Sita Sings the Blues

A 2008 American independent animated musical written, directed, produced, and animated by Nina Paley. The film intersperses events from the Ramayana, light-hearted discussion of historical background by a trio of Indian shadow puppet narrators, musical interludes voiced with 1920s jazz recordings by Annette Hanshaw, and scenes from the filmmaker's own life. The ancient mythological and modern biographical plots are parallel tales, sharing numerous themes. After a prolonged copyright battle over the Hanshaw recordings, Paley released the film under a CC-0 public domain license, waiving all rights to the extent possible under law. The film has been widely distributed and shown freely online, becoming a landmark case in copyright reform advocacy.