Sita Sings The Blues (Nina Paley, 2009)
I loved this film. It’s just such an inventive and cheerful mash-up. Effortlessly combines genres, animations styles and 3 distinct storylines, and was constantly surprising, touching and funny. The dialogue in the ‘discussion’ segments felt very authentic to me (I was born in India and have grown up surrounded by Indian culture). As well as playing reflexively with being a dissection of its own creation as well as the creation of these myths and stories by which we shape our lives, it also has a few subtle comments to make on Orientalist views of women and Indian culture in general. But really, it’s just playful and witty and deserves a huge audience.
Roger Ebert’s review of the film is pretty great.
WATCH SITA SINGS THE BLUES FOR FREE HERE
Fans of Sita Sings the Blues should check out The Wit and Wisdom of Cancer, a darkly humorous short in which cancer cells chat away in a parody of human conversations. Features more of Paley’s irreverent humor and successful meshing of animation styles.
This page also has ‘links’ to more of her work, but they all seemed bust to me. On her blog Paley stated she still needs $$$$$ to release Sita out copyright ‘jail’. Donate!
