We stumbled across its only airing on TV last night on PBS, and it was amazing. The story behind it is fascinating, too. It weaves a true story of heartbreak about its creator (Nina Paley) with an alternative narrative of the Ramayana set to blues songs from the 1920s by Annette Hanshaw. Each thread has a distinct and beautiful visual style (one of which reminded me fondly of When I Am King).
Paley had trouble releasing the film because while the actual Hanshaw recordings are in the public domain, the compositions are not and the film was claimed to be a derivative work. The rights holders shook her down for $50,000 (more than she could get for a theatrical release, and on top of $20,000 debt she was already carrying). PBS was able to broadcast it last night because of an exception in the copyright act for public television stations and uncleared individual music licenses.
The film is now available in a stunning variety of formats under a progressive license that allows it to be distributed and screened freely. You can download a 1080p MP4 from archive.org or, incredibly, buy a 35mm print from the artist’s store (also available: a signed hard disk containing an uncompressed 200GB Quicktime file).
