Pass the Popcorn (and a Hankie)

This weekend I went to the USA Film Festival here in Dallas. I could have easily done the entire festival. There were a lot of movies I would have wanted to see. But I settled for my top 2: Sita Sings the Blues and An Imitation of Life.

Sita is really hard to explain beyond that it’s an animated movie. Nina Paley, the woman behind the movie, basically overlays the story of the breakup of her marriage with the Indian story of Sita from the Ramayana, and highlights different parts of the story with songs from a 1930s blues singer. There are a bunch of animation styles used, but for a lot of the movie, Sita looks like a cross between Betty Boop and the opening credits of I Dream of Jeannie.

The very cool thing about the movie is that Nina did most of the movie on her home computer and is taking this very independent approach to getting her movie out to people to see. And that I call her Nina is probably a sign of how indie this thing is. The woman who voices Sita in the movie is one of her friends, and showed up at the screening. She just hung out with people waiting in the line to go in, talked with everybody about Nina and “Sita”, and was very cool and not entirely uppity for a New Yorker (I kid because I love – New Yorkers know they’re uppity). If you want to see it yourself, you can watch it streaming on sitasingstheblues.com or order a DVD. They just ask for donations to help with the cost of licensing the music (which is an interesting story in and of itself, also on their website). Otherwise, if you see it playing at a local theater or fest, get out and see it. Definitely rejoices in doing it’s own thing.

The other movie, which I planned and schemed to make sure I got tickets to, was An Imitation of Life. The Douglas Sirk movie from the 1950s. It’s a big florid story, but the subplot that everybody knows is that the black housekeeper has a daughter who looks white. The daughter grows up to reject her mother’s values and life, and decides to pass becoming a trashy chorus girl. The mother just wants her daughter to be happy, and gives her up though it breaks her heart. I cry BUCKETS during this movie. And I was going to see it on a big screen.

But I knew this one might sell out. Partly because it’s seen as a very pioneering movie because of the billing and screen time given to a black character in a 50s movie. Partly because the man who wrote the big tell-all book about Imitation was there (and there is a lot of dish to tell – Lana Turner stars in the movie, and it was shot less than a year after her daughter stabbed Lana’s mobster boyfriend, Johnny Stampanato, to death; yeah, that kind of dish). Partly because it’s kind of a gay cult film. And partly because Miss Juanita Moore, the woman who played the housekeeper and was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar was there to sign autographs!!! Talk about being in the presence of history. (For the record, she’s tiny, a little frail (at 86), and still totally gorgeous and elegant.) I stood in line for tickets, and gave people who tried to make cutsies the nuclear stink eye. And once I had my ticket in my hot little hand, and my rear in seat, I was able to calm down and quit with the stink eye. It was a nice mix of crowd: single women (black and white), couples, film geeks, the rich arts crowd, and the gays (just guessing). This one’s also worth checking out if you get a chance. The drama is high, the costumes are fab and if you don’t tear up by the funeral, you’re made of stone.