The Screengrab : watch it for free

Watch It For Free: Sita Sings the Blues (2008, Nina Paley)

Paul Clark — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Through a strange twist of fate, one of the most acclaimed animated films of recent years has also been one of the most difficult to see. Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues, which has gotten rave reviews at film festivals worldwide, is an infectious mix of Indian legend, autobiography, and songs by the semi-forgotten jazz singer Annette Hanshaw, set to vivid animation which combines traditional hand-drawn animation, CGI, cut-and-paste, and more. A film this singular could only be made as a labor of love, and Paley, who drew simultaneously from the Ramayana and her own experiences after her husband left her, spent five years of her life finishing the film, and her effort shows in every inventive and painstakingly detailed frame of the film.

Even under the best of circumstances, Sita Sings the Blues is the kind of unique film that brings out the goodwill and affection of audiences. But the legal troubles that have surrounded the films- specifically, the demands of the rights-holders to the songs, who are asking upwards of $200,000 for their use- have made those who love the film feel protective of it in an almost proprietary way that transcends the film’s cheeky opening credit, “Your Name Here presents.” These rights issues have thusfar kept the film out of commercial release, but recently Paley has been able to locate a loophole in copyright law that will allow the film to play on public television, New York’s WNET, where it premieres on March 7 at 10:45 PM. But unless you live in the New York market or are lucky enough to catch a screening of the film (such as this year’s Ebertfest), your best chance to see Sita is to catch it streaming online. It’s currently streaming at the Reel13 web site, and will appear elsewhere following its WNET premiere.

Click here to stream Sita Sings the Blues in full. It’s well worth the 82 minutes it’ll take to watch it, take it from me.

Or, if you still need more convincing, here’s the trailer for the film:

Watch It For Free: "Astro Boy"...

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:45:00 GMT

...and Metropolis, Black Jack, Phoenix, Jungle Emperor, Princess Knight, and over ninety other anime titles written, directed, or produced by the late Osamu Tezuka. If you're at all a fan of classic Japanese animation, the announcement by Tekuza Productions that they'll be streaming 100 of their founder's projects over the internet for free, starting next week, is the biggest news of the year.

The Anime News Network is reporting that Tekuza Productions' Japanese site will be posting 100 anime titles by the comics and animation pioneer (along with 700 manga books for download) starting this week. Every film Osamu Tekuza made prior to his death in 1989 will be included, and the projected three-year project (which will ultimately include mirror sites in English and Korean) will culminate in free viewings of his crowning achievement, Metropolis.

The one catch, for manga fans: to browse the comics, you'll need to be running Windows and download a free software package. For those just interested in watching the films, though, the videos will be platform-neutral and available in all three languages within the year -- timed to coincide with a big-screen remake of Tekuza's most popular creation, Astro Boy.

Cool Motorcycles and Dudes with Metal Arms: Akira Goes Live-Action

Watch it for Free: This Film is Not Yet Rated

Gwynne Watkins — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Ever wondered who those people in the MPAA are, and what kind of criteria they're using to distinguish between a PG-13 and an R? Well guess what -- nobody knows. That's because the MPAA is, quite literally, a secret organization, whose members are anonymous and whose voting methods are entirely arbitrary. But if you want to know more, Kirby Dick has uncovered as much as humanly possible in his anti-censorship documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated.

Dick's film combines director interviews, MPAA-censored clips and private investigator footage, all with the goal of showing how the MPAA is stifling the filmmaking industry. The film would have been stronger if Dick had scored more face time with big-name directors; their first-hand stories of ratings warfare are just unbelievable. (What the MPAA deemed obscene in Boys Don't Cry -- not the violence, but the close-up of Chloe Sevigny's face during an orgasm -- is extremely telling.) Equally effective is the montage that juxtaposes identically shot sex scenes, one gay and one straight, while contrasting the films' ratings. Although the private eye scenes are less compelling, the PI's eventual discoveries about MPAA members' identities are sobering; in short, everything the MPAA has said about its members is a lie, and their appeals board seems jury-rigged against edgy and independent filmmakers.

Stream or download the whole film here.

Watch It For Free!: The Celluloid Closet

Gwynne Watkins — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Any day now, I'll start taking it for granted — but for the moment, every time I discover a great film streaming free online, it feels like a visit from Santa. Today's free movie is the eye-opening 1996 documentary The Celluloid Closet, which caters not only to film buffs and gay culture aficionados, but to anyone with a short attention span. Based on Vito Russo's groundbreaking history of homosexuality in the movies, the film shows us how there have always been gay characters in films, literally from the beginning, with one of Edison's first reels. Sometimes these references were subtle (the "sissy" archetype in films like The Gay Divorcee) and sometimes overt (Greta Garbo smooching a lady in Queen Christina), as The Celluloid Closet demonstrates through a jaw-dropping series of film clips. Which brings us to that short attention span bit; it's impossible to change the channel (or open a new browser window, as it were) during this film. You want too badly to see the next clip.

Film clips are interspersed with Lily Tomlin narration and celebrity interviews about the progression of gay characters in film, for better and for worse: the censored flirtation in Spartacus, the landmark gays-are-people-too sensibility of The Boys in the Band, the psychotic queer murderers of '90s horror films. Rumor has it that the filmmakers deleted a segment on biopics that turn gay characters straight, because they couldn't retain rights to the film clips; says Roger Ebert in his review:

Richard Burton's estate refused the rights to show scenes from "Alexander the Great.'' Goldwyn wouldn't license clips from ``Hans Christian Andersen'' (Epstein says "somehow they got the idea we were outing Danny Kaye as opposed to Hans Christian Andersen''). Lawyers stepped in at the possibility that the film would identify Cole Porter as homosexual (!). And Charlton Heston refused permission to use scenes from "TheAgony and the Ecstasy'' ("because he'd done a lot of research for his role andhe assured us that Michelangelo was not homosexual'').

Watch the film in its entirety here.

(Also streaming for free: The Lavender Lens, a documentary montage of film clips featuring queer characters.)