Imagine my surprise when long-time buddy Lesleigh Luttrell told me that
Nina Paley was scheduled to appear in nearby Wisconsin Rapids and Lesleigh wondered whether I was planning to attend one of the days of that community's "Betty Boop Festival." Imagine my
renewed surprise when, having forgotten all about it, I received another e-mail from Lesleigh reminding me, saying that Friday would be the only day she could attend, and asking whether we could get together to see Paley.
I've admired Paley's work for years and years but hadn't seen it for ages. What a terrific opportunity! And the
Central Wisconsin Cultural Center (240 Johnson Street) is a surprising facility in the midst of relatively rural Wisconsin. Lesleigh and I wandered through the facility, admiring the art from Paley's cartoons and stills from her
Sita Sings the Blues (which Lesleigh had seen and I hadn't - but the stills were gorgeous). Then, the panel was about to begin, and I grabbed front-row seats. The panel members were David Farbrough (above, a freelance writer and photographer, who has been a lawyer and also written (taught?) on the history of film; Paley; University of Wisconsin Baraboo Literature and Film Professor Frances Auld; and Festival Director Cathy Meils.
Much of the focus was on
Sita Sings the Blues, and, asked how she'd done it (all the animation on the feature film), Paley responded, "I was a hermit for three years." She said it was possible for one person to animate a film today because of the technology: She said of her Mac, "You direct the computer to do in-betweens," and, "I played tricks to hide how many corners I cut." Thanks to a Guggenheim Fellowship, she didn't have to move in with her parents to afford to complete the film in the roughly 8,000-10,000 hours it took to put the project together. She waved her right hand to show the ring she wore on the middle finger: "I married the film."
The film is a version of the story of Sita as told in the Hindu
Ramayana - as told in part through animation of songs performed by
Annette Hanshaw, each song appropriate to a plot development in Sita's story, sung by Sita. While the performances are public domain today, the songs themselves are not, and Paley entered into the challenge of structuring her work so as to enable it to incorporate the performances that are ordinarily restricted. (More on that in a bit.) Given that the Jewish Paley was adapting a work of religious significance, not all the response has been positive. She laughed that, while her name could be taken as Indian, someone had responded, "No, Nina Paley is a white Christian woman who hates Hindus."
Why an animated film? "I made an animated film, because that's my skill. I'm a control freak, so animation is good for me." And, "A lot of the film is the result of happy accidents."
The discussion moved on to Paley's espousal of the "free culture movement." The home page of
Sita Sings the Blues (linked above) goes into more detail. In short, anyone is welcome to use the film, copy it, send it to their friends, and otherwise spread it - as long as the new usage doesn't restrict it in some way. Details are on the website - which is where I saw the feature for the first time (today, in fact). "A work is lucky if it has fans," she said. "All elements are Flash files and available for use. They can be changed - though, if that happens, the source should be attributed to me and the changes to them." She referred to
Question Copyright (where, I note today, she's the winner of the 2010 "IP3 Award" from Public Knowledge) and said she'd "made way more money by releasing [her film] for free." Replacing the costs for advertising, for example, are word of mouth and the ability of those who like it to share the work.
So how to make money for devoting three years of her life to the film?
(1)
Voluntary payments from arts organizations and the like, which invite her to attend events and to lecture
(2)
Direct donations "My main income comes from that. I'm happy to be a charity."
(3)
Merchandise "The visuals are open-sourced, and you may not sue someone else for producing it, but no one else has done it." (I bought a cool cloisonne pin she had made: the "peacock phonograph.")
(4)
Conventional distributors, which can still be used, but only 5-10% of her income comes from such use.
Will that bring success? "There is no recipe for success."
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