“Sita Sings the Blues” uses Internet to be a smash hit
“Sita Sings the Blues” director Nina Paley interview Part 2
For part 1 of this interview go to “Sita Sings the Blues” director turns pain into passion project
By Michael Knox, mknox@modernfilmzine.com
Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings the Blues” has been an Internet hit, playing at film festivals around the world. But the film, somehow has not found major theatrical distribute. And ever since Paley has gone on the film festival circuit she’s learned a few reasons why.
“At first distributors were simply scared of it because it was hard to describe and it was just weird,” Paley said. “And big distributors won’t touch something this weird. Small distributors became interested over time.”
But even with smaller distributors knocking at her door, she still couldn’t land a deal that would handle the cost of making the movie. Especially with the cost of using Annette Hanshaw’s jazz music. With major music companies owning the rights to the compositions to Hanshaw’s songs, Paley found herself facing a large music clearance blockade.
The cost for music clearance was more than $50,000.
“I was shocked when they named their price, which was far more than what it cost to make the film,” Paley said.
Unable to land a distribution deal, Paley’s film has found an audience by sheer word of mouth with her film often being invited to film festivals.
“I actually benefited by not having distributors because people have seen the movie at film festivals,” she said. “I’m not getting money from this, but beyond a modest advance I would not be making anything anyway.”
The buzz over her film has pushed Paley to come up with her own distribution plan.
“The way distributors are in a crisis right now, I’d make money, but it would limit and control how many people see the film. Money would be really good but, i think I’ll make more money giving the movie away for free.”
That sounds like a strange bit of logic until Paley explains.
She talked about how she can set up the film to receive donations, voluntary payments and merchandise could be developed to sell in conjunction with the movie.
Paley also talked about how the film could eventually be shown on the local Public Broadcasting System in New York and be sponsored by corporations there. PBS has a blanket agreement with the music publishing industry that will allow the music clearance issue to not be a problem if “Sita Sings the Blues” were to air there.
She said she could also eventually use her funds to clear the music herself and self distribute the film with DVD sales, limited edition DVDs and voluntary payments from public screenings.
“I want the audience to distribute the film for me,” Paley said. “I’m surrendering to it, I’m allowing it to happen. I’ve been so encourage by the audience. They are doing so much work. You have to pay for advertising and they are just getting the word out and I love that. I also don’t want anybody to not to be able to see the film because they don’t have any money.”
Audiences who have seen Paley’s film have often enjoyed the mixture of art styles used in the film. Although, Paley did have a good reason for using three main styles.
“I used different styles to keep myself from being bored and imagining myself watching the film, I wanted to include a survey of Ramayana art,” she said. The story is told in Indonesia, Asia, Cambodia, India and other countries.
“I wanted to show some of those (different art styles) … and that’s why I have those paintings which is another kind of art associated with the Ramayana,” Paley said.
In addition to art styles, Paley included an homage to Bollywood movies, which often are three hours long and have an intermission. About the middle of the movie Paley includes a two a half minute intermission. The intermission is still animated, with characters coming in and out of the screen, and is also a throwback to other older movies.
“I had been renting old American musicals while working on ‘Sita’ and sure enough here in the middle of the film comes the word intermission,” she said.
Paley may have been influenced by Indian culture in making the movie, but the reception of the movie has been mixed.
The film was shown once in India publicly and the political climate is so charged there, with fundamentalist leaders, that some did not approve.
Some individuals had been critical, with the criticism being the film is too irreverent and that the way Sita is portrayed with a narrow waist and big hips is offensive, Paley said. .
She said that, just because the film is a cartoon it’s inappropriate to some. Others feel that the film focuses too much on Sita rather then Rama. In the Ramayana, Sita is only a foot note in the story.
“But obviously my film is about Sita and her suffering,” Paley said. “And that’s that not something they really want.”
What differences people may have over the film, new fans continue to discover the film and the following for “Sita Sings the Blues” continues to grow.
“It’s an Internet success,” she said. “I couldn’t have made this film without the technology that has developed. I couldn’t have made this without a computer and far fewer people would have heard about it without the the Internet. The Internet is changing everything.”
