Day: December 31, 2008

Sita Sings the Blues: a great film we gotta see here

jstueart1 Comment

1sita-thumb-200x2312I just heard about this animated film that Ebert is raving about. Get this: an animated film based on the Indian epic, The Ramayana, with songs from 1930s singer Annette Hanshaw.

The Ramayana tells the story of a great betrayal by a husband and his mother on the husband’s wife. It is one of the oldest texts in India, and rife with magic, monkeys and religion. It was made to be a thriller–a very long thriller.

The movie though, is animated.

Here’s the trailer, without the Hanshaw.

The problem: Hanshaw’s estate won’t give Nina Paley, the creator of Sita Sings the Blues, the rights to use the songs, so no distributor will touch it. It can win tons of awards–and it has–check out this site. But it can’t be mass distributed. Update:  Here is Nina’s Distribution Plan since Ebert’s article!  Click there to find the movie…and where you’ll be able to see it.

I can’t wait to see this film. I wonder if we can get Yukon Film Society folks to bring it up. It seems to be showing at film festivals everywhere….

So, this is another outlet for fantasy writing: cartooning and reinterpreting world epics with lots of fantasy elements. And adding in some historical footage too. It’s remarkable. Listen to this. Here’s a nice mix of 1930s Singing, modern animation, and a world Epic:

There are no limits for fantasy writing. None. Okay, well, copyright….but really, no limits. 😉

Novelists! Classes start Monday at Yukon College

jstueartLeave a comment

rightimg1Happy New Year to Everyone! I hope this coming new year brings you what you want.

It’s a long and interesting journey, no doubt.

Perhaps, you are looking to work on your novel? Perhaps, you have been working on one for years and you want to get some guided help through a course? Maybe, you just plunked one out in November during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and you want to work on revising it, or just getting feedback on it.

Yukon College is offering two courses: Monday nights for Realism/Mainstream writing and Tuesday nights for Speculative Fiction (Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Fantastical Children’s Lit). The school, though, is closed till Jan 2, or Friday. So, if you’re gonna sign up and come to the first class on Monday, you’ll have to sign up on Friday or Next week. Regardless of when you sign up, come to the first classes. We have to get a viable head count to know if the classes will make. We need 8 people each class, at least, to make this happen. We’ll be working on synopsis writing and editing three chapters of your novel.

Click on Writing Classes to learn more.

Also, don’t forget that Yukon writers, in classes or not, should be getting ready for the Editor’s Weekend that is happening at the beginning of April. Six editors are coming up to talk with Yukoners, give workshops, about the next steps in publishing their manuscripts. This coincides with the last weekend of our coursework. So it makes a fitting transition after our class is done to move towards shopping a manuscript around.

So, if working on your novel is part of your planned journey for 2009, I hope to see you in class in the new year!