The Philadelphia Film Festival/CineFest 2009 is pleased to announce that Sita Sings the Blues will screen as a special presentation at this year’s festival, running from March 26th to April 6th. This rousing mash-up of shadow puppetry, jazz music, and full on Technicolor Bollywood splendor joins the line up of over 200 films from 39 different countries.

Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues is an autobiographical, animated film that follows a modern woman, Nina, and the mythological goddess Sita. These two women live strikingly similar lives even though they are worlds apart.

Nina lives a blissful life as an animator in San Francisco with her husband and cat until her husband jets off to India for a job; he then dumps her by email. Sita, a character in the mythic Indian text “Ramayana,” is a goddess separated from her lord and husband Rama. Three puppets narrate the ancient tragedy and modern comedy of both Nina and Sita’s relationships. Mixed with jazz music from the ‘20s, this film tosses both women’s stories together and the most entertaining break-up story ever told will unfold before your eyes.

The director, Paley, worked for five years to complete the feature-length film and will be speaking at Philadelphia University on Thursday April 2nd and attending a screening of Sita Sings the Blues at The Prince on Friday April 3rd.


Presenting sponsors of this year’s spring festival are: TLA Entertainment Group, Pennsylvania Film Office, The Bridge/National Amusements, City of Philadelphia; program segment sponsors are the Festival of Independents presented by Dive and the Quay Brothers Tribute/Animation Festival presented by University of the Arts.