsorships, the aforementioned limited DVD sales, and possibly other methods.
A cornerstone of the distribution model is the "creator-endorsed" logo, developed by Nina Paley in cooperation with QuestionCopyright.org. Although anyone is free to distribute the film, distributors who do so while giving a part of the profits to the artist can get the artist's endorsement and use the "creator-endorsed" logo on their promotional materials. Exclusive right to distribute 35mm and HDCam prints of the film is split between Gkids for all theaters East of the Mississippi River, and Shadow Distribution for all theaters west of the Mississippi River.
The film can also be rented via DVD on Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
as of March 17, 2010. When asked by a media provider on behalf of Netflix in April 2010 if she would also offer the film via the company's on-demand streaming service in exchange for a limited amount of money, Nina requested that the film be streamed either DRM-free or with an addendum telling viewers where the film was available for download. When the internet television service refused to meet these conditions due to a "No Bumpers" policy, Nina refused to accept their offer, citing her desire to uphold her principled opposition to DRM.
Paley has qualified this distribution strategy as a financial success, citing that it earned $132,000 from March 2009 to March 2010.
Critical reaction
Since its release, Sita Sings the Blues has attracted limited but consistent acclaim from critics. , Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reports that 100% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 29 reviews, with an 8.3/10 review average. The film also holds a score of 94 on the review aggregator website Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
.
Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
on the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
enthused, "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... To get any film made is a miracle. To conceive of a film like this is a greater miracle."
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
too praised the film's ingenuity, commenting that "[it] evokes painting, collage, underground comic books, Mumbai musicals and 'Yellow Submarine' (for starters)," and praised Paley for her use of 2D animation: "A Pixar or DreamWorks extravaganza typically concludes with a phone book’s worth of technical credits. Ms. Paley did everything in “Sita” — an amazingly eclectic, 82-minute tour de force — by herself."
Although The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
declared the film to be "a rather rarified effort that will probably appeal more to adults than to children," it described it as "charming" and commented that, "Arriving amidst a tidal wave of overblown and frequently charmless big studio efforts, "Sita Sings the Blues" is a welcome reminder that when it comes to animation bigger isn't necessarily better."
Controversy
The film's distribution sparked an intense debate regarding the portrayal of Hindu culture in Western media and was even met with outrage by some Hindus and, according to the film-maker, a number of left-wing academics also. In April 2009, a group called the Hindu Janajagruti SamitiHindu Janajagruti Samiti
Hindu Janajagruti Samiti is a Hindu organization operating globally established on the 13th October 2002 by initiative of seekers of Sanatan Sanstha.The organization claims to be stand as a common platform for all Hindus to unite breaking all the barriers....
started a petition calling for a complete ban on the movie and initiation of legal action against all those who have been involved in its production and marketing, believing its portrayal of the Ramayana to be offensive, with some members even going so far as to call it "a derogatory act against the entire Hindu community." Nina Paley was surprised by the hostility, saying "I thought it might be a bit controversial, but I wasn’t fully aware of how art and artists are major targets of some right-wing nationalist groups in India. I always imagine an audience of smart, compassionate people I’d enjoy spending time with." Aseem Chabra, who was one of the shadow puppets in the film, said "In the last two decades, the right-wing religious forces in India — Hindu and Muslim — have become very strong, vocal and sometimes violent. But I also know that there are enough sane, balanced, liberal people in India who take art for what it is."
Nina Paley has said that some left-wing academics have also been critical of the film, describing their position as "any white person doing a project like this is by definition racist, and it's an example of more neocolonialism
Neocolonialism
Neocolonialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization, and cultural forces to control a country in lieu of direct military or political control...
."
Awards
Sita Sings the Blues has won a number of awards.- Berlinale (Berlin International Film FestivalBerlin International Film FestivalThe Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
), Feb. 2008, Crystal Bear - Special Mention, Gen-14+, Germany - Annecy, June 2008, Cristal grand prix for best feature film, France
- Avignon, June 2008, Prix Tournage for Best American Feature Film, France
- Athens International Film Festival, Sept. 2008, Best Script Award, Greece
- Ottawa International Animation Festival, Sept. 2008, Honorable Mention for Best Animated Feature, Canada
- Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma, Oct. 2008, Grand Prix Z Télé, Grand Prize chosen by the public, Canada
- Expotoons, Oct. 2008, "First Mention" (runner-up), Feature Films, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Leeds International Film Festival, Nov. 2008, Golden Owl Competition - Special Mention, UK
- Asheville Film Festival, Nov. 2008, Runner-up, Best Feature, Fiction, NC, USA
- Starz Denver Film Festival, Nov 2008, Fox 31 Emerging Filmmaker Award, CO, USA
- Gotham Independent Film Awards, Dec 2008, Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You, NYC, NY, USA
- Les Nuits Magiques, Dec 2008, Audience Award for Best Feature Film, Begles, France
- Santa Fe Film Festival, Dec 2008, Best Animation, NM, USA
- Boulder International Film Festival, Feb 2009, Best Animated Film, CO, USA
- Film Independent’s Spirit Awards, Feb 2009, Nominee, Acura Someone to Watch Award, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Fargo Film Festival, March 2009, Ruth Landfield Award and Honorable Mention, Best Animation, ND, USA
- Festival Monstra, March 2009 Jury’s Special Prize, Lisbon, Portugal
- Cairo International Film Festival for Children, March 2009, Jury’s Special Mention, Cairo, Egypt
- Tiburon International Film Festival, March 2009, Best Animation, Tiburon, CA, USA
- Big Cartoon Festival, March 2009, Grand Prix Sirin, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
- Animabasaui5, March 2009, Jury Special Award, Bilbao, Spain
- Akron Film Festival, April 2009, Best Feature Film, Akron, OH, USA
- Philadelphia CineFest, April 2009, Archie Award for Best First Time Director, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Salem Film Festival, April 2009, Grand Jury Award, Salem, OR, USA
- Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, April 2009, Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature, Los Angeles CA, USA
- Talking Pictures Festival, May 2009, Best Animated Film, Evanston, IL, USA
- Connecticut Film Festival, June 2009, Best Animated Film, Danbury, CT, USA
- Festival Internacional de Cine DerHumALC, June 2009, Signis Award, Best Film of the Official Competition, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Indianapolis International Film Festival, July 2009, American Spectrum, Best Feature, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Cultural impact
In April 2009, the film inspired a BangkokBangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
high fashion line designed by Roj Singhakul, titled "Sita Sings the Blues".