Anthropology

Sita Sings the Blues

September 2, 7 pm.

The Neville Museum is hosting the first film in the Green Bay Film Society 2009-2010 film series.  The films will be from all over the world, and all are free.  The Neville is located on the west side of the river at the foot of the Main Street bridge (you don’t need to pay admission to the museum to see the film, but if you go early and do so [$4], among the exhibits are a teapot show including Prof. Emeritus David Damkoehler’s work [among many others] and the Art Annual [including some works by UWGB students and faculty]).

Here’s a description of the film:

Sita is a Hindu goddess, the leading lady of India’s epic the Ramayana and a dutiful wife who follows her husband Rama on a 14 year exile to a forest, only to be kidnapped by an evil king from Sri Lanka. Nina (the filmmaker Nina Paley herself) is an artist who finds parallels in Sita’s life when her husband – in India on a work project – decides to break up their marriage and dump her via email. Three hilarious Indonesian shadow puppets narrate both the ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the epic. Paley juxtaposes multiple narrative and visual styles to create a highly entertaining yet moving vision. Musical numbers choreographed to 1920’s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw feature a cast of hundreds: flying monkeys, evil monsters, gods, goddesses, warriors, sages, and winged eyeballs. “Sita Sings the Blues” earns its tagline as “The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told.”

About the Director:

Nina Paley (b. May 3, 1968, Champaign IL, USA) is a longtime veteran of syndicated comic strips, creating “Fluff” (Universal Press Syndicate), “The Hots” (King Features), and her own alternative weekly “Nina’s Adventures.” In 1998 she began making independent animated festival films, including the controversial yet popular environmental short, “The Stork.” In 2002 Nina followed her then-husband to Trivandrum, India, where she read her first Ramayana. This inspired her first feature, “Sita Sings the Blues,” which she animated and produced single-handedly over the course of 5 years on a home computer. Nina teaches at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan and is a 2006 Guggenheim Fellow.

Sita Sings the Blues

Directed, written, produced, designed and animated by Nina Paley

82 minutes

Animation

Color, stereo

Digital Cinema Package, HDCAM, DVD; soon on 35mm

2008

http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/press.html

As part of both our Common Theme and our team-taught course on War and Peace, we have a special treat tomorrow night – Wednesday, Feb. 25. 

Dr. James Marten, Chair of the History Department at Marquette University will be present with us through the use of telecommunications technology.  Dr. Marten is the influential author and editor of many books including Children in Colonial America: Children and Youth in America, The Boy of Chancellorville and Other Civil War Stories, Childhood and Child Welfare in the Progressive Era & Muckraking, Lessons of War: The Civil War in Childern’s Magazines, The Children’s Civil War and of course the text we are using in the course – Children and War. 

He will speaking about the book and about his own work on children’s lives during the Civil War.  He’ll be able to provide a historian’s insight on interpreting children’s feelings, thoughts, experiences and behaviors in the past.  It will be an amazing opportunity to ask about different research methodologies.

We are very excited to welcome him and would love to have you join us.  We will be in IS 1034 at 5:15 pm.  Please come along for an interesting evening.

There is a wonderful new resource for everyone interested in learning more about different cultural groups here in Green Bay.  The Multicultural Center of Greater Green Bay has the mission of preserving and sharing diverse cultures, and promoting the full inclusion of individuals of all cultures at all levels of society.

The center is located at 217 N. Madison in Green Bay.  You can check out their new website by clicking here, and there is a permanent link on the links list.

The website has a lot of different kinds of resources; some are about diversity in general, and there are informational materials about specific cultural groups.  There are also links to community resources.  These are lists of organizations and individuals who serve the needs of minority populations. 

This would be a great place to start if you are looking for places for service learning opportunities!

This Saturday, April 12th – Kress Events Center – from noon to 10pm

Over 1,000 people are expected this year; you should be one of them!

Schedule of Events

• Noon – Doors open

• 1 p.m. – Grand entry (song and dance with performers in full, traditional regalia)

• 3 p.m. – Ceremony honoring education the First Nations major

• 4 p.m. – Musician Wade Fernandez

• 5 p.m. – Feast (at the neighboring Ecumenical Center provided by M & J’s Traditional Catering)

• 7 p.m. – Second grand entry

• 10 p.m. – Event closes

We missed participating, but you can read about the recent rallies in Madison and St. Paul here.  Hmong came together Thursday to call attention to the continuing persecution of those who remained behind in Laos after the U.S. pull-out in 1975.

March 17

Shawano Food and Culture Fest

Time: 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Location: Shawano Community Center