Sita Sings the Blues in full online

Robin sez, "You can watch the animated movie 'Sita Sings the Blues', IN FULL online. It will be broadcast in the NYC area at 10:45pm on Saturday, March 7. Feel free to write your local PBS station to see if they will broadcast 'Sita'."

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 e-mail. 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.”

Watch “Sita Sings the Blues” online (Thanks, Robin!)

[#1 posted by jangusKhan , February 27, 2009 7:52 AM]

HURAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[#2 posted by Anonymous , February 27, 2009 8:22 AM]

excellent work by http://questioncopyright.org/ in helping to get the film out (donations taken for the film at http://www.questioncopyright.org/sita_distribution#donate )

[#3 posted by dhalgren , February 27, 2009 8:27 AM]

Thank you thank you thank you. This movie is amazing. I'm in love with the music, so glad that we can finally see this after having followed this story for some time. To see the movie finally. I can't tell you how much this made my day, week.

If anyone hasn't watched it yet. Grab a drink or two, sit back, and be mesmerized.

[#4 posted by kpelt , February 27, 2009 8:39 AM]

From Nina's blog:

"Many more formats will be online by March 7th, the day Sita Sings the Blues airs on WNET TV (part of Reel 13 on March 7 at 10:45 pm). These will be higher resolution and free to copy and share. If you want a copy, please wait for the higher quality formats instead of capturing the very compressed channel13.org streaming version. As the artist, I want the highest quality versions to circulate; it’d be sad if a super-compressed capture started torrenting first. Together, we can keep quality high!"

[#5 posted by Sekino , February 27, 2009 8:48 AM]

YAAY!! I'm so happy it's finally available! :D

[#6 posted by Ugly Canuck , February 27, 2009 9:36 AM]

In the spirit of syncretism, the Bollywood Beatles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ky5ClIjL8

This Nita film is great!
But I've always liked animation.

[#7 posted by Ugly Canuck , February 27, 2009 9:38 AM]

oops - I meant Sita. That Sita is neat-o...

[#8 posted by littleoracle , February 27, 2009 9:51 AM]

yay! and yay for channel 13!

immediately watched it online, but am fortunate enough to live in the NYC area and will be sure to watch next saturday when it airs.

this was just what i needed today!

[#9 posted by Alessandro Cima , February 27, 2009 10:37 AM]

Perfect. This is what I love about the web. What a nice outcome.

[#10 posted by Ugly Canuck , February 27, 2009 10:44 AM]

It's at times like this that I'm glad my computer is hooked up to my large DLP monitor.
Bravo, Ms. Paley!

[#11 posted by Anonymous , February 27, 2009 11:03 AM]

So what are the issues that allow Public Television to air something that cannot be cleared to sell?

The non-profit status?

The blanket license afforded to PBS affilliates for ASCAP, BMI, SESAC et al, that make broadcast of contested songs fine and dandy?

They both probably work in favor of airing Sita. DVD release is another can of worms, unfortunately. Too Bad whoever owns the rights needing clearance are not playing ball.

I would donate to a PBS station that made a DVD of Sita available as a come on.

I love that they are making it available as a stream, but that is considerably less convenient to me as a viewer, than having my own copy on media.

The problem with watching in a browser is, I will browse rather than watch. Especially with longer form.

[#12 posted by Ugly Canuck , February 27, 2009 12:36 PM]

True, Anon: this is why it is good to at least have the possibility of hooking your computer to a large screen for more comfortable viewing: although it's often the case that the resolution is inadequate a la Youtube , this film looked very fine on the monitor.

[#13 posted by franko , February 27, 2009 12:38 PM]

as per #4, can i formally request that Bb keep us posted when that happens? i would love to see the entire thing in a quality the artist approves of.

and congratulations to nina! i have followed this saga from early on, and i'm glad to see it's working out.

[#14 posted by Anonymous , February 27, 2009 1:40 PM]

Says the item is not currently available.

Did we boingboing PBS?

[#15 posted by CommieNeko , February 27, 2009 1:41 PM]

Absolutely gorgeous work.

I've seen the "previews" hosted on archive.org, however, so I'm going to wait and download the high quality versions when they become available rather than watch a compressed streaming version.

[#16 posted by Stacyj , February 27, 2009 4:41 PM]

@#14 - I got that "Item is not currently available" notice, too, but then I tried reloading it and it's now playing fine ...

Thanks for posting this, I'm really excited to get to see it in its entirety (finally =)

[#17 posted by Vector , February 27, 2009 7:29 PM]

I saw this incredible film tonight in 35mm at the Wexner Center for the Arts on the Ohio State University campus. Nina was in attendance.

The film is absolutely brilliant, and Nina was a delight. She said that the entire film would be posted online after March 7 including the 200-gig master file used to make the 35mm prints. She is encouraging everyone to download and share the film.

I'm looking forward to sharing this with as many people as I can.

[#18 posted by senorglory , February 27, 2009 8:21 PM]

Awesome.

[#19 posted by Ocker3 , March 1, 2009 12:21 AM]

oh wow, my (Indian) gf is having a Really bad weekend, she is going to Flip over this! *blows kisses Cory*

may your balloon always loft high

[#20 posted by Anonymous , March 1, 2009 8:16 AM]

One of the things I've done to help the movie (and Nina) is write to my alma mater, Drexel University. I suggested it for screening at one of their weekly movie nights - the movie's free, they could charge for it, and send the profits (since Nina effectively "donated" the movie to them) her way.

It's a great, symbiotic way to both benefit from an artist's work and support them. I even suggested we get our Digital Media program onboard with it, as well as the Drexel Indian Undergraduate Student Association.

I suggest others do the same! Coordinate a screening when the movie is downloadable! Charge a little, or charge for concessions, or sell copies of the DVD for $5! You could easily recoup and expenses and send the profits to a worthy cause.

[#21 posted by vanbcguy , March 1, 2009 6:02 PM]

Huh... when I first saw this I thought it was about my employer, SITA, which incidentally has a particular shade of blue for its logo, and just celebrated its 60th birthday...

http://sita.aero/

Yeah, we have our own TLD... How cool is that?

[#22 posted by EichaelThe0ne , March 1, 2009 9:05 PM]

DONATE
I just spent a nice Sunday afternoon watching an epic feature-length film biography made by just ONE person (*"with the exception of some fight animation by Jake Friedman in the "Battle of Lanka" scene.")
I paid $8 for it. I felt it was that well done.

I didn't know that someone else had sung that song before Dean Martin.

THANKS BOINGBOING!!!
THANKS NINA PALEY!!!

[#23 posted by EichaelThe0ne , March 1, 2009 9:12 PM]

PS: Post a picture. It'll connect to the word-of-mouth going already going around for this film.

[#24 posted by EichaelThe0ne , March 1, 2009 9:38 PM]

http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/collaborators.html
It pays to have friends.