Nina Paley dedicated five years to make her original film, Sita Sings the Blues. Using 2-D animation techniques, Paley weaves the 1920’s music of blues singer Annette Hanshaw into a story of modern-day heartbreak mixed with a Hindu epic tale. But after being shown at dozens of film festivals and winning awards and critical acclaim, she still can’t distribute her film through normal channels, because although the recording rights for the music—integral to the movie—have expired, the copyright for the songs themselves have not.

However, because of some of the exceptions granted to public broadcasters by the U.S. Copyright Act*, Thirteen can bring you the whole movie! We’re streaming Sita Sings the Blues online on the Reel 13 website starting February 26, and the film will be broadcast as part of Reel 13 on March 7 at 10:45 pm (ET) on Thirteen.

Watch Sita now!

Sita Sings The Blues–Synopsis:
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”.

Watch trailer: (if you can’t see trailer online, you can watch it at archive.org)

More about Sita and Copyright:
Read about Nina Paley’s difficulty clearing the copyrights for the music used in the film.
Read Roger Ebert’s rave about Sita Sings the Blues.
Paley wants to set a new precedent for film distribution–more about this project here.

Do you live outside of the NYC area and want to see the film?
Besides our streaming of the film (on the Reel 13 website), you can ask your local PBS affiliate to air Sita! Read about 13’s airing and look up your local station info.

Reel 13 Website relaunch
The online-streaming of Paley’s Sita movie is but one of the many new features of the revamped Reel 13 website, which will be launching on February 26, 2009 online. Stay tuned (as it were)!

* The US Copyright Act includes several exceptions designed to aid and enhance the mission of public broadcasting. One provision found in section 114(b) allows public broadcasters to use copyrighted sound recordings in programs without permission or payment. In addition there is also a compulsory licensing scheme under section 118 that allows public broadcasters to use published nondramatic musical works as long as they pay the rights holders a fee set by a copyright arbitration royalty panel.