Wow, thank you for the link, and thanks to Reel 13 for the movie.
I’ve been wanting to watch this for a while.
Thanks for this, I enjoyed it a great deal. It was surreal at times principally during the various musical segments.
Please do not feed my god peanuts.
no prob. also, if you already don’t know, they are supposedly going to offer this in HD for download in a few days so that should be a treat for repeat viewings. I sort of wish they actually release a soundtrack for this, some of the original music pieces were downright trippy…
Man, what a cool, original film! I hadn’t heard of this before you posted it. I love the mix of animation and the way it’s funny and light but still grounded in genuine emotion. Suffering in the right hands leads to the best art. Thanks, CM.
Jay, im glad you liked it! I really hope more people here give this a chance since I think its probably one of the more intriguing films Ive seen in the past year.
Nina Paley posted a moderate length message to the viewers about how and why she is distributing the film the way she is, as well as how she plans to actually make back her money. Anyways, those that liked the film, id recommend taking a look at it below.
http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/
Yeah, I read that earlier. It sucks that they won’t cut her a better deal on the music. I’d buy this on dvd if it was available. The movie would be nothing but beneficial to Annette Hanshaw and her legacy but I gather that it’s the owners of the song rights that are being difficult and prohibitively expensive. It reminds me of the trivial rights issues that keep some of Orson Welles work from seeing the light of day. When a talented artist passes away, it seems they become nothing but a commodity and people are more concerned with squeezing every cent they can out of their work even if that means locking it up and away from the public that might appreciate it. Greed is the enemy of art.
By the way, anyone who likes animation should definitely watch this. I feel like I did after watching Triplets of Belleville. It’s a completely different film than that but it’s just as exciting and original. I’m definitely going to watch this again and try to share it with someone who’s open minded.
Now available as a 480p QuickTime H.264 on Archive.org…
http://www.archive.org/details/Sita_Sings_the_Blues
HD versions will follow.
Oh I’ve been meaning to check this out because I am a HUGE Annette Hanshaw fan. :D
Albo, thanks for pointing that out!
I’m actually doing the encoding for the project, so if anyone has issues with the files please let me know.
The 480p mp4 file is fully compatible with QuickTime Player on both Mac and Windows, as well as any other media player that recognizes the H.264 codec (VLC etc.)
just downloaded it myself, the quality is pretty fantastic. great job Albo!
Excellent! The 1080p looks amazing, though at 4GB in size, it’s going to take a while to upload.
Jennifer, if you’re a Hanshaw fan you should love this. I’m a big jazz fan but I wasn’t familiar with Hanshaw before this and the film actually made me a fan. If you like this kind of music, you should definitely check out Maxine Sullivan if you haven’t already.
The full range of H.264 MPEG4 encodes are now available on Archive.org, from “Small” to “1080p HD.” Enjoy!
http://www.archive.org/details/Sita_Sings_the_Blues
sweet!!!
Thanks for the suggestion Jay, I haven’t heard Maxine Sullivan. Have you heard any Ruth Etting yet?
I really enjoyed this film which CM brought to my attention months ago. I’d like to bring it back up in case anyone new hasn’t seen it and would like to: Sita Sings the Blues
I’ll happily testify to how wonderful it is.
It played at the Red Vic in San Francisco but unfortunately I missed it. Watching it on my laptop won’t be nearly as nice as a theatre but it’s good to know I actually can watch it somewhere.
Ahh what is this double post here for.
Watched it last night after seeing this thread. Loved it.
Crap Monster
Free to view and highly recommended:
http://www.thirteen.org/sites/reel13/blog/watch-sita-sings-the-blues-online/347/
Sita Sings the Blues is an animated feature that is almost wholly produced by Nina Paley which spins together parallel narratives infused with the music of Annette Hanshaw and the myth of The Ramayana. The animation itself is quite impressive by any means, and each narrative is given its own distinctive style. Highly recommended.