Sita Sings the Blues is a film that went through a lot, before it finally saw a way to reach an audience. The film has made quite a buzz when it first started appearing in various festivals quite some time ago. Unfortunately, out of nowhere, legal troubles concerning the film’s soundtrack emerged and stopped it from obtaining proper distribution.

The film itself is quite unique. Sita is an animated feature that re-tells a well-known Hindi fable, the Ramayana. The twist? The film’s narrative is accompanied by the 1920’s jazzy vocal stylings of Annette Hanshaw. Jazz and a Hindi folklore story make an interesting and fresh combination. The film’s soundtrack, what made Sita so different and gave the film a lot of buzz, is also what delayed it from being seen by an excited audience.

Filmmaker, Nina Paley, was shocked to find that Annette Hanshaw’s recordings which were supposedly became part of the public domain, was protected by copyright. The last time I heard about the movie, Paley was attempting to gather funds to pay for royalty so she could properly distribute her passion project.

Recently, I checked back on the status of the film and I was pleasantly surprised. Paley has decided to distribute the film for free! Any form of payment that she might receive because of the film, are counted as donation. She also sells pretty merchandise for the film too!

So everything works out. Check the movie out, as it comes in various formats.

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Ok, so the title may be kind of hoakey. But this is a really good documentary, giving us a look at the culture behind the music. What it was, what it has become, and why Hip Hop has gotten to the state that we know it know.

Check it out.

A lot of compliments have been thrown around for Tom Ford’s directorial debut, A Single Man. But personally, I’m not sure that I’m convinced.

Based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man tells the bittersweet story of George (Colin Firth), a gay English professor who is dealing with a recent death of his lover. The film takes place basically within one day, with flashbacks to days before George was told of the tragic accident.

The film does a good job setting a tone. Within the first ten minutes of the film, it is quite clear where the film is heading. For a debut, Ford has done a really good job establishing a clear, focused aesthetic and mood that supports the melancholic, romantic tone of the film. This seems rather appropriate, since he’s a designer and all.

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Belated Happy Holidays all, it’s been a while. Here’s an amazing little short film to warm you up on a cold winter night.

Unless you’re in the tropics. Cause, you know. It’s nice and warm here.

Writing about ANTICHRIST is almost as intimidating as the anticipation of seeing the film. Lars von Trier’s latest, that I caught at the New York Film Festival, definitely has made a lot of people talk. People vomited, walked out, passed out and loved this film. It is clear that ANTICHRIST is a film that you just can’t keep quiet about.

Shot by a long-time collaborator, Anthony Dod Mantle (he also lit SLUMDOG MILLIONARE), ANTICHRIST looks wonderful. I was plenty surprised, pleasantly I may add, when I learned that most of the film was shot in HD on the RED camera. The over-saturated, at times romantic and dreamy atmosphere that Dod Mantle created for the film works well with the nightmarish quality of the narrative.
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I’ll be honest. I came to the 2009 New York Film Festival’s screening of Trash Humpers rather terrified of what I was going to see. It really is a logical fear, especially if you’ve seen the trailer. Especially after my last experience with David Lynch’s Inland Empire, I really doubted my ability to sit through at least an hour of jarring absurdity, the one that I came to know from one of Harmony Korine’s most famous movies, Gummo.

Trash Humpers is Korine’s return to the exploration of nihilism and juvenile absurdities, a very different creature altogether in comparison to Mister Lonely. In Trash Humpers, a group of creepy looking cretins (a woman and three guys, played by Korine, his wife and two friends in old people masks) wreck havoc around Nashville, Tenesse. Constipated, the Humpers roam seemingly aimlessly through small town America, vandalizing, teaching kids to put razors in apples and humping trash.
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So, yeah. School kind of sucks and leave me no time for movies, for the most parts.

But for those of you who don’t really pay attention on what’s going on around the city, the New York Film Festival is here.

And they have a lot of really cool shit going on, if you can afford it. Yeah, tickets are pretty expensive and they are mostly sold out anyway but there are some rush tickets available at $10 bucks each for all the movies. This year around, they are setting over around 50 tickets in total(?)

The festival opened with the 50th anniversary screening of a remastered Wizard of Oz (yay!). There are director talks, and awesome movie screenings, and stuff. You know, the usual shindig.

This year, I’m seeing Michael Haneke (Funny Games) and Pedro Almodóvar (Volver, Bad Education) talk. Both of them have movies playing at the fest. Haneke has White Ribbon and Almodóvar has his fourth movie with Penelope Cruz, Broken Embraces.

I just got back from Harmonie Korine’s Trash Humpers, so expect a review of that up by the weekend, and I’m seeing Von Trier’s controversial Antichrist tomorrow at 0900 PM.

Other movies I’m looking forward to are Todd Solondz’s Life During War Time and Joon-ho-Bong’s much talked about Mother.

I wish I could afford to see Broken Embraces and Push (the one with the black people and Mariah Carey). But alas.

Check out more details on the festival, see some movies with strangers in the dark, and maybe bump into someone famous.