Please join us for an DocuClub/Arts Engine mixer in our courtyard prior to the screening at 7:00pm, with tasty treats available from Sweet Tooth of the Tiger. The screening will begin following this at 7:30pm.
Sita is a Hindu goddess, the leading lady of India’s epic the Ramayana and a dutiful wife who follows her husband Rama on a 14 year exile to a forest, only to be kidnapped by an evil king from Sri Lanka. Despite remaining faithful to her husband, Sita is put through many tests. Nina (the filmmaker Nina Paley herself) is an artist who finds parallels in Sita’s life when her husband – in India on a work project – decides to break up their marriage and dump her via email. Three hilarious Indonesian shadow puppets with Indian accents –
linking the popularity of the Ramayana from India all the way to the Far East – narrate both the ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the epic.
In her first feature length film, Paley juxtaposes multiple narrative and visual styles to create a highly entertaining yet moving vision of the Ramayana. Musical numbers choreographed to the 1920’s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw feature a cast of hundreds: flying monkeys, evil monsters, gods, goddesses, warriors, sages, and winged eyeballs. A tale of truth, justice and a woman’s cry for equal treatment. Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as “The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told.” Paley has given audiences permission to copy, share, publish, archive, show, sell, broadcast, or remix movie through the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
This screening will be introduced by Felix Endara of DocuClub/Arts Engine. A post-screening discussion on the Sita’s funding and distribution strategy will be held by Karl Fogel with QuestionCopyright.org.
Co-sponsored by:
