An unholy trinity of corporate profiteers, copyright weasels, and intolerant religious whack jobs, although this time they are Hindu and not Christian, have all conspired to kill this film:
It's the animated story of the Hindu gods Rama and Sita told in song, by shadow puppets, and through a modern parallel story. It's a stunning animation achievement that should be celebrated and admired for years to come. Instead the film has been hit with religious nut bags who threaten to burn any theaters in India that show it and it's been stifled by exorbitant demands for money by the shadowy assholes who own the copyright to the Jazz age songs used in the film.
As usual, intolerant religious people show themselves to be haters of any kind of free expression, in this case they hate that a western woman had the gall to make a film they feel mocks the fairy tale they believe in. They feel it's not respectful of their fairy tale and they want it quashed and some have claimed they'll use violence to quash it. It's the one thing intolerant Christians and Hindus can agree on, they both hate free expression about their chosen fairy tales.
When Nina Paley set out making this fine stunning film the music she chose was in the public domain, which means she could use it in her film and pay nothing and none to do. By the time she finished it however the law had changed and someone bought the copyright to the music. They demanded Ms. Paley pay through the nose for the rights to the Jazz age songs used in the movie. Since she had no distributor, and could not get one until she had obtained the rights to use the songs in her movie, she was screwed.
But Ms. Paley found a loophole, she decided to release the film with Creative Commons license, which means she's giving it away for free. If you like the film you can contact her and pay her whatever you like. Since it's released with a CC license anyone can remix it, add or subtract to it, or do what one likes with it, with the proviso that after you finish remixing or doing what you like to it your finished product must also be released with a CC license.
There's more about the film on Wikipedia and you can read all about it by clicking
here.
Don't look for this film in your local Blockbuster or on Netflix, it's not going to be there due to the corporate weasels who stabbed Ms. Paley in the back. However it can be found online and other places if you're willing to look. And I highly recommend you do seek it out and watch it because it's by turns funny, beautiful, and astonishing. I really can't say enough good things about this film.
"I'm using it as a food source. When I put shredded pages in with my casseroles, it helps me stretch my food dollar farther."
"I'm using it as a science textbook to disprove the theory of evolution. Oooo, hang on, I just had an idea for a play about a moody Dane who lives in a castle called Elsinore...get me a typewriter quick! Or better yet a laptop that's connected to the internet."
"I'm using it to scare the hell out of these kids who I will then take to my van one at a time in order to 'comfort' them. It's a trick I learned in that pedophile book I got off Amazon dot com the other day."
"I'm using it for self defense baby. All these crazy crackers runnin' around with guns will cap a motherfuckin' social justice Jesus if they can. I'm only coming back so many times before I say to hell with it you know. Y'all want to keep on killin' me, I'll eventually say "Fuck it," and I'll pick up and move to a nice little planet near the Horsehead Nebula where they appreciate a motherfuckin' savior.
