SYNOPSIS

Sita is a Hindu goddess, the leading lady of India’s epic the Ramayana and a dutiful wife who follows her husband Rama on a 14 year exile to a forest, only to be kidnapped by an evil king from Sri Lanka. Despite remaining faithful to her husband, Sita is put through many tests. Nina (the filmmaker Nina Paley herself) is an artist who finds parallels in Sita’s life when her husband – in India on a work project - decides to break up their marriage and dump her via email. Three hilarious Indonesian shadow puppets with Indian accents – linking the popularity of the Ramayana from India all the way to the Far East - narrate both the ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the epic. In her first feature length film, Paley juxtaposes multiple narrative and visual styles to create a highly entertaining yet moving vision of the Ramayana. Musical numbers choreographed to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw feature a cast of hundreds: flying monkeys, evil monsters, gods, goddesses, warriors, sages, and winged eyeballs. A tale of truth, justice and a woman’s cry for equal treatment. Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as "The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told."

SELECT FESTIVALS AND AWARDS

• Winner, Special Mention Generation 14plus, 2008 Berlin International Film Festival
• Winner, Best Feature, 2008 Annecy International Animated Film Festival
• Official Selection, 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
• Official Selection, 2008 Seattle International Film Festival
• Official Selection, 2008 Atlantic International Film Festival
• Official Selection, 2008 Melbourne International Film Festival
• Official Selection, 2008 San Francisco International Animation Festival

DIRECTOR'S BIOGRAPHY

Nina Paley (b. May 3, 1968, Champaign IL, USA) is a longtime veteran of syndicated comic strips, creating "Fluff" (Universal Press Syndicate), "The Hots" (King Features), and her own alternative weekly "Nina's Adventures." In 1998 she began making independent animated festival films, including the controversial yet popular environmental short, "The Stork." In 2002 Nina followed her then-husband to Trivandrum, India, where she read her first Ramayana. This inspired her first feature, Sita Sings the Blues, which she animated and produced single-handedly over the course of 5 years on a home computer. Nina teaches at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan and is a 2006 Guggenheim Fellow.

Filmography: Sita Sings the Blues (2007), The Stork (2002), The Wit & Wisdom of Cancer (2002), Fertco (2002), Goddess of Fertility (2002), Lexi (2002), Fetch! (2001), Pandorama (2000), I (heart) My Cat (1998), Luv Is... (1998), Cancer (1998)

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SHOWTIMES

SAT. 5/23 at 2:00PM
Faye Spanos Concert Hall

SUN. 5/24 at 8:00PM
Stockton Empire Theatre

CAST AND CREW

Production Company: Nina Paley Productions, LLC
Screenwriter: Nina Paley
Executive Producer: Nina Paley
Producer: Nina Paley
Animator: Nina Paley
Cinematographer: Nina Paley
Editor: Nina Paley
Production Designer: Nina Paley
Sound Designer: Greg Sextro
Music: Annette Hanshaw
Principal Cast: Reena Shah, Sanjiv Jhaveri, Aseem Chhabra, Bhavana Nagulapally, Manish Acharya

click here for full credits

SOURCES

World Sales: Steven Beer
Greenberg Traurig
Tel: (212) 801-9294
Fax: (212) 801-6400
Email: beers@gtlaw.com

Print Source: Jean Paley
(217) 384-8165
Email: paley.jean@gmail.com