Nina Paley, a self-taught animator, released in 2008 an 82-minute animated film, Sita Sings the Blues, that mingles the classic Indian myth, The Ramayana, with contemporary autobiographical events, and it’s all set to the 1920’s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw. The film, which launched the San Francisco International Animation Festival, has won awards and gathered a lot of fans. In late February, Paley handed the film over to the public, releasing it under a Creative Commons license (download it here). And she has now made it available on YouTube. Hence the visually stunning film above. Naturally, we’ve added Sita Sings the Blues to our collection of YouTube favorites.
In the meantime, check out our new collection, 30 Places to Watch Free Movies Online
As an interested person on the subject of Hinduism mythology and animation and India I watched, listened and remembered how much I love the old blues songs too! What a fabulous film and a wonderful mind to put all of that together!
Applause, applause from me and I bought the DVD!
Happy future to the artists!
I’ve started to watch Sita and each time I was interrupted after 15 or 20 minutes. Tonight I watched it all and it was just fabulous. Finally. I watched interviews with Paley hearing the backstory to the animation which really adds a spice as well. Love it. Yay.
I’ve started to watch Sita and each time I was interrupted after 15 or 20 minutes. Tonight I watched it all and it was just fabulous. Finally. I watched interviews with Paley hearing the backstory to the animation which really adds a spice as well. Love it. Yay.
A long time after falling in love and owning the film which I watch occasionally now just for the music, I also purchased a Sita doll made in India by “needy” women….lovely little thing Sitaing on my shelf!