The Better Half and I hosted one of our best friends this past weekend. We took a trip up to Waterville to have dinner at the sublime Freedom Cafe, and as luck would have it we had just received a recent mailing from Railroad Square Cinema about their current offerings. (A short digression -- the existence of those two establishments was a major reason I was able to survive the move from Manhattan to mid-Maine. May they stay in business forever.) I had heard nothing about Sita Sings the Blues, but was intrigued enough to suggest it to our friend, and the three of us decided to give it a shot.
It was fantastic, and utterly unlike anything I have ever seen at the theater before. A cunning, hilarious and poignant retelling of the Hindu epic the Ramayana, which tells of the marriage of Rama and Sita, Sita Sings the Blues also deals with the break-up of the film-maker (who did the vast majority of the work on the production herself) and her husband. In between expository segments (narrated by three droll shadow puppets) and dramatic re-enactments, Sita's travails are expressed through the songs of Annette Hanshaw (a 20s blues singer). The animation varies between sections, from crude line-drawings to brilliantly-colored celestial panorama, each of which contributes to the narrative in a unique and fascinating way.
The animator, Nina Paley, has made the entire work available for download, but if you can find a local screening, go see it. It is one of the most inventive things I have ever seen, and deserves to be enjoyed in the theater.
Go Ahead, Make the Case That Science, Free Speech, and the FDA Are Thriving
Under Drs. Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad
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Unlike Drs. Adam Cifu and John Mandrola, I do not constantly boast of my
"nuance" or claim to be a master of "clinical appraisal." They have so much
to t...
16 hours ago
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