I will always revere the Red Vic movie house because I saw my first Bruce Lee movie there. Now, an event almost as important is about to take place:
Nina Paley’s beautiful animated film Sita Sings the Blues will be playing at the Red Vic for three nights next week:
Tues, Feb. 9 - 7:15pm, 9:15pm
Wed, Feb. 10 - 2:00pm, 7:15pm, 9:15pm
Thurs, Feb. 11 - 7:15pm, 9:15pm
If you haven’t seen it, go see it! If you have seen it, go see it! (Did I leave anyone out?)
You can also buy the DVD or donate to the filmmaker, who released the film under a free license because she wanted people to see it and share it.
Directions to The Red Vic:
The Red Vic Movie House is located on 1727 Haight Street (map),between Cole and Shrader, just a block and a half east from Golden Gate Park. The Red Vic is also served directly by MUNI routes: 7,33,37,43, & 71. MUNI route 6 & N-Judah come within a few blocks.
I presume it was a feat of persuasion to get a cinema to show the film? I assume this has been achieved via a direct approach to the cinema rather than via some indie distribution channel?
Will there be an article at some point documenting Nina Paley’s trials and tribulations at getting her film to the big screen?
Actually, no. “Sita Sings the Blues” has distributors — they approach theaters in the usual way, and they share revenue with Nina Paley. But it’s all done on an endorsement basis, instead of with monopoly rights. They’re all non-exclusive distributors; they can’t lock out anyone else from distributing the film, all they can do is do a better job of distributing.
Nina has a great post about this: http://blog.ninapaley.com/2009/12/07/i-2/
See also http://sitasingstheblues.com/show.html (search for “distributors”).
Jolly good. I’ll read Nina’s post. Ta.