Sita Sings the Blues

Here's another movie to add to the viewing queue. Sita Sings the Blues is a animated version of the Ramamyana created by cartoonist Nina Paley, who is currently featured in an exhibit at the Cartoon Art Museum.

Here's a description of the film:
Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana. Set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as "the Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told."



A very interesting strategy has been employed to distribute the film, which Paley describes on her blog.

She has placed promotional files of the entire film – at all resolutions, including broadcast-quality, HD, and film-quality image sequences – online at archive.org and as many host sites as possible. She has licensed the film under Creative Commons Share-Alike and offers free online copies as promotional copies.
http://www.archive.org/details/Sita_Sings_the_Blues

You can also watch Sita Sings the Blues here on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzTg7YXuy34

After three years of working on her film, Paley found that she was not able to distribute Sita Sings the Blues due to music licensing issues. Paley discovered that, due to amended copyright laws, she was required to pay for the rights to use the 1927 song compositions featured in her film - approximately $50,000 for the rights to use the music, plus another $20,000 in transaction costs to lawyers and the rights clearing house. (FYI, works registered before 1/1/1923 are considered to be in the public domain.) Paley has since stepped into spotlight of current debate involving copyright law and artistic freedom. She is using her art to raise public awareness of new ideas about creativity and ownership that come with art making with new technologies. This interview about copyright restrictions is an fascinating primer on the many issues involved on the business end of making art.
http://questioncopyright.org/nina_paley_sita_interview

Her newest creative endeavor, The Minute Memes project is a series of one-minute videos about copyright restrictions and artistic freedom.

The Minute Memes uses visual storytelling backed by written supplementary materials to show how art, artists, and audiences can thrive in a permissive and non-monopoly-based environment.

Copying Is Not Theft (Minute Meme #1)



Nina Paley has created a new business model for independent filmmakers. She is hoping that the interest generated by the free distribution of her film will lead to other sources of generated income. So far, Nina has made more money by this method than any traditional (i.e., exclusive) distributor was offering before the film's release. Since releasing it for free distribution in February of 2009, she's received approximately $28,000 in donations and another $25,000 in sales of DVDs and other film-related merchandise from the online store.

Contrast Paley's plight to that of Lotte Reninger who worked in Berlin for three years, from 1923 to 1926, to create her first animated film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

There remains a good deal to say about the artistic problems of this type of film, about its future, and about its value. But I am content to leave these matters to those people whose profession it is to bother about such problems. I feel that I do better to concentrate on making the films-and on making as many as my good luck allows. Each new film raises new problems and questions, and I can only hope to live long enough to do justice to them all.
— Lotte Reninger
http://www.milestonefilms.com/pdf/AchmedPK.pdf

Interestingly enough, Reninger's film was shown in almost every country in the world with great success, except Germany. A German distributor eventually bought the film, but billed the movie as a “detective” film. In the end, Lotte Reiniger had to take legal action to regain the rights to her own film, before she could screen her original version in her own country.

(Cue the music...)

Bit by bit, putting it together
Piece by piece, working on the vision night and day
All it takes is time and perserverance
With a little luck along the way
Putting in a personal appearance
Gathering supporters and adherents

Mapping out the songs but in addition
Harmonizing each negotiation
Balancing the part that's all musicians
With the part that's strictly presentation
Balancing the money with the mission
Till you have the perfect orchestration
Even if you do have the suspicion
That it's taking all your concentration
The art of making art

Is putting it together...

Lyrics from "Putting It Together",
originally from Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George,
rewritten for Barbra Streisand's The Broadway Album.