Sita Sings the Blues (USA)

An animated musical treatment of the Ramayana full of humor and a questioning, feminist slant. Great all around. The "sings the blues" part of the title is from the fact that almost all of the all the singing is jazz recordings of Annette Hanshaw from the 1920's. It's almost impossible to give this film it's proper due in words. You just need to see it. I'd heard that several times before this screening - and truth be told I wasn't super convinced. Thankfully I went and I am not at all sorry.

I found the film laugh-out-loud funny, interesting and great to both watch and listen to. One frequent filmgoer who'd read the Ramayana often earlier in his life mentioned that on top of really liking the film as entertainment it made many points he'd missed as a child. The audience seemed to really love it as well. I'm pretty sure this isn't just me recommending the film. My only regret is that I didn't get a chance to see the director, who for some reason was able to attend the press screenings but not this film.

Update - later posts on the adventures of the film can be found here.