I got back from Stuttgart, still coughing (albeit less), and slept for about 2 days. Now I’m slogging through my backed-up emails and figuring out what to do next. I looks like I’ll be touring the Eastern Hemisphere most of June and July, and sub-letting my Hell’s Kitchen apartment. Interested parties please get in touch - the apartment comes with my cat Bruno, who needs daily food and love.

You’d think I’d be all overjoyed about this, but actually I’m stressed and confused. Will Sita get a distribution deal? Will it win an award? Awards drive me crazy - I always want one, “for the sake of the film,” I tell myself, but surely it’s for my ego. Press too is like coke, I always want more; google blogsearch is becoming a compulsion. I compare Sita’s progress with other films, which can’t be good. I’d like to detach from all this, but what about the festivals? This is my big chance to attend film festivals, it’s not like I can postpone them all until next year. But film festivals are orgies of comparison: who’s getting the most press? the best reviews? whose shows are selling out first? who’s getting the award? These are enemies of the Muse, and I’m not sufficiently mature to maintain my equilibrium in their midst.

Also, I am out of money and racking up expenses like you wouldn’t believe. Take “film festival rights”: publishers charge at least $500 a song just to play the film at festivals - and I don’t get money at festivals, I spend money to make the prints and stuff. I’m spending money I don’t have to get the film out there, and although something always works out, I have no idea how I’m going to pay for French subtitles (the “honor” of attending the Annecy Animation Festival is costing me over $5,000), or legal fees, or rent. Someday the film could bring money in, but I’m not sure how I’m going to make it to that day, if it ever comes.

What a whiney post this has turned out to be. On the brighter side, I’ll post next about all the sweeet reviews Sita got at Tribeca, with tasty little quotes selected by Publicity Bitch herself. But I am not Publicity Bitch. I am a servant of the Muse who is losing her way.

Here it is: the reality show My First Time, produced and directed by Jesse Mann. It follows three first-time feature directors - including me - at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Pay attention, ASIFA-East. Jeans and T-shirts are for pussies.

More Sita premiere photos from Getty Images.

I made a little blog to more easily update Sita screening information.

Apparently an American distributor rejected Sita Sings the Blues because, culturally, “it only relates to a tiny slice of the world.”

L-R, Back: Georgia Hilton (mix), Todd Michaelsen (music), Reena Shah (voice, dance), me, Sanjiv Jhaveri (voice), Greg Sextro (sound design), Aseem Chhabra (voice). Front: Rohan (music), Aladdin Ullah (voice), Debargo Sanyal (voice), Bhavana Nagulapally (voice). I love you all!

Photo by Preston Merchant - click to see more.

Back in March the Tribeca people asked all us filmmakers to send in a little self-interview answering questions like, “what is my name?,” “where am I from?,” and “why do I make films?” Today they finally posted my video, which you can view here.

You gotta get up pretty early in the morning to hear Sita Sings the Blues mentioned on the radio. That’s what will supposedly happen on WNYC tomorrow (Tuesday April 22) around 6:30ish (FM) and 8:30ish (AM), during Morning Edition. I think it’s local only, but you can hear it online (hour 2, about mid-way through). That’s what I’m gonna do, since I plan to be asleep when it airs live. (Big ups to Publicity Bitch, whose work seems to be paying off.)

The Sita Sings the Blues trailer is up for a Freddie Award in the “Best Design” category. It’s one of those “viewer-votes” things - aka “get the filmmakers to do the publicity and spam everyone they know to go to your site and increase its ratings for advertisers and investors” things - so if you have the time and inclination and don’t mind being used as a pawn please go here and vote for it.

(Unrelated to the Freddie award, there’s a newer version of the Sita trailer featuring the soon-to-be-infamous “shadow puppets” on the Tribeca site (click the “trailers” tab). )

An article including me and Sita’s upcoming Tribeca premiere is now at Digital Filmmaker.

Berliners and other pastries can catch one (and only one!) screening of Sita Sings the Blues this April 24 9:15pm at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures) immediately following the premiere of “play/dance/music/video/project” The Abduction of Sita by Joachim Schloemer.

(more…)

If you’re in Los Angeles, you should go see LOINS OF PUNJAB PRESENTS at the Arclight Hollywood (Sunset Blvd) on Saturday April 26 at 7pm as part of IFFLA.

“Loins” is one of my favorite movies ever. I did animation on its music video, and its director, Manish Acharya, is a voice in Sita.

Since I can’t afford a publicist for Sita, I’m doing my own. Yes, it’s a full-time job. No, it doesn’t suit my character. Yes, I have created an alter-ego to handle this, a new sub-personality I call “Publicity Bitch.” She is shameless and aggressive and refers to me in the third person. She writes my press releases. If you’re a journalist, Publicity Bitch kindly requests you get in touch: press at sitasingstheblues dot com.

Fortunately, some press has come to me unasked, notably a new NBC documentary/reality show called My First Time. The first episode follows me and 2 other first-time feature filmmakers as we get ready for our Tribeca premieres. It will air in New York on Saturday May 3 at 7pm on WNBC; if that goes well, NBC will broadcast it nationally. Above are photos (click to enlarge) of producer/director/cameraman Jesse Zook Mann shooting yours truly here at Nina Paley Media Empire HQ.

I had a great time in Copenhagen! The NATFILM festival took excellent care of me, fed me well, and sent people to pick me up when I was too tired or confused to navigate the twisty streets myself. The audience for Sita was very sweet and generous and didn’t mind that the sound mysteriously switched from Dolby Surround to quiet analog stereo mid-way through the screening. Although I didn’t attend many films, the festival program looked excellent; they programmed not one, not two, but THREE Guy Maddin films, along with Sita and Loins of Punjab Presents, so they clearly have exquisite taste.

My photos here.

A quick update from abroad: This NATFILM festival is sweeeet. Copenhagen is possibly the most beautiful city I’ve ever visited - sorry other cities, but the medieval architecture here wins my heart. I just saw Guy Maddin’s fantastic new film “My Winnipeg,” which I missed in Berlin. Guy Maddin is one of the few filmmakers I can honestly call inspiring. Unfortunately he couldn’t attend NATFILM in person. But I did get to meet John Sayles and his partner Maggie and a bunch of really nice Danish film people at a superb homecooked dinner in a palatial (literally, in a palace) apartment here. Sweet, I tells ya.

“Sita” screens at 3pm tomorrow at Empire Bio. If you’re reading this and in Copenhagen, please come! We can hang out afterwards. NATFILM is nothing if not intimate.

Photos after I return next week.