Asian Window

The cartoonist Nina Paley mixes an ancient epic with the story of her own collapsing marriage. From The New York Times:

A scene from the animated feature “Sita Sings the Blues”

What do a 3,000-year-old Sanskrit epic, a ’20s-era jazz singer and Indonesian shadow puppets have in common? They’re all part of the eclectic cultural tapestry that is “Sita Sings the Blues,” an 82-minute animated feature that combines autobiography with a retelling of the classic Indian myth the Ramayana, and that required its creator, the syndicated comic-strip artist Nina Paley, to spend three years transforming herself into a one-woman moving-picture studio.

“At some point everything went through my computer,” said Ms. Paley, who is self-taught and whose longest animated film before this -- of a dog chasing a ball -- clocked in at just over four minutes. Her decision to do it herself may have satisfied her creative urges, but it also put her more than $20,000 in debt. “That’s why not everyone does it,” she said.

More: Below, a video clip

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