[78-L] More about Sita and Annette

[David Lennick]

http://www.thestar.com/article/602292

The gods must be sad
Much of the story's old, but the approach is new in beguiling new film

Mar 15, 2009 04:30 AM
Darren Zenko
Special to the Star

It was an improbable mixture of emotional and cultural reagents, the kind of
alchemy from which great art can arise: the brutal, wrenching dissolution of a
marriage; an encounter with ancient Hindu scripture; the serendipitous
discovery, at just the right moment, of the recordings of nearly forgotten Jazz
Age radio star. From this, cartoonist and animator Nina Paley has created Sita
Sings the Blues, a glittering, multifaceted jewel of a film you'll probably
never see in a theatre near you.

The central narrative is based on a portion of Ramayana, the second-century
Indian epic detailing the deeds and adventures of the great hero Rama, an
avatar of the god Vishnu. When Rama's wife Sita ? herself an avatar of Lakshmi,
goddess of purity ? is kidnapped by a demon, Rama journeys with his comrade,
the Monkey King Hanuman, to the demon's fortress-island of Lanka to effect her
rescue.

That's the heroic take. Paley, 40, turns it around by focusing on Sita's
experience of confinement, her subsequent rejection by Rama and the ordeal of
proving her virtue and constancy.

Over three years, Paley singlehandedly developed and animated Sita's tale,
realized in a controlled riot of brilliant styles and colours. (It aired last
weekend on PBS' New York affiliate but is viewable in full glory at
sitasingstheblues.com.)

Scenes from Ramayana play out in relatively mannered fashion, animated with an
aesthetic reminiscent of classical Rajput painting, only to be interrupted by a
trio of Indian narrators, arguing from memory over details, and speculating on
meanings and motivations. Through it all runs Paley's own experience of
heartbreak and abandonment.

The heart of the piece, though, is in the musical numbers. Delivered in a
contemporary pop-cute style, the animation is lively, engaging and often
laugh-out-loud funny, while the songs, 1920s recordings by chanteuse Annette
Hanshaw, personalize the film with rich veins of timeless hope and sorrow,
making it intimate while providing something very like an operatic experience.

"I had just been dumped by my husband by email," Paley recalls of the day she
first encountered the recordings that would inspire Sita Sings the Blues. "I
was sleeping on the sofa of this record collector, and he had Annette Hanshaw
in his collection. I was in this addled state of grief, and when I heard them
they went right to that place that's only open when you're grieving. They were
totally expressing what I felt."

It was Paley's use of these recordings that almost prevented her film from
being seen. While the recordings had lapsed into the public domain, the
compositions themselves were still, even 90 years later, under copyright
control, held in bits and pieces by international music concerns. Eventually,
Sita was freed ? "decriminalized," as Paley puts it ? by an unusual releasing
gambit.

Taking out a loan to pay the publishers $50,000 US, she has released Sita under
a Creative Commons licence, offering her film free as a digital download,
chalking up the downloads as royalty-exempt "promotional copies" and counting
on donations, merchandise and other revenues to cover her costs.

It remains to be seen whether this model will succeed, legally or financially,
but the experience has made Paley an activist. Her current project is a series
of short films to educate on the realities of copyright, creative culture and
fair use.

"It's almost like Schoolhouse Rock for the digital age," she laughs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

And the recordings ARE still copyrighted, no matter what anyone says.

dl