{"id":451,"date":"2009-01-28T02:46:25","date_gmt":"2009-01-28T08:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=451"},"modified":"2014-09-06T14:58:01","modified_gmt":"2014-09-06T20:58:01","slug":"when-roger-met-nina-sita-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=451","title":{"rendered":"When Roger met Nina (& Sita, too)"},"content":{"rendered":"

All right,\u00a0all right<\/em>,\u00a0so I’m late with this one – it’s not like the “Jason come lately” syndrome is any sort of mystery, folks\u00a0– but let’s think positive and bask in the glow of an seven-post week here on C-U Blogfidential<\/strong>. That doesn’t happen … well, ever.<\/p>\n

A minor Internet hubaloo erupted just before Xmas 2008 when Roger Ebert<\/strong> wrote about the animated feature SITA SINGS THE BLUES<\/a><\/strong> on his Chicago Sun-Times<\/span><\/strong> blog. After reading\u00a0said musings about the project, a virtual one-woman\u00a0creation from\u00a0Urbana<\/strong> native and alternative comix artist Nina Paley<\/a><\/strong> with a little help from voice actors, musicians, sound designers, and recordings of the late jazz vocalist Annette Hanshaw<\/strong>, it becomes more clear than usual that Ebert will go out of his way to trumpet a film he believes in.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Like many aspiring filmmakers, Paley sent her film to Ebert in the remote hopes that the famous movie critic would sneak a peek and write about it favorably. Also, like many perspiring filmmakers, Paley chanced it despite the fact that A. Ebert spends a lot of time producing a mind-blowing amount of material each week for the Sun-Times<\/span> and elsewhere, and\u00a0B. Nearly all of that material constituting a “review” is\u00a0about movies playing commercially in a theater at the time of publication, which I understand is dictated by the media outlets for a multiude of (commercial) reasons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Unlike many screeners, Paley’s\u00a0did<\/em> make\u00a0it to the DVD player of the Ebert home theater. SITA<\/strong> won over the critic so handily that he posted the equivalent of a “thumbs-up” review and a short news story all rolled into one, do doubt making Paley and her fans very happy. Ebert even admits that he’s invited SITA<\/strong> to “Ebertfest<\/strong>” 2009<\/strong>. Dang! We (presumably) know one of the selections and we’re not even past Groundhog Day? That doesn’t happen … well, ever<\/em>. Usually, the faithful have to play the annual\u00a0“waiting until the end of March for the College of Media<\/strong> to announce the Ebertfest selections” game. Maybe this is GROUNDHOG DAY<\/strong> instead. Hm<\/em>. Could be worse.<\/p>\n

Ebert obviously has more jurisdiction over what and when\u00a0he publishes on his Weblog than in print and he’s taking advantage of that freedom. So are his readers; check out the SITA<\/strong> post and sift through the 100-plus reader comments<\/a> for some passionate opinions about the mix of Indian and Western concepts in the film as well as\u00a0useful information in regards to music rights clearances (which has been a major road block for Paley) and self-distribution.<\/p>\n

We wish the best of luck to Nina Paley\u00a0with SITA SINGS THE BLUES<\/strong> and can’t wait to (presumably) see it at the Virginia Theatre<\/strong> in April! CUBlog<\/strong> would also like to thank the C-U @ the Movies<\/strong> listserv<\/a> for pointing out this item to their subscribers.<\/p>\n

~ Jason Pankoke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Urbana native Roger Ebert sings the praises of Urbana native Nina Paley’s film SITA SINGS THE BLUES, which might just play in a certain Champaign film festival in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,15,30],"tags":[158,1703,72,159],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alums-done-good","category-media-coverage","category-roger-ebert","tag-nina-paley","tag-roger-ebert","tag-roger-eberts-film-festival","tag-sita-sings-the-blues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}