Oddball Films brings you Totally Strange 80's - Sex, Drugs and Roller Skates. This bizarre and over-the-top evening features the oddest shorts of the 1980s, a decade known for its over-indulgence, bright colors, big hair and roller skates...roller skates! Kids get creepy with grandma and her walkie-talkie-controlled robot when their picture book points out their body parts in Bellybuttons Are Navels (1985). Get the first turkey perspective of your Thanksgiving feast in the bizarre and macabre animation I Was A Thanksgiving Turkey (1986). Will "California Raisins" Vinton turns clay into pre-hysteria in the much loved claymation marvel Dinosaur! (1987). Go down the face-melting rabbit hole with a teenage junky in the cartoon nightmare Wasted: A True Story (1983). One lonely bug must make it across the hell of an extremely 80's Venice Beach to make it to a romantic shoreline rendezvous in Why'd the Beetle Cross the Road? (1984). And, of course, we'll all learn to Roller Skate Safely (1981) with our matching neon spandex. Plus, Bill Plympton's surreal fantasy Your Face (1987), our final unscreened Lego Sports Short: Ice Hockey (1986), everybody's favorite wasted feline The Cat Who Drank and Used Too Much (1987), a whole decade's worth of great trailers, commercials and more snippets and surprises, with everything screened on 16mm. So, tease your bangs, grab your skates and roll on down to Oddball!

Date: Thursday, April 23rd, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Why'd The Beetle Cross The Road (Color, 1984)

Like a game of Frogger set on the bikini-clad boardwalk of Venice Beach, we follow one unlucky beetle as he's trampled by sexy teenagers, volleyballs, and bicyclists, all while merely trying to reach the beach. Will he make it, and why did he do it? One girl in High School knows the answer, but we're not telling...

Your Face (1987) This film set the style and started career of famed animator Bill Plympton. One of the most popular short films ever made, it’s still showing all over the world. As a second- rate crooner sings about the beauties of his lover’s face, his own face metamorphosizes into the most surreal shapes and contortions imaginable. The music was written and sung by Maureen McElheron, then slowed to sound like a man’s voice because Plympton was too cheap to hire a male singer. Your Face earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short in 1988.

Wasted: A True Story (Color, 1983, excerpt)
A trippy cartoon nightmare depiction of one teen boy's struggle with drugs and alcohol. After he's peer-pressured into stealing and eventually crashing his "old lady's car", he sees into his future in a barrage of melting faces, homeless future-hims and demons that scare the shaggy-haired teen straight.

The Cat Who Drank and Used Too Much (Color, 1987)

Wacky anti-drug film about alcohol and drug using Pat the Cat. He hits the skids before finally reaching out for help. An all-time Oddball Films audience favorite! Narrated by Julie Harris and winner of 24 major awards!

Dinosaur! (Color, 1987)

A classroom goes claymation crazy when Will "California Raisins" Vinton takes on the terrible lizards to hilarious and imaginative effect. Dinosaurs don tuxedos, munch on tasty treats and their heads morph into cats in this off the wall (and rails) take on prehistory.

Bellybuttons are Navels (Color, 1985)
A boy and girl are playing in their room when Grandma peeks into the room and talks into a walkie talkie, which activates a toy robot telling the kids to go to bed. A little later, the kids meet grandma on the couch to read a story. They sit on the couch flipping through a picture book and get interactive. It all gets progressively more disturbing as the naked children in the book (who are taking a bath) begin to show each other their various body parts and the proper names.

I Was a Thanksgiving Turkey (Color, 1984)

Jim Schanall’s wildly bizarre animated tale of a turkey’s gruesome fate. All the audio was recorded on Thanksgiving day 1984!

Roller Skate Safely (Color, 1981)
All you need to know about the old 4-wheel roller skates, with lots of great footage from the Venice Beach boardwalk and trick sites. Don’t miss the skate team in their early 80s matching outfits!

For The Early Birds:

Home Alone: You're in Charge (Color, 1985)
As women flooded out of the home and into the workforce in the late 70s and early 80s, a generation of latch-key kids was left to fend for themselves after school. This film seeks to point out all the potential dangers facing a little girl all alone. Luckily, she's got a talking phone to help with the creeps, a talking fire alarm to tell her not to pour water on that electrical fire, and a talking off brand band-aid box (Bando to be exact) to help her through the construction of what we can only hope is a talking first-aid kit. If it weren't for all these chatty inanimate objects, this little girl would have been dead long ago... Directed by William Crain; possibly the William Crain that directed Blacula and Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde, but we'll never know for sure.

About Oddball Films
Oddball Films is the screening component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.

Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.

Oddball Films presents Ad Nauseam - Vintage Commercial Extravaganza an evening of rare commercials and Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) from the “golden age” of television culled from the massive collection in the Oddball Films archive. Spanning the late 1950’s to the early 1980’s, these weird, wild, wacky, funny, frightening and fabulous 30 second slices of vintage TV were designed to entice, dupe or otherwise coerce the American Consumer in the most entertaining fashion. From toy commercials for the original Slinky to Buster Keaton plugging Ford Vans, plus clothes, cigarettes, long forgotten beauty products and so many celebrities shilling for beer (including Louis Armstrong), you'll get hundreds of 30 second glimpses into not only the products that shaped yesteryear but the ad men and mad men that made us pull out our wallets. Also included, The 30 Second Dream (1977), an award-winning mini-doc on the power of commercial advertising; The Car of Your Dreams (1984) a quick-cutting montage of tons of car commercials, expertly edited for one maximum thrill ride and It's Not Commercial (1950s) a bizarro reel of fake commercials. Be a sell-out! Play spot the budding star or celebrity has-been! See the things you forgot you really needed!

Date: Thursday, April 23rd, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

The 30 Second Dream(Color, 1977)

Award winning mini documentary on the seductive power of TV ads. Juxtaposes carefully selected commercials to reveal how they exploit our fears, hopes and fantasies. Director Michael Lawrence says "through "story" and song, television advertising creates an environment that subliminally shapes our view of ourselves and our world. In an average lifetime, we spend the equivalent of six years of full-time employment watching TV commercials."

It’s Not Commercial (1950s, B+W)

One of the strangest if not THE strangest collection of commercials in Oddball’s 6,000 commercial archive. Created by an unknown studio this collection of short “fake” commercials meant as a parody manages to be simply creepy and weird for no apparent reason. Watch jaw-dropping weirdos that look like rejects from a David Lynch film as they attempt to poke fun at weight loss, deodorant and more.

The Car of Your Dreams (Color and B+W, 1984)

Genius educational film about the car industry and their sales techniques utilizing solely mind-blowing historical footage that borders on the surreal. It’s no wonder Americans bought into the car mythology lock, stock and barrel. It's a fast-moving compilation of the most annoying, over-the-top, but effective marketing campaigns for American automobiles. Features a never-ending red carpet, 3D graphics from the 1970’s, driving down the highway in invisible cars, races with wild animals and used car salesman screaming sales pitches till they explode. Although produced in the 1980’s, the film’s content stretches through American automotive ad history. A total hoot!

Plus TONS of Commercials from hair spray to beer, fast food to toys, cosmetics, cigarettes and so much more!

About Oddball Films
Oddball Films is the screening component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.

Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.

Oddball Films and guest curator Christina Yglesias invite you escape your present time, place, and dimension with Travels, Trips, and Journeys: A Night of Vintage Voyages. We'll venture to an underwater circus full of vintage vixens, experience the opulence of the golden age of American air travel, see what a modern art museum looks like through the eyes of belligerent claymation drunk, root for a tiny wiener dog on the run, go on a musical midcentury greyhound trip, heed the dangers of an LSD trip gone wrong, and more! Venture to the era where stewardesses, not suitcases, were weighed before flights in Pan Am’s World (1966). This promotional film will take you from Thailand, to Paris, to Australia, and beyond, giving you a taste for the top of the line jets, intercontinental hotels, and general fanciness of the world of 1960’s air travel. For a trip of a different sort, there is LSD: Insight or Insanity (1967), full of rebellious teenagers, psychedelic wonders, and shocking psychedelia. Otto, the adventurous little wiener dog protagonist of A Dogonne Story (1940s) will be sure to win your heart. He runs away from the German countryside (rather than put up with the indignity of a being given a bath) to the big bustling city where danger, sausages, and dogcatchers await. Ride a greyhound bus through the American technicolor heartland in the kitschy short America for Me (1952). See the amazing claymation of Closed Mondays (1974) and take a tour of an after-hours modern art museum where art comes alive in the perceptions of the drunk protagonist. Things will get even weirder with Submarine Circus (1945), which features an underwater hot dog stand, a dude wrestling a alligator, and some sexy synchronized faux-mermaids. Early comers will get to view a wonderful collection of dated, unintentionally funny, sometimes offensive, and often strange Airline Commercials.

Date: Friday, May 1st, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Highlights Include:

America For Me (Color, 1952)

This gorgeous Technicolor film showcases two young women who take a Greyhound Bus tour across America. This film, made when oil hovered around the 25 cent per gallon price is worthy of an Academy Award for all the wrong reasons-it’s inherent cornball sexism and misguided romanticism, bad setup shots and much more. Produced by kitsch maestro Jerry Fairbanks, it was ostensibly designed to tout the pleasures of Greyhound bus travels around the US and features all the highlights of a cross country trip with Indian villages and national monuments-just a step away from the bus. The story bottoms out-or picks up depending on your perspective as one of the women gives up her teaching career and her hope of earning a master's degree in order to marry a hick cowboy named Tex she meets on the bus. But don’t despair-the films ends with a bang as the entire bus breaks out in song! A howler!

A Doggone Story (B+W, 1940s)

Otto the weiner dog is growing tired of his life on a rural German farm. An unwanted bath is the last straw for Otto- he runs away to the city where adventure insues. The little country pup gets into plenty of trouble, stealing sausages, escaping death, evading the dog catcher. This adorable film has never been screened at Oddball before!

Closed Mondays (Color, 1974)

This breakthrough film created by Will Vinton (The California Raisins) and Bob Gardiner won an Academy Award in 1975. In an after-hours visit to an art museum, a drunken man encounters the world of modern art. As he wanders through the gallery, paintings and sculptures shift from illusion to reality, an abstract painting explodes with rhythmic movement, a Rousseau jungle releases its captive images, a Dutch scrub woman talks about her plight, and a kinetic sculpture comes briefly and breathtakingly to life. A tour-de-force of clay animation that set the standard for Claymation as an art form.

LSD: Insight or Insanity? (Color, 1967)

Sal Mineo narrates this trip-adelic anti-acid scare film. We begin with a bunch of groovy teenagers, doing whatever hairstyle or game of chicken they need to do to be cool. When that includes the kick of LSD, you better get ready for "the end of your life kick; a kick in the head." Swingin' chicks, hot hot-rodders and tons of psychedelia make this one hell of a trip!

Pan Am’s World (Color, 1966)

Jet around the world in this Pan Am promotional film from the heyday of luxurious air travel. From Thailand to Paris, Australia to England, this film takes us everywhere, or at least everywhere Pan Am flies. Plenty of great commercial fodder tossed with some spectacular footage from around the globe make this a travel mix-up not to be missed!

Submarine Circus (1945, B&W)

Underwater swimmers put on an amazing underwater show complete with slinky mermaids, underwater hot dog stands, hula girls, and even a man wrestling an alligator. All with the power of holding their natural breath!

For Early comers:

Vintage Airline Commercials from United, American, and National Airlines. After a few of these, you'll surely be tempted to fly the friendly skies of United!

Curator's Biography:

Christina Yglesias is an artist hailing from Oakland. She holds a bachelors degree in Intermedia Arts and Studio Arts from Mills College. She is a former Oddball intern, a professional media-er, and an aspiring film nerd.

About Oddball Films

Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 87: Sex and Youth in the Atomic Age, a once monthly evening of newly discovered and avant-garde rarities from the stacks of the archive. Drawing on his collection of over 50,000 16mm film prints, Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has compiled his 87th program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This program features a rare black and white peek at the repressed and uptight 1950s-from A-Bomb scare films to social guidance films featuring unintentionally hilarious morality lessons on topics such as dating, family life, courtesy, citizenship, and sex education. We start off with the classic burlesque of Lili St Cyr’s Bubble Bath Dance (1950s), a risqué set piece for a repressive time, followed by the frightening and alternately hilarious Atomic Alert (1951), an atomic scare film about what to do when an atomic bomb hits (don’t worry-it’s survivable!); Are You Popular? (1947) one of the best examples of post-World War II moral hygiene films, featuring examples of "good" and "bad" girls, proper and improper dating etiquette and courtesy to parents; Shy Guy (1951), featuring young Dick York (“Bewitched”) who follows his dad’s suggestion to help others and make himself a popular guy; Dating Do’s and Don’ts (1949) long recognized as one of the campiest educational films ever made and a fun how-do guide following clueless Woody’s quest to ask fun girl Ann out on a date; The Innocent Party (1959) a sex hygiene guilt tripper where we learn about a dirty girl with a secret-VD, the gift that keeps on giving; The Trouble With Women (1959) featuring a shop supervisor’s apparent “problem” with women in his workplace. Plus, a look inside the steamy pseudo-smut of the repressed 50s featuring Bikini Girls (1950s), three titillating tales featuring bikini-clad women doing things that expose themselves like applying suntan lotion, trying on clothes and “getting comfortable” in the hot sun; a sexy and sexist look at the lighter side of eroticism. And pre-show cigarette commercials!

Date: Thursday, April 30th, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

Atomic Alert (B+W, 1951)
This film informs students of the steps to take in case of an atomic bomb alert or an A-bombing without warning at school, in the open, or at home. "In this early and troubled stage of the Atomic Age, our very lives may depend on always being alert." Viewed in post-Cold War hindsight, a disturbing manual of protocols for coping with Armageddon.

Lili St. Cyr in Bubble Bath Dance (B+W, 1950s)
Lili St. Cyr was the most influential burlesque dancer in the second half of the 20th century. Her hip-swiveling ways swayed pop-culture sirens from Marilyn Monroe (who copied her style) to Madonna (who bought her famous push up bras) for decades to come.
St. Cyr shimmied across the country with inventive routines in posh nightclubs amassing legions of famous fans, including Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan. Her notoriety and fame brought financial and commercial successes, with roles in movies like Howard Hughes'Son of Sinbad and Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead.

Are You Popular? (1947, B+W)
One of the best examples of post-World War II social guidance films, with examples of "good" and "bad" girls, proper and improper dating etiquette, courtesy to parents, and an analysis of what makes some people popular and others not. A scream and a sobering and unintentionally hilarious document of postwar conformity

Shy Guy (1947, B+W)
Phil, new in his high school, follows his father's suggestion and observes the most popular students to determine what makes them popular. By offering to help others he becomes popular himself and sheds his shyness. If the "shy guy" were living now, he would be a hero. But hackers, geeks, and bad girls were not popular in 1947 and this movie is all about "fitting in." Phil (played by Dick York, later to star as Darin in the tv series “Bewitched”) is the son of an apparently single father has a problem "fitting in." Everything from the nature of the kids in the new town ("different") to what they wear ("not jackets like me, but a regular sweater") sets Phil apart. Armed only with confusing advice from his father, Phil has to reorganize his behavior and make a new home for himself. Shy Guy marks a kind of turning point in postwar history. When Mr. Norton advises Phil to "look around him" and see what the other kids are wearing and how they behave, he's conceding parental authority to the "gang" and, ultimately, helping to legitimize the formation of a distinct youth culture that rests on group identity and validation rather than the authority of elders. Such a youth culture probably has its roots in the wartime autonomy that teens experienced, but here the adults are okaying it. This change, of course, is one of the key social currents in postwar America. This is Dick York at his dorkiest. Dick's father is especially strange in this classic. Shy Guy is the film that established Coronet as THE social guidance filmmaker. Required viewing!

Dating Do’s and Don’ts (1949, B+W)This social guidance "how-to" film has received more camp accolades than any other, and deserves it. Alan Woodruff ("Woody") receives a ticket to admit one couple to the upcoming Hi-Teen Carnival. "One couple," Woody reflects. "That means a date! Not like just going around with the crowd!" Woody decides to ask Ann Davis, who, the narrator points out, "knows how to have a good time." With her perpetual squint and chipmunk cheeks, Ann (pronounced "Ay-yun" by the actors in this film) is the perfect companion for super-nerd Woody. At crucial moments in the date, the narrator stops the action and presents Woody with several possible options for his actions. Happily, Woody makes all the correct decisions and ends up walking home from Ann's doorstep whistling with satisfaction at a job well done. "Thanks so much," says Ann with a toothy grin. "I had LOADS of fun."

The Innocent Party (1959, Color)

The guilt-tripped noir-like shocker about a “dirty” girl and her hidden secret- VD! See what happens when she “gifts’ her boyfriend with it! A cool beatnik-jazz soundtrack highlights this sordid tale produced by the Kansas State Board of Health!

The Trouble With Women (1959, B+W)This industrial training film illustrates some of the perceived gender problems a male supervisor might face working with women, but ultimately demonstrates where the real problem lies. So, what IS Brad's problem?

Bikini Girls (B+W, 1949)
Three titillating tales featuring bikini-clad women and an over-the-top narrator. Shot over 50 years ago these risque shorts always feature women doing things that expose themselves like applying suntan lotion, trying on clothes and “getting comfortable” in the hot sun. A sexy and sexist look at the lighter side of eroticism in the 1940s.

“Beachcombing Belle” A brunette does laundry in a tide pool and strips down to a bikini and sun bathes. The waves wash away her clothes!

“Ants in her Pants” A blonde beauty gardens. The narrator talks about trimming tress as she strips to her bikini. She continues to water plants in her yard wearing a bathing suit.

“Goldilocks Goes Glamorous” A blonde woman walks through the forest and stumbles on the three little bears house. She tries on the families bathing suits and decides Baby Bear’s bikini is just the right fit...

About Oddball Films

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Learn Your Lesson on Prom, Parties and Peer Pressure - A Social Shockucation, the 26th in a monthly series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic educational films, mental hygiene primers and TV specials of the collection. This month, we're going to party and you are cordially invited to this cinematic shindig of social guidance primers centered on social gatherings. 1940s glamour and goofiness comes alive in gorgeous Technicolor when four teens are on their way to Junior Prom (1946) and must discover to take off that headband, fill out their dance card, and party primly and properly. Meredith Baxter and Bill "Will Robinson" Mumy star in The Party (1971) about a bunch of teens facing some serious and sexy dilemmas against a terrible green screen backdrop. Hollywood primate Zippy the Chimp almost has his birthday party ruined by a bully, until quits monkeying around and gets revenge in Zippy's Birthday Party (1940s). Four kids are all dressed up and out for the night of their lives, but their necking and reckless driving, might just make this The Last Prom (1963). Teenaged Paula Abdul and a gaggle of young girls sing about throwing a Party in a musical excerpt from Junior High School (1978). Plus, the trailer for Carrie, Marcel Marceau mimes good manners in Bip at a Society Party (1975), party and school dance excerpts from Sid Davis'LSD:Trip or Trap?, Who's Different?, Kristy McNichol in Me and Dad's New Wife and more surprises! It's a magical night to learn your lesson.

Date: Friday, May 8th, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

Junior Prom (Color, 1946)
Classic teen dating guide in stunning Technicolor- so very relevant today! Learn all the social graces of post-war teens as they discover what to wear, how to accessorize, how to greet their date's parents and how to arrive at the Junior Prom in style! And, of course, the most useful lesson for today: how to fill out your dance card (yes, that was a real thing).

The Party (Color, 1971)

An episode of Catholic moral-hygiene show Insight starring a who's who of young emerging talent including Meredith Baxter (Family Ties), Joy Bang (Cisco Pike, Messiah of Evil), Pamela McMyler (Halloween II) and Bill Mumy (Will Robinson from Lost in Space). They are three young couples on a weekend getaway; they've got a boat, some beers, a terrible green-screened beach backdrop and some time away from their nagging folks to let loose. Meredith Baxter just wants to sex it up with her boyfriend, McMyler is torn between her morals and the sexy time everybody thinks she should be having and Joy Bang wants to break it off will Bill Mumy who just wants to play his tunes on his acoustic guitar. Turns out, this party isn't that fun after all. Director Nicholas Webster is best well known for his Christmas Cult Classic "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians".

Zippy's Birthday Party (B+W, 1940s)

It's primate powerhouse Zippy the Chimp's birthday and he wants nothing more than a party with his friends. Everyone's having a grand old time, in their pretty party dresses, watching zippy roller skate in a white tuxedo and open his presents; until the town bully comes to the party with a jack in the box and a bad attitude. When the bully steals Zippy's cake, the birthday boy is done monkeying around and plots a sinister (especially for a children's film) revenge on the human child. Not necessarily the best lesson we've learned, but revenge by bodily harm certainly is sweet when administered by a chimpanzee.

The Last Prom (Color, 1963)
Pristine print of this all-time classic scare film centered around two pairs of teens on their way to the prom who turn the best night of their young lives into the last when they engage in reckless and sexy driving. Shot in 1963, these hot-blooded teens live and drive too fast: sex=death. So good it was remade in 1980 (replacing the necking and bad driving with drunk driving).

"Party"from Junior High School (Color, 1978, excerpt)
As if Junior High wasn't awful enough, imagine adding song and dance numbers about the most awkward aspects of your life and changing body! This musicalamity revolves loosely around a party, planned by Sherry, played by none other than 16 year-old Paula Abdul. Everybody's gotta be there, and lots of singles still need a date, which leads to triangles and hilarity. For this excerpt, we've got a gaggle of girls gathered around Sherry and singing about the eminent epic soiree. It's an epic camp musical masterpiece!

LSD: Trip or Trap? (Color, 1967, snippet)
A Sid Davis classic that starts with a fatal crash, and then traces the tragic path that led a good boy to experiment with the latest thrill on the scene- LSD-25. Wild freak-out scenes and good kids pressured into drugs by misguided peers.

Curator’s Biography

Kat Shuchter is a graduate of UC Berkeley in Film Studies. She is a filmmaker, artist and esoteric film hoarder. She has helped program shows at the PFA, The Nuart and Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater and was crowned “Found Footage Queen” of Los Angeles, 2009.

About Oddball Films

Oddball Films presents The Body Beautiful, an eclectic mix of 16mm shorts that explore the human body from sensuality to athleticism, movement and dance and the transformative power of film to alter these all too familiar images into something transcendent and sublime. The evening will begin with a fun exploration of those who dare to bare it all with Nudism: a Way of Life (c. 1950). Experimental genius Ed Emshwiller meditates on the human condition in his monumental work Relativity (1966); from which we will be watching a mesmerizing sequence about corporeality and sexuality. Canadian innovator Norman McLaren's Pas De Deux (1968), superimposes the minute movements of two glowing ballet dancers to create one of the most beautiful and ethereal films of the collection. Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia Diving Sequence (1936) endures as one of the most breathtaking documents of the beauty of the human form throughout cinema history. Dozens of chorus girls create a human waterfall in the jaw-dropping Busby Berkeley number "By a Waterfall" from Footlight Parade (1933). Get a glimpse under the skin with the ghostly images of Moving X-Rays (1950). Plus, an excerpt of the mother of modern dance, Martha Graham's Cortege of Eagles (1969) starring Graham herself as the tragic Greek figure Queen Hecuba, double projection of Vintage Beefcake and Cheesecake shorts, and more surprises.

Date: Thursday, May 7th, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

Relativity (Color, 1966, excerpt)
A new discovery from the stacks; avant-garde master Ed Emshwiller's bizarre and beautiful film was made with a grant from the Ford Foundation. It's not clear whether or not they knew what they were getting into, but the result is an arresting and audacious poetic masterpiece that examines the human condition from the inside out. Emshwillers called it "something that deals with subjective reality, the emotional sense of what one's perception of the total environment is -- sexual, physical, social, time, space, life, death." We will be skipping past the gutting of a pig to a fascinating segment on human sexuality featuring two disparate halves of a woman's body seamlessly composited into one fascinating image. The looping soundscore only heightens the hypnotic view of life, sex and the human body.

"By means of the camera and the editing table, he [filmmaker] creates image movements and relationships different from those of the dance choreographer. So, in some cases, two choreographies are united in one film –dance choreography and film choreography. In other cases, dance choreography in the usual sense is practically non-existent. Then the camera and editing techniques provide the movement, contrasts, and transitions in the dance’s image. Cine-dance, then is another way of using dancers – not exactly dance, but a legitimate art form in its own way. To me it is fascinating and challenging."– Ed Emshwiller

Pas De Deux (B+W, 1968)

Canadian experimental animator, Norman McLaren uses film to create a hypnotic dream world out of the simple balletic movements of two dancers. With minimal lighting, the two glow against the black backdrop, and as he utilizes camera and editing techniques, the dance is transformed into a meditation of movement and pure, ethereal beauty. The optically superimposed images make the viewer aware of each scintilla of body motion. With dancers Margaret Mercier and Vincent Warren and a soundtrack by the Folk Orchestra of Romania. Winner of the 1969 BAFTA award for best animated film.

Olympia Diving Sequence (B+W, 1936)
Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia documents the Olympic games of 1936, using disorienting angles and slow motion in order to display athletic bodies in motion, detached from all purpose. Often it’s unclear where the bodies are in the context of their environment, which allows the film to focus on their pure, Adonis-like form. Riefenstahl’s film captured the body-centric culture cultivated by the rise of fascism, and made it into an aesthetic principle. Silent with added soundtrack by fellow Germans Kraftwerk.

"By a Waterfall" from Footlight Parade (B+W, 1933)
A dazzling and jaw-dropping musical number featuring dozens of lovely synchronized swimmers all choreographed by the legendary and hallucinatory Busby Berkeley. Ruby Keeler serenades her love by a waterfall and as he nods off to sleep, the waters come alive with bathing beauties, who then form incredible visuals and patterns with only their bodies culminating in the incredible "Human Waterfall". This extravagant number took over 6 days to film and the pool used for filming took up an entire sound stage and required 20,000 gallons of water to be pumped per minute.

Nudism: A Way of Life? (B+W, c.1950)
An unbiased and unabashed exploration of the nudism movement which first gained popularity in Germany in the early 20th Century. While the narrator claims to be objective, the lingering shots of partially disrobed women seem to indicate otherwise. With a visit to a nudist colony and a housewife in nothing but an apron, you'll learn more about the (female) body than you thought you needed to...

Moving X-Rays (B+W, 1950)

For more than a century, X-ray images have illuminated the workings and anomalies of the human body and other objects of mystery, but they still have the ability to fascinate. Director John Kieran's Kaleidoscope was a 15-minute documentary series that aired from 1949 to 1952. Kieran's folksy but learned approach gives Moving X-Rays gives a comfy sense of wonderment at the eerie beauty of these familiar images.

Oddball Films welcomes Bay Area artist, filmmaker and archivist tooth to our Cinema Soirée, a monthly soirée featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights and films. This month, we bring you Quadratura Circuli: a program incorporating a recent film cycle of performative and single channel 16mm and super 8mm works by Bay Area filmmaker tooth screened with a collection of pieces by other artists chosen for a filmic conversation that looks at the recurrent cyclic forms of the circle, sphere, and spiral throughout cultural and natural histories as a container for a disparate collision of concepts and beliefs. Taking it's title from the Squaring of the Circle (Quadratura Circuli), a concept looked to by the Alchemists as representing the unification of opposites to form a higher synthesis; the program seeks to oscillate between a focus on the micro and macrocosmic recurrence of these forms and their accompanying symbology such as the blood cell, the iris of the eye, the spiral of the galaxies, the shape and rotation of the planets. With particular preoccupation on the Moon (represented in Alchemy by the corresponding metal of silver; a main ingredient used to fix photochemical images on celluloid film) and its phases in relation to various divination practices and the mapping of temporal and biological cycles. The night will begin with a series of films by tooth: the initiating phase in a stroboscopic circumnavigation that begins to trace a line of sensory research through intersecting spheres of history in CYCLOS ATARAXIA (2014), the physical fracturing of the artifacts of personal memory, as the recession of time and dimming light line the spectral sensitivity curve in LOST SIGHT (2015), the printed material of I Ching hexagrams create a point of departure for filmic divination in the two screen performance version of HEXAGRAM which utilizes a method direct animation via xerox printing toner directly onto clear acetate film which also creates the phasing optical sound of the piece (i.e. what you see is what you hear), followed by a piece using this same xerox technique with an eye to the symbology of moon phases and their relationship to the biological order (and disorder) of things in a three screen version of TETRADIC MOONS (2015). A drive through the residue of a city's mythical, "invented", sacred, profane and purposefully obscured histories to mark a planetary rotation in TRIADIC MOONS (2011), the tones and color textures of a rain soaked lunar new year ritual in YEAR OF THE RABBIT (2011), a two channel fever dream trajectory through the decaying archive of THE COLOR OF BLOOD (2015) and an ascent into a mystery of recurrent subtleties in INVISIBLE MOUNTAIN (CRESCENTS) (2015). Also screening, Robert Smithson's 1970 film SPIRAL JETTY,"a poetic and process-minded film depicting a 'portrait' of his monumental earthwork situated in the waters of Utah's Great Salt Lake", will be preceded by three very rarely screened masterworks by an unnamable yet legendary Bay Area filmmaker, painter and mystic. tooth will be in person to present the program and to speak briefly about the process of the cycle and the conceptual linkage between the works.

Date: Thursday, May 21st, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

Films by tooth:
cyclos ataraxia (16mm/5 mins/2014)
lost sight (super 8mm/7 mins/2015)
hexagram (double channel 16mm/7 mins/2015)
tetradic moons (triple channel 16mm/ 6 mins/2015)
triadic moons (super 8mm/6 mins/2011)
year of the rabbit (super 8mm/3 mins/2011)
the color of blood (double channel 16mm/5 mins/ 2015)
invisible mountain (crescents) (16mm/10 mins/2015)

Spiral Jetty (Color, 1970, Robert Smithson)
Directed by Smithson himself, this remarkable film documents the construction of the massive earthwork in the Great Salt Lake. Smithson used all natural materials to construct a giant spiral extension to the land that juts into the lake. This 15 foot wide and 1,500 foot long artificial peninsula still remains today, although the black rocks have turned white from salt encrustation. As the lake rises and lowers, the jetty is obscured and revealed. Follow Smithson from plans to construction in this landmark film.
About the Filmmaker:

tooth is a bay area artist that works in film, sound, performance and other time-based disciplines. His work primarily concerns itself with the phenomenology of trance states and their function within a collision of cultural, political and personal realities. His films and performance and installation work has screened locally at The Lab, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive,The Exploratorium, Artist's Television Access/Other Cinema, Shapeshifters Cinema, Temescal Arts Center, Krowswork Gallery, Center for New Music, San Francisco Cinematheque's CROSSROADS Film Festival, and internationally at Mindpirates Gallery (Berlin), NDSM Treehouse Gallery (Amsterdam), and others. Since 2009 he has been operating Black Hole Cinematheque in Oakland, a microcinema and archive which since 2011 has held free weekly screenings focusing on international experimental/avant-garde moving images.

About Oddball Films

Oddball films is the film component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.

Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.

Oddball Films presents The Future is Fuzzy - Science Fiction Strangeness with a whole star fleet of science fiction weirdness on 16mm film with works by heavy-hitters Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. A ship full of cat-faced and wookie-esque aliens attempt to save the people of Earth before the sun explodes, but maybe it's them that need the saving in the utterly ridiculous Clarke adaptation Rescue Party (1978). In the future, technology can bring forward a neanderthal boy, but just because it can, does that mean it should? Find out in Isaac Asimov's Ugly Little Boy (1977). Meet Trogmoffy, an orange fuzzy alien from Saturn who has come to Earth to learn proper grammar in the terrifying children's primer The Adventures of Trogmoffy: Rescue on a Strange Planet (1971). Ray Bradbury's Zero Hour (1978) counts down to an alien invasion with the help of a gaggle of creepy children and their interactive board game. To add some animation to our insanity, there is the Chuck Jones classic (in pristine Technicolor perfection) Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century (1952) and the baffling human lip-synced Space Angel - The Gladiators (1964). With the exception of Duck Dodgers, all films are unavailable on home video or the internet, so watch 'em while you can!

Date: Friday, May 15th, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

Rescue Party (Color, 1978)
A completely bonkers low-budget adaptation of the first story Arthur C. Clarke ever sold (in 1946). An intergalactic fleet of aliens has sent a rescue ship to try to save the people of Earth just hours before the sun is set to explode. Will these friendly cat-faced and wookie-looking aliens make it in time to save human civilization, or are the humans advancing at such a rate that its the aliens that need saving?

Ugly Little Boy (Color, 1977)
The fascination of time machines and the moral challenges of human beings confronting the possibilities of their power are two themes exploited in this adaptation of a short story by Isaac Asimov, celebrated master of the science fiction genre. Striking sets re-create the dome-like apparatus by which scientists have brought to earth a child from the Neanderthal age. Hungry for the invaluable data, scientists begin experiments and subject the boy to test after test. A nurse is sympathetic to the plight of her charge. Convinced of the human potential which will emerge if communication barriers can be surmounted, she is overjoyed to record his first spoken work. As the scientists prepare to return the boy to his original era in order to release the energy for a medieval specimen, the nurse makes a climactic decision. Stars Kate Reid and Barry Morse, with Guy Big.

Adventures of Trogmoffy: Rescue on a Strange Planet (Color, 1971)

The furry stuff of nightmares! Timmy and Margaret are just two kids out for a stroll in the woods when they come across something that would make most people scream, a giant orange fuzzy alien from Saturn named Trogmoffy. Instead of peeing their pants and running back home to tell the Weekly World News, Timmy and Margaret help the disgusting creature learn proper English grammar.

Zero Hour (Color, 1978)
A new batch of creepy children from Ray Bradbury. This adaptation centers around a little girl who is beyond excited to play her new game "Invasion" with her friends. As she rushes around, gathering supplies, the mother thinks little of it, but as the game continues to count down to zero hour; mom begins to wonder where this invasion is actually coming from and what will happen when the clock stops ticking.

Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century (Color, 1952, Chuck Jones)
An all-star classic from the legendary Chuck Jones in stunning Technicolor. Daffy Duck stars as space hero Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig as his assistant, and Marvin the Martian as his opponent. Duck Dodgers must search for a rare element, called Illudium Pohsdex (aka The Shaving Cream Atom), which can be obtained in the mysterious “Planet X.” Duck Dodgers is about to claim Planet X in the name of Earth, when it turns out that Marvin the Martian has also landed on the same planet. Duck Dodgers and the Martian battle it out, using various instruments of mass destruction-- after all of the explosion, there is no planet to claim. Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig and Marvin the Martian are left dangling from what is left of Planet X.

Space Angel #33: The Gladiators (1964, B&W)
One episode from a short animated series drawn by Alex Toth from 1962-1964. Don’t miss this ‘stellar’ battle between our tireless hero, Space Angel and a futuristic Roman gladiator. Complete with Coliseum (located on some other, obscure planet, of course), screaming, blood-thirsty masses and laser shooting ‘chariots’. Utilizing a combination of traditional drawn animation and the ”Synchro-Vox” lip synching technique; this is a rare treat from a short-lived series made during the height of the space age!

About Oddball Films

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present The Visionary Animation of John and Faith Hubley, an animated program of films by the first family of animated experimentation as part of our Masters of Animation series. In the 1940s (up to 1951), John Hubley worked as a director and animator at UPA, defining their mid-century style of minimal and stylized backdrops, a style that would take over the animation industry for decades to come. John was blacklisted from the studio system in the age of McCarthyism and so he and his wife struck out on their own, working out of their kitchen, experimenting with form and technique and creating some of the most ingenuitive, forward-thinking, and politically conscious - but nonetheless humorous and entertaining - cartoons in animation history and winning several Oscars in the process. Inspired by jazz (and often scored by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones and Benny Carter), the Hubleys films have the same feeling of improvisation and experimentation. This program will highlight both John and Faith's solo-careers as well as their plentiful and imaginative collaborations. We will begin with the last Mr. Magoo short John Hubley directed for UPA, the hilarious Fuddy Duddy Buddy (1951) in which our nearsighted hero mistakenly befriends a tennis-playing walrus. Adventures of an *(1956) - the first collaboration between John and Faith - features a stunning experimentation of imagery and a soundtrack from the great Benny Carter. Dudley Moore and Dizzy Gillespie improv a tale of two soldiers on either side of a borderline discussing the absurdities of war, the nature of humanity and even dinosaurs in the hilarious and thought-provoking The Hat: Is This War Necessary? (1967). A runaway city on legs devours everything in its path in the engaging allegory of urbanization Urbanissimo (1967). A taped recording of the couple's toddler daughters, Emily and Georgia (from Yo La Tengo) provide the naturalistic soundtrack to the delightful Cockaboody (1973). Take a ride on the carousel of life in excerpts from Everybody Rides the Carousel (1975). A rock pushes a little boy into the center of the earth to teach him about pre-history in Dig: A Journey into the Earth (1972). We will be finishing the evening with Faith's first solo work, the inspiring and beautiful Women of the World (1975). Plus! Two John Hubley commercials: Maypo (1956) and doggy Flavor Snacks (1966, a Clio award-winner) and the AT&T produced We Learn About the Telephone (1965) a mix of live-action and Hubley animation for the early birds.

Date: Thursday, May 14th, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

"The Hubleys were exciting to work with because they had a strong sense of adventure in their filmmaking. John was never tied down to techniques that he was already familiar with. Each picture was a new experience, because the appearance of the film was always dictated by the content."

-Shamus Culhane

Featuring:

Adventures of an * (Color, 1956, John and Faith Hubley)

The first film John and Faith Hubley produced together commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum, with music by jazz great Benny Carter. “They violated all the rules”, remembered once animator William Littlejohn, “They threw dust on the cels, and they worked with grease so the paint would run. It came out beautifully: everybody was awestruck that such a thing would work”.

“We decided to do a film with music and no dialogue and to deal with abstract characters. We wanted to get a graphic look that had never been seen before. So we played with the wax-resist technique: drawing with wax and splashing it with watercolor to produce a resisted texture. We ended up waxing all the drawings and spraying them and double-exposing them. We did the backgrounds the same way. It photographed with a very rich waxy texture, which was a fresh look” – John Hubley

Mr. Magoo: Fuddy Duddy Buddy (Color, 1951)
Mr. Magoo's first starring role and John Hubley's last Magoo cartoon before being blacklisted for not naming names during the era of McCarthyism. Mr. Magoo heads to the country club for a game of tennis when he mistakes a walrus for his tennis partner. Meanwhile, a zoo detective is hunting down the walrus to bring back to the zoo. By the end of the day, Magoo and the Walrus have unwittingly outwitted the detective and become the best of friends.

Urbanissimo (Color, 1966, John and Faith Hubley)

Famed animators John and Faith Hubley’s film tells the tale of a wily farmer who matches wits with a runaway “city” on legs. Dramatizing the blight perpetuated by chaotic urban development, this animated film tells the story of an unassuming little farmer, symbolic of non-urban man, who is sitting amidst natural surroundings enjoying the flowers and bees. He is interrupted by the entrance of a personified city which chews into his charming landscape. The urban monster is rampant and uncontrollable but the farmer is intrigued by its mobility and dynamic excitement. With a hoppin’ jazz soundtrack by the great Benny Carter with Maynard Ferguson and Ray Brown.

Everybody Rides the Carousel (Color, 1975 excerpts)

A film about the many stages of life and human development, based on the writings of Eric Erikson. Featuring trumpet soloist Dizzy Gillespie. We will be enjoying Ride 1, Ride 7 and Ride 8, starring the voices of Dinah Manoff, Juanita Moore, and Jack Gilford.

The Hat: Is This War Necessary? (Color, 1967)

An entertaining anti-war allegory of two soldiers on either side of a border line. When one soldier's hat flies off onto the other side of the border, he and the opposing soldier get into a fascinating conversation on the nature of aggression, adaptation and the absurdity of war. The soldiers voices are none other than Dudley Moore and Dizzy Gillespie, who improvised their parts in the Hubley's kitchen. For an in depth examination of The Hat, check out Michael Sporn's article here: http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=2769

Dig: a Journey into the Earth (Color, 1972)

Music by Quincy Jones and starring the voice talents of Maureen Stapleton and Jack Warden.

Adam and his dog named Bones take off on a simple bike ride to the store, but after they stop at a construction sight, a talking rock throws them into rabbit hole towards the center of the earth. Then, Rocco takes them on a magical and scientific journey through the pages of pre-history; from stalactites to dinosaurs and all before dinner!

Women of the World (WOW) (Color, 1975, Faith Hubley)
Faith Hubley began work on Women of the World as her first solo project (with help from other women in her circle, including daughter Georgia (drummer/vocalist for Yo La Tengo). Using ritualistic Goddess imagery from different ancient civilizations, Hubley creates a beautiful and artistic history of the world from a feminist point of view.

Plus! Clio-award-winning 1966 commercials for Flavor Snacks directed by the Hubleys! and John Hubley's spot for Maypo cereal from 1956.

For the Early Birds:

We Learn About the Telephone (Color, 1965)

A young man sketches a generic human (“Mr. Man”) who takes us back through history to show us how humans developed a need to communicate and the devices to do so. Then shows us how telephones enable the modern mid-Sixties world. Part-animated by the master John Hubley.

Curator’s Biography

About Oddball Films

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 88: Groundbreakers of the Avant Garde - a once monthly evening of newly discovered and avant-garde rarities from the stacks of the archive. Drawing on his collection of over 50,000 16mm film prints, Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has compiled his 88th program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This program features a wide array of films focused on groundbreaking, avant-garde and experimental filmmakers and artists that have shocked, thrilled, mesmerized, bored and disrupted conventional cinematic aesthetics. Additionally, selected shorts will be accompanied live by NYC multi- instrumentalist and woodwind player Bohdan Hilash (Meredith Monk). We lay the groundwork for this evening’s strangeness with Marcel Duchamp’s Anemic Cinema (1926), a hypnotic exploration of wordplay intermixed with optical illusions followed by The Life And Death Of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1927), Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich’s legendary masterpiece of low budget art and early Hollywood cynicism, Un Chien Andalou (“The Andalusian Dog”, 1928), Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí’s shocking and best-known surrealist films, with the most famous opening scene in cinema history, Buried Treasure (1928), this anonymous (and infamous) erotic curiosity is considered the granddaddy of animated smut, Maya Deren’s A Study in Choreography for the Camera (1945), articulates the potential for transcendence through dance and ritual, while her extraordinary Meshes in the Afternoon (1943), one of the most influential works in American experimental cinema, attunes itself to the unconscious mind caught in a web of dream events that spill over into reality, Merce Cunningham (1964), a very rare French-made poetic montage of movement pioneer Merce Cunningham’s dance performances and collaboration with life partner and sound composer John Cage featuring “found object” sets by radical pop artist Robert Rauschenberg. Finally, we close with Chris Marker’s legendary apocalyptic opus La Jetée (1962), a mind-bending reflection on time, memory, and man at the end of it all and one of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made. Plus: A rarely screened NET documentary of seminal pop artist Robert Rauschenberg showcasing a young Rauschenberg’s innovative “Revolvers” or “Combines”- multilayered painted sculptures that expand the boundaries of art.

Date: Friday, May 22nd, 2015 at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

Anemic Cinema (B+W, 1926, Silent)

Directed by Marcel Duchamp

“I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.”

-Marcel Duchamp

The only film to come from the founder of the Dadaism movement (artistic and literary movement from 1916-1923 “Anemic Cinema” is an abstract and annalistic film short containing rotating circles and spirals interlaced with spinning discs of words strung together in elaborate nonsensical French puns.

The Life And Death Of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (B+W, 1927, Slient)

Written, produced and directed by Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich.

Photographed by Slavko Vorkapich and Gregg Toland.

"This avant-garde experimental short was shot largely in Vorkapich's kitchen using cut-out miniatures; it is a masterpiece of low budget art and a timepiece of Hollywood cynicism."

- Pacific Film Archive

A satiric fantasy about a man who wants to become a Hollywood star, suffers, dies and ascends to heaven. Slavko Vorkapich, later renowned for his montage work on such films as Mr. Smith goes to Washington, directed the film and designed the sets under the influence of German Expressionism. Gregg Toland, who later photographed Citizen Kane, assisted Vorkapich in shooting. Robert Florey, who wrote the screenplay for Frankenstein and directed Coconuts and Beast With Five Fingers, co-directed with Vorkapich from their own screenplay.

Un Chien Andalou(“The Andalusian Dog”, B+W, 1928)

Made in France by the brilliant Spanish director Luis Buñuel and the Spanish artist Salvador Dalí. Un Chien Andalou is one of the best-known surrealist films of the avant-garde movement of the 1920s. It uses dream logic that can be described in terms of then-popular Freudian free association, presenting a series of tenuously related scenes that attempt to shock the viewer's inner psyche. Its opening scene is one of the most famous in cinema history.

Buried Treasure (B+W, 1928)

The Granddaddy of erotic cartoons, persistent rumors suggest that Max Fleischer (Betty Boop and others), Paul Terry (of Terry Toons) and Budd Fisher (Mutt & Jeff) were responsible for this bawdy masterpiece. The legendary porno cartoon with a boogie woogie piano soundtrack depicting the unlikely adventures of the perpetually aroused title character (Eveready Hardon) with, among others, a man, a woman, and a cow. You’ll laugh and the guys may even scream!

A Study in Choreography for the Camera (B+W, 1945)

Maya Deren was one of the most important avant-garde filmmakers of the 20th century working and spending time with such artists as Marcel Duchamp, Andre Breton, John Cage and Anaïs Nin. In A Study in Choreography Maya Deren's 16mm Bolex becomes a performer equal in significance to the star of this film, Talley Beattey. In the opening sequence Deren's camera rotates more than 360 degrees, scanning past the figure in movement. In this film Deren articulates the potential for transcendence through dance and ritual. Deren writes, “The movement of the dancer creates a geography that never was. With a turn of the foot, he makes neighbors of distant places” -Wendy Haslem

Meshes of the Afternoon (B+W, 1943)

One of the most influential works in American experimental cinema. Maya Deren's non-narrative work been identified as a key example of the "trance film," in which a protagonist appears in a dreamlike state, and where the camera conveys his or her subjective focus. The central figure in Meshes of the Afternoon, played by Deren, is attuned to her unconscious mind and caught in a web of dream events that spill over into reality. Symbolic objects, such as a key and a knife, recur throughout the film; events are open-ended and interrupted. Deren explained that she wanted "to put on film the feeling which a human being experiences about an incident, rather than to record the incident accurately." (MoMA)

Merce Cunningham (B+W, 1964)

A very rare 16mm print, this French-made poetic montage features excerpts of movement pioneer Merce Cunningham’s dance performances shot at the Théâtre de l’Est Parisien and Comédie de Bourges in June 1964. Cunningham, a major figure in 20th century dance collaborates here with life partner and sound composer John Cage with “found” material sets by Robert Rauschenberg. The film features dancers Raynal, Jackie, Etienne Becker, and Patrice O’Wyers. A riveting slice of avant-garde performance.

La Jetée (B+W, 1963)

In this legendary exploration of alternative narrative form, time, and space, Chris Marker’s apocalyptic opus weaves together a complex plot with evocative cinematography. Set in a future Paris following an apocalyptic world war, the film’s main character is one of a group of underground survivors who is being used to travel backwards and forwards through time to search for a way out of the bleak present.

Composed mostly of still photography and narration, the film tells the story of a man whose mind is scoured by mad scientists for a psychic link to the world before its end. Marker’s La Jetée is one of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made, a tale of time travel told in still images.

Plus:

USA: Artists: Robert Rauschenberg (B+W, 1966)

A fascinating portrait of Robert Rauschenberg, one of the forerunners of Pop Art and one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Rauschenberg’s legendary explorations into painting, mixed media, theater, performance art and costume design influenced generations of artists and together with Pop artists like Jasper Johns, collaborators like composer John Cage and dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham stretched and redefined the boundaries of the American art. From his patricidal “Erased DeKooning”* work to his co-founding of (E.A.T.) Experiments in Art and Technology in 1966, (formed as a collaborative link between artists and engineers), to his pioneering “combine paintings” using revolving discs to his work incorporating found objects and photo silkscreened images, Rauschenberg’s work is legendary.

About Musician Bohdan Hilash

Clarinetist and multi-instrumentalist Bohdan Hilash has performed on four continents throughout the world as a performer of orchestral and chamber music, opera, contemporary music, jazz, musical theatre, and as a soloist. Mr. Hilash has appeared as a chamber and orchestral musician and as a soloist at many of the world's pre-eminent concert venues and music festivals including those of Bayreuth, Spoleto, Tokyo, Evian, Lincoln Center, Rome, and Aspen.

As an orchestral musician, Mr. Hilash has performed with some of the world's leading orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic with conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, and Leonard Slatkin among many others. He is particularly active in the field of contemporary music and has worked with many of its leading practitioners including Speculum Musicae, Bang on a Can, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has performed with jazz artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Phil Woods, Dave Holland, Lee Konitz, and Kenny Wheeler among many others.

In the theatre Mr. Hilash has worked as a featured performer in collaboration with several leading theater companies, playwrights, and directors of the New York stage including Arthur Miller and Lee Breuer. He recently performed in Carter Burwell's Theater of the New Ear with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Steve Buscemi and others in sound plays by Joel and Ethan Coen and Charlie Kaufmann.

Mr. Hilash's recordings may be heard on the ECM, Chandos, RCA Victor, CRI, Mode, CBC, Finlandia, RCA, New World, CCNC, TBM, Capstone, and RP labels.

Curator's Biography:
Stephen Parr’s previous programs have explored the erotic underbelly of sex-in-cinema (The Subject is Sex), the offbeat and bizarre (Oddities Beyond Belief), the pervasive effects of propaganda (Historical/Hysterical?) and oddities from his archives (Strange Sinema). He is the director of Oddball Film+Video and the San Francisco Media Archive (www.sfm.org), a non profit archive that preserves culturally significant films. He is a co-founder of Other Cinema DVD and a member of the Association of Moving Archivists (AMIA) where he is a frequent presenter.

About Oddball Films

Oddball Films presents Guitar Stories, a trio of documentary portraits of legendary guitarists Les Paul, Blind Gary Davis and Elizabeth Cotten. This musical and historical program will allow you uncover the captivating people behind the strings and the experiences that shaped their sound. Discover the endless accomplishments and the endearing nature of the man, the myth, the machine: Les Paul in the funny and fascinating The Wizard of Waukesha (1979). With engaging and candid interviews and archival footage, Paul takes us from his early days in radio, jazz and big band up through his guitar design and into the "new sound" he invented along with the 8 track recording system. Harold Becker paints a portrait of mid-60s Harlem and the unsung blues-master Blind Gary Davis (1964), a short, lyrical and moving mini doc. And rediscover the influential child prodigy, turned housekeeper, turned folk hero Elizabeth Cotten and her favorite upside-down guitar in Me and Stella (1976), an ultra rare and moving piece featuring intimate conversations with the octogenarian blues and folk singer-songwriter. Plus! Oakland native and electric guitar pioneer Alvino Rey performs The Whistler and His Dog (1941) with his swing orchestra and his pedal steel guitar, snippets of the recently departed legend B.B. King in concert, and more surprises. Come early for the educational film The Guitar (1969) that traces the instrument from its origins up through rock n' roll. All films screened from 16mm prints from the archive.

Date: Friday, May 29th, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

The Wizard of Waukesha: A Film about Les Paul (Color, 1979)
An engaging documentary about the legendary guitarist and inventor Les Paul. Utilizing decades worth of archival footage, entertaining interviews with the man himself as well as other notable musicians of the day like Mike Bloomfield, this fun and fascinating film covers Paul's early days in radio, Chicago Jazz clubs and big bands and his design of electric guitars, his invention of the eight-track recorder and his influence on the quintessential sounds of the 1960s and beyond. Paul himself gives great interview; he is down to earth and funny with half a century worth of stories of the music industry, from Jazz to Country to Rock n Roll. Watch his incredible guitar stylings from the 1930s through the 1970s and his collaborations with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Fred Waring, Chet Atkins, and his wife Mary Ford. Directed by Catherine Orentreich. This gorgeous print is making its Oddball debut!

Blind Gary Davis (B+W, 1964)
Directed by Harold Becker (who went on to direct The Onion Field and Taps among other films). An inside look into the music and lifestyle of one of music’s lesser-known masters, this short documentary focuses on the great country blues artist and reverend, Blind Gary Davis. Davis first recorded in 1935 and greatly influenced the folk movement of the 1960s. He is featured singing and talking about his career amidst the poverty of his Harlem neighborhood. Intimate and revealing, the film’s rich black and white tones compliment the dark tones and lyrics of Davis’s music. It is a sensitive and moving portrait that succeeds in making both social and personal statements.

Me and Stella (Color, 1976)
An incredible portrait of octogenarian Blues and Folk guitarist and songwriter Elizabeth Cotten and her beloved guitar Stella. Cotten taught herself how to play the guitar as a young girl, writing her first (and most well-known) song "Freight Train" at age 11 . Being left-handed with a family of right-handed brothers all sharing the same guitar, Elizabeth learned to play the guitar upside-down (a technique now referred to as "Cotten-picking"). She put down the guitar for 40 years until a chance encounter at a department store led to her employment in Pete Seeger's household, where she picked up the guitar again from scratch and began to record and tour the country on the Folk revival circuit in the 1960s.

Alvino Rey, His Guitar and His Orchestra (B+W, 1941)

Oakland native and electric guitar pioneer Alvino Rey performs The Whistler and His Dog (1941) with his swing orchestra. This novelty big band show-stopper features Rey's incredible pedal steel guitar (that he invented) and is replete with barks, woofs, whistles and growls from his sidemen!

About Oddball Films

Oddball films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you (Un) Feminist Flashback - Sexist Absurdities from Yesteryear, a program of 16mm short films from the 1940s-1980s exemplifying the patronizing, sexist and misogynistic tones and themes designed to keep women in their place and make their progress seem quaint and precious. By scoffing and laughing at these offensively antiquated and cringe-worthy newsreels, educational films, commercials and other ephemera, we can see what progress we've made in the fight for equality, but also the steps that still need to be taken. Learn how to make-up your face and shut-up when men are talking in Why Not Be Beautiful? (1969). In the workplace, Brad's got an issue with all the emotions, obligations and problems with his female employees in The Trouble with Women (1959). Ask yourself the all important question for a young woman, Do I Want to be a Secretary? (1954). Cindy's friends have all gone off to exciting careers as secretaries and teachers, will she find her own way with Beauty for a Career (1962)? One man is so pleased with his simple country life, especially since his wife Elsa (1982) does all the work, in this hilarious Finnish satire. Watch out boys, the ladies bowling champ Tillie Taylor is tearing up the lanes, now would be a good time to fat-shame another woman trying to knock down a few pins in Splits, Spares and Strikes (1941). Isn't that cute, now Manhattan Beach has a group of Lady Lifeguards (1941), who knew girls could do that? An angry little cartoon man, Mitt Mittel, needs a lesson when he can't seem to understand why I've Got a Woman Boss! (1977). Plus, see historical women through the ages not talk about their menstrual pains in the opening segment of Cramps! (1983) and tons of Vintage Sexist Commercials!

Date: Thursday, May 28th, 2015 at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Highlights Include:

Why Not Be Beautiful? (Color, 1969)

"Every young girl can be beautiful." While this beauty primer begins with a broad and semi-enlightened view of beauty; pressing girls to read and be interested in the world around them, it quickly devolves into social conditioning for the non-feminist young woman, teaching her all the best ways to be attractive to the opposite sex. Learn how to make-up your face, dress yourself and how to shut-up when men are talking, because beauty isn't just skin deep, it also means silencing yourself.

Beauty for a Career (Color, 1962)

Cindy is sad, she's all alone now that her best girlfriends have all left town after graduation to study in their chosen fields (you know, secretarial and teaching of course). But Cindy doesn't have a career path, just a great hairdo. That is until Cindy meets with an older friend who's having a fabulous time in Beauty School. Suddenly, the path becomes clear, and Cindy enrolls the very next day. See what she learns to make every woman as beautiful as she can.

Elsa (Color, 1982)

A hilarious satire of gender roles from Finnish director Marja Pensala. A man speaks about his family's decision to move to the country and adopt a simpler way of life. In every shot, as the man relaxes and enjoys himself, we can see his wife Elsa doing all the strenuous and difficult work in their little off-grid paradise; from chopping wood to laundry to bricklaying, and all while she's pregnant.

The Trouble With Women (1959, B+W)

This industrial training film illustrates some of the perceived gender problems a male supervisor might face working with women, but ultimately demonstrates where the real problem lies. So, what IS Brad's problem?

I’ve Got a Woman Boss! (Color, 1977)

With Women’s Lib and the ERA, what’s a man to do when his higher ups hire a girl to do a man’s job? Learn all about how to deal with a woman in a position of power in this delightful corporate education cartoon from the age of bra burning and glass ceilings. Shown from Mitt Mittel's point of view, this angry little man can't even comprehend how a woman could not only become his superior, but be a superior one at that!

Do I Want to Be a Secretary? (Color, 1954)
Betty’s been showing some talent on the typewriter of late, so with the encouragement of her teacher and guidance counselor, and armed with the results ofher Vocational Interest Inventory, she decides to look into possible careers. Her neighbor’s a secretary in an office, so why not stop by and check that out? It looks like a fit!

Splits, Spares and Strikes (B+W, 1941)
Watch out boys, the ladies are taking over the bowling alley, so what better to do than patronize their efforts with offensive voiceover? Isn't it quaint that Tillie Taylor is the ladies' world champion of bowling, but wouldn't we rather talk about her outfit and that fat woman over there the narrator so sweetly refers to as "Tiny"?

Battle of the Bulge (B+W, 1951)
Part of the Variety View series, this antiquated and offensive "comedy" short aims to keep women in their place by joking about their rotundness and their men's displeasure. The narrator follows several women who are overweight and offers various advice and instructions on how to thin down for your ungrateful husband! Written and directed by Arthur Cohen of the "Brooklyn Goes To..." series and narrated by Phil Foster from Laverne and Shirley.

Curator’s Biography

About Oddball Films
Oddball films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.

Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.

Oddball Films welcomes award-winning video pioneer Denise Gallant to our Cinema Soiree, a monthly soiree featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights and films. This show represents 40 years of video effects by Denise Gallant, continually using the Synopsis Video Synthesizer, which was designed by Rob Schafer and built by Denise Gallant. The core concept of the Synopsis Video Synth was to be completely interactive with music, which was unique among early video synthesizers. It was also one of the first video synths to make use of the new ‘integrated circuit’ technology, which made the synthesizers much more stable, reliable and smaller, so that they could easily be built into small boxes and carried to live music shows. Gallant will be presenting clips and videos from four periods of work with the Synopsis Synth. 1972-76: Early experiments in sound-controlled video and pre-video synthesizer clips. 1978-80: Live Video Effects at Clubs in San Francisco including video with Tuxedomoon, Indoor Life, Cabaret Voltaire, Group 87, The Humans, Daevid Allen of Gong, and a short interview with Brian Eno from Video West. 1980-86: Live Video Effects and Edited videos with Suburban Lawns, Wall of VooDoo, Supertramp and selections from Billboard Award Winner “Watercolors” with music by Steve Roach. Later works (1990+) Video with dancer Tandy Beal, 1990 corporate work including ABC Elections, Denny Doherty of The Mamas and the Papas, Burning Man projects and NAMM TEC award clips of Eric Burdon and documentary of Slash of Guns & Roses.

Date: Thursday, June 18th, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Learn Your Lesson...About Safety: A Dangerous Shockucation, the 27th in a monthly series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic educational films, mental hygiene primers and TV specials of the collection. This month, we are getting safe with exploding dolls, stop-motion creeps, google-eyed punching bags, broken bones, eyeball surgery, monkey children, choking babies and more! Playground Safety: The Peepercorns (1975) warns you to not have too much fun on the playground, unless you want to end up like the peepercorns, a stop-motion gaggle of spherical children with terrible luck on the monkey bars. Much like the peepercorns, the punching-bag shaped Schmoadles have a similar problem with riding the school bus in another head-scratcher from Crocus Productions, School Bus Safety: A Schmoadle Nightmare (1975). Let's set your dolls on fire and explode that mannequin with Chemical Booby Traps (1959), an extra-explosive short from General Electric. Discover the history of CPR and what to do when your baby chokes on plastic or traps itself inside a refrigerator, in the shocking That They May Live (1959). Keep on those shop glasses, or you may end up in eyeball surgery, in the vaguely experimental Don't Push Your Luck (1966). For all the housewives out there, learn how to not make brainless mistakes like the silly woman you are with Cooking: Kitchen Safety (1949). Watch out for the "red light" people in the half- pedestrian safety/ half predator scare film Meeting Strangers: Red Light, Green Light (1969). Set out on an ill-fated bike ride with ten monkey-headed children in the notorious One Got Fat (1963). Plus, shocking excerpts from shop-safety film It Didn't Have to Happen (1951), door prizes and more special surprises! If you don't learn your lesson tonight, you might not make it until your next field trip!

Date: Friday, June 5th, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

Playground Safety - The Peepercorns(Color, 1975)

From Crocus Films, the studio that brought you The Munchers, comes a delightful stop-motion look at the dangers of the playground for the creepy little creatures known as Peepercorns. Yes, you read that right... Peepercorns! Grandpa Peepercorn teaches us all how to play safe by recalling the tragic tales of Peepercorns that didn't fair so well.

School Bus Safety: A Schmoadle Nightmare (Color, 1975)
Reason number 27 not to take acid when you drive a school bus: you’ll be beset by huge, inflated, paramecium-shaped truants who want to make your life a living hell! See a school bus driver fend off a gaggle of Schmoadles, badly behaved little bastards who don’t know how sit still and can’t ride a bus without getting the cops involved. No one else can see them, but the bus driver knows they’re still there… Another bonkers production from Crocus Films and Art Pierson!

Chemical Booby Traps (Color, 1959)
Let's set sh*t on fire! This GE (General Electric - We Bring good things to life) industrial safety film shows you how NOT to store explosive chemicals - and what happens when you do! There are burning dolls, exploding sinks, mannequins and fridges and fires galore!

That They May Live (Color, 1959)
From (of all places) the Saskatchewan College of Medicine comes this look at every conceivable scare story about loss of life. Babies choke on plastic, kids lock themselves into refrigerators and dinner guests choke. All this can be prevented by YOU!

Meeting Strangers: Red Light, Green Light (Color, 1969)
Watch out for the "red light" people! Learn how to cross the street and how avoid the countless molesters that are constantly following you and your crew of tots in this ridiculous shock film for the grade-school set. A group of kids are just out for a stroll to see a movie, when they are beset by predator after predator, until each child has learned their lesson. Even includes a rare scene with a female pedophile.

Don’t Push Your Luck (Color, 1967)

This 1967 work safety film, with psychedelic effects and a deeply subjective perspective will get you to see the truth about the need for safety goggles and the horrifying aftermath of those who refuse to shield their peepers. You might need to close your eyes for the brief eyeball surgery shot.

One Got Fat (Color, 1963)

Bizarre/legendary bike safety film- 10 young cyclists acting like monkeys (wearing masks and tails!) head to a city park for a picnic. 9 out of 10 makes a bonehead mistake and suffers a major accident- all but one, who reaches the park and... Here’s how a few of the characters meet their demise:
1.Tinkerbell ("Tink") McDillinfiddy forgets to watch out for a stop sign, and is hit by a large truck.

2. Phillip ("Floog") Floogle rides on the left...POW!

3. Mossby Pomegranate’s bike is stolen, police can’t find it because it wasn't registered, as a result of running between one and nine blocks, his feet arches collapse.

4. Slim Jim ("Slim") Maguffny and Trigby Phipps ride double, due to Trigby's lack of vision because of Slim blocking his head, he steers right into an open manhole covering. Find out Friday the fate of the others!

Dining Room Safety (Color, 1969)

How does Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading the People’ relate to a training film for restaurant staff? I...don’t know, but this film seems to think that if we don’t learn how to be safe on the job (by going through the appropriate In/Out door, by not pouring hot coffee into cups when people aren’t looking), then staff or customers might wind up as one of the dead on the barricade. Come see a metaphor stretched beyond reason, along with dozens of broken dishes.

Cooking: Kitchen Safety (B+W, 1949)
Poor Eleanor; she slipped off her ladder in the kitchen and ended up in the hospital. What a careless woman! Don't you too be just another dumb injured housewife, learn how to cut things without cutting off a finger and other important lessons for us simple women.

For the Early Birds:

Bicycle Safety Camp (Color, 1991, Video)

"Strap it on, Rebop! Wear your helmet with pride!"

This early 90s rapping bike safety video will have you scratching your head and tapping your feet. With insane neon costuming, ridiculous "characters," awful dialogue, over-the-top pre-teen performaces and brain-boiling safety rapping! Join Boomer, Rebop (who went on to Prayer of the Rollerboys) and the rest of this motley crew as they learn the rules of the road and how "ride safe and love it!"

Oddball Films is kicking off pride month with Underground Queer Cinema, a program of vintage 16mm low-budget, high-concept films from the 1950's through the 1970's that defied the boundaries of sexuality, narrative and (at times) good taste; featuring campy drag fairy-tales, homoerotic experimental works, the transgender superstars of Warhol's factory, and more. Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising (1964), is an experimental masterpiece of homoeroticism, bikers, occultism and groovy girl groups. The camptastic Sinderella (1962) retells an age-old fairy tale with a dragnificent twist for a new generation. Academy Award winning filmmakers Frank and Caroline Mouris give us Screentest (1975) a compelling and kaleidoscopic portrait of a gender bending acting troop (print courtesy of the Jenni Olson Queer Archive). Get a glimpse inside The Factory with an excerpt from the documentary Andy Warhol (1973) featuring clips of some of Warhol and director Paul Morrissey's audacious early works as well as interviews from superstars. Behind Every Good Man (1966), a rare and understated portrait of an African American transgender woman shopping, cruising and musing in 1960s Los Angeles. Plus! The first openly gay cartoons, The Goofy Gophers (featuring the voice of recently departed comic genius Stan Freberg) in the uncensored Lumber Jerks (1955); a number from legendary San Francisco drag queen Charles Pierce from The Charles Pierce Review (1969), and more surprises.

Date: Thursday, June 4th, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

Scorpio Rising (Color, 1964, Kenneth Anger)
One of the most important films in Kenneth Anger’s body of work, Scorpio Rising employs the sounds of teen pop and the iconography of 50s and 60s motorcycle culture to create a shrine to teenage rebellion. It is part pop promo, part homo-erotic home movie and is packed with ironic symbolism and style – from his references to the occult to the partially naked, leather-clad bikers riding their bikes recklessly until they crash. Considered by many as the precursor of the pop promos of today - with its angular shots and contemporary soundtrack - the force and poetry of Anger's work has greatly influenced generations of filmmakers, designers and fashion photographers. Anger pioneered the use of the pop music in narrative film by filling the soundtrack entirely with Elvis, girl groups, and top 50 chart hits.

Screentest (Color, 1975, Frank and Caroline Mouris)

"A brilliant film, almost beyond description...existences led at twice the speed, and images/identities transformed without notice." - Roger Ebert.

A kaleidoscopic documentary of nine queer actors as they give free rein to their fantasies. They dress up, strip down, cross-dress; paint their faces, paint their nails, paint the set and generally camp it up while, on the densely layered soundtrack, they dish each other’s performances, the film as a whole, and film documentaries in general. Print courtesy of the Jenni Olson Queer Archive.

Sinderella (B+W & Color, 1962)

This amateur film produced by "Lorelei" is a faithful reenactment of the Brother's Grimm Cinderella... except with a handful of lovely drag queens playing all the parts. A rare document of the San Francisco drag scene in the early 60s, this gem is like a long-lost step sister to Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures. Don't miss the amazingly cheezy production values, awesome wigs, and high-handed bitch slapping that blows Di$ney right out of the water. Poor Sinderella's hair gets a fabulous makeover when she's transformed! In B+W and color.

Andy Warhol (1973, Color, excerpt)

This seldom-seen film features astute commentary by Warhol Factory superstars Viva and Bridgit Polk. Directors Paul Morrissey (“Trash”, “Women in Revolt”) and Emile de Antonio (“Point of Order”, “Painters Painting”) offer some keen insights into the man behind the factory, and the effect of popularizing homosexual and transgendered stars.

The free wheeling style of the documentary gives it a loose, edgy feel and showcases Warhol in action craftily playing to the camera. Excerpts from Bike Boy, Chelsea Girls, Women in Revolt, Trash, Lonesome Cowboys and I, A Man give us a deeper sense of the range and raw cinematic and self-absorbed style Warhol pioneered.

Behind Every Good Man… (B+W, 1966)

Decades before Laverne Cox became a household name and before the Stonewall riots that launched the gay rights movement, this documentary short features an African American transgender woman pushing the envelope in a society barely out of the repressive 1950s. This very rare film directed by Nikolai Ursin, then a film student at UCLA records our subject’s meditations on love, gay life in the early 1960s, and gender transgression. The film and its subject avoid period cliches about homosexuality and gender and point to hopeful possibilities. “I’d like to live a happy life, that’s for sure,” she says, and one not only wants her to, but believes that it really could happen.

Lumber Jerks (Color, 1955)
Featuring the “Goofy Gophers”, who have been called the first openly gay gophers in Hollywood. Aside from the intimation of behind-closed-doors cross-dressing, a scene where gas is siphoned from a truck was censored in later versions of this cartoon. The Gophers are voiced by Mel Blanc and the recently departed Stan Freberg.

Plus! A number from legendary San Francisco drag queen Charles Pierce from The Charles Pierce Review (1969).

About Oddball Films

Oddball Films presents Sex, Death and Cartoons, a program of strange, sexy, dark, sinful and unsettling animation from around the world. From the pornographic to the educational, this program offers the sometimes surreal and always imaginative animated interpretations of two of the most important aspects of life, Sex and Death. The devilish delights of this program include a pencil-drawn version of a 19th century British folk song Widdecombe Fair (1948) about an ill-fated trip to the fair on an old grey mare for Tom Pierce and a dozen of his closest friends. Tex Avery brings us a sexy adaptation of an old fairy-tale in Red Hot Red Riding Hood (1943). Comic strip Krazy Kat comes back to the big screen to fight off ghosts and other haunts, while his puppy fights with a skeleton in the silly romp Krazy Kat in Krazy Spooks (1933). It might be in Spanish but you won't miss the meaning behind the hilarious cartoon Sex, Booze, Blues and those Pills You Use (1982). Sandy Sunrise may be animated, but she's still got needs as we see in the bizarre pornographic short Sandy Sunrise in The Babysitter (1971). The Czechs bring us the morbidly clever cutout animation The Sword (1967). Peter Foldes and the National Film Board of Canada create a nightmarish vision of excess in the early computer animated stunner Hunger (1974). Betty Boop heads down to Hell and melts the king of the underworld with her icy stares in the jazzy Fleischer Brothers' cartoon Red Hot Mamma (1934). Plus, two of our favorites Bruno Bozzetto's dark and sexy examination of the working man's Freudian subconscious, Ego (1970) and the original pornographic cartoon Buried Treasure (1928) starring Eveready Harton.

Date: Friday, June 12th at 8:00PM.

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Admission: $10.00, Limited Seating, RSVP to: 415-558-8117 or RSVP@oddballfilm.com

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

Red Hot Riding Hood (Color, 1943)
Tex Avery's sensual adaptation of the age-old fairy-tale liberates its characters from their Di$ney-style forest and slaps them in the middle of swanky Manhattan. Grandma's a nymphomaniac swinger, and her rustic cottage home a hip penthouse pad. Little Red has become a red-hot singer-stripper; the Wolf is a model of lupine lechery; and the forest is supplanted by a big-city nightclub as the enchanted place of forbidden sexuality. The Wolf tries to pull the old Red Riding Hood gag in order to meet up with Little Red, but Grandma has other ideas.

Sex, Booze, Blues and Those Pills You Use (Color, 1982)
A particularly unusual, and gut-splitting, animation about alcohol and sexual disfunction reminds the audience that one or two drinks might turn you into casanova, but too much many might leave your lover something to be desired.

Sandy Sunrise in The Baby Sitter (Color, 1971)Bizarro animated adult XXX explores the adventures of a babysitter and vegetables! Produced by Warped Imaginations (A Cum Stained Cartoon) featuring music from the classic Beach Boys Smiley Smile album!

Ego (Color, 1970)
Brilliant animation by Italy’s Bruno Bozzetto (Allegro Non Troppo)- starts with traditional comic-style animation until the factory-working family man goes to sleep and unleashes his subconscious thoughts sending him into a psychedelic battleground of chaos and erotic desire. Utilizes a number of animation styles including optical printing and pop art imagery. Wild soundtrack by the ultra-lounge master Franco Godi!

Betty Boop in Red Hot Mamma (B+W, 1934)

It is a cold and snowy night and Betty is freezing cold in her skimpy nighty, but when she blazes a fire in the fireplace, she dreams herself into a cartoon inferno, face to face with the Devil himself, but you know no man is a match for Betty Boop!

Widdecombe Fair (B+W, 1948)

Based on the Devon folk song, first published circa 1889, this pencil-drawn tale tells of Tom Pierce, who borrows his neighbor's old grey mare to take to the fair, only to load the poor creature with "Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all," eventually killing the horse and all it's many passengers.

Krazy Kat in Krazy Spooks (B+W, 1933)

Krazy Kat jumps back to the screen from the comic strip, (looking a lot like one Mr. M. Mouse) to battle ghosts, skeletons and gorillas in this silly short. Krazy Kat and his sweetheart (with a curiously tiny puppy in tow), head into a haunted house and squeal at everything! The puppy tangles with a skeleton to adorable and hilarious effect, but when the danger becomes real, will they be able to fight off a Poe-esque twist?

The Sword (Color, 1967)
This clever Czech cutout animation is short and er… to the point, The Sword is an allegory on the ignorance of people who enjoy their life to those who are suffering or dying at the very same instant.

Hunger/La Faim (Color, 1973)At an extremely rapid pace, images dissolve, move, morph and/or reappear into things or objects that become more and more exaggerated and absurd in this witty and disturbing cartoon by Hungarian director Peter Foldes. One of the first computer-generated films, this Jury Prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival and Academy Award Nominee is a satire focusing on the self-indulgence that plagues our ‘hungry’ world, and depicts a man as he continues to eat, and eat, and eat!

Buried Treasure (B+W, 1928)

The Granddaddy of pornographic cartoons, persistent rumors suggest that Max Fleischer (Betty Boop and others), Paul Terry (of Terry Toons) and Budd Fisher (Mutt & Jeff) were responsible for this bawdy masterpiece. The legendary porno cartoon with a boogie woogie piano soundtrack depicting the unlikely adventures of the perpetually aroused title character (Eveready Hardon) with, among others, a man, a woman, and a cow. You’ll laugh and the guys may even scream!

About Oddball Films

Oddball Films presents Scientific Psychedelia, a program of eye-popping short science and nature films from the 1920s-1980s that capture nature's most surreal, kaleidoscopic and magnificent moments. From microscopic creatures and processes to a space landscape in 3D, to the intricacies of animal movement, these films will open your eyes to the natural wonders that lay within and beyond our own eyesight. Join Homer Groening (Matt's father) as he recontextualizes water and creates a Study in Wet (1964). Behold the ghostly landscapes of our closest planet in Mars in 3D: Images from the Viking Mission (1983). Award-wining filmmaker Carroll Ballard’s (The Black Stallion) abstract film Crystallization (1975) explores the intricate and dazzling formation of crystals in liquids all set to an innovative electronic sound score. Tiny alien creatures abound in the microscopic slides of photographer-biologist Roman Vishniac, in The Big Little World of Roman Vishniac (1980's), whose wondrously amorphous images come to resemble avant-garde cinema. Go inside one of the world's most controversial flowers and see the life cycle of the heroin poppy using time-lapse photography in the eerie and breathtaking Dream Flowers (1935). Basic physical principles are the focus of Invisible Forces (1920s),and the visuals of capillary action in sugarcubes will tantalize and mesmerize. Bell Laboratories brings us Laser (1979), another stunner all about harnessing the power of light for medical and scientific purposes. Watch the surreal movements of rays in French medical film Eagle Ray Experiment (1935). Plus, synthed out close-ups of exotic fish in Aquarium (1978) and another trip through space with NASA in Spaceborne (1977) for the early birds. All films screened in 16mm from the archive.

Date: Thursday, June 11th, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

Study in Wet (Color, 1964)
A short, semi-experimental piece from Matt Groening's father, Homer Groening. As a title card informs us in the beginning, everything in this film is wet; from mesmerizing reflections on the ocean to groovy 60s surfer chicks to the melodic drip drip dripping of the soundtrack (which is a recording of water droplets falling into a bathtub). The trippy visuals will make you think that optical effects were used, but it's simply the magic of science, nature and Groening's eye that bring us such incredible and otherworldly imagery.

Mars in 3-D: Images from the Viking Mission (Color, 1983)

Eery images of the planet Mars from the Viking space mission. Shows overhead views of geological features, spooky landscapes and the Viking operating all in old-fashioned red and blue 3D.

Crystallization (Color, 1975)

Directed by award-wining filmmaker Carroll Ballard (The Black Stallion) this hypnotic non-narrative film explores the formation of crystals in liquids through the electron microscope under polarized light all set to an early 70s electronic sound score. Screened at the SF International Film Festival and winner of the Golden Gate Award in 1975.

Dream Flowers(1930s, B+W)

Beautiful time-lapse photography is used illustrate the opium poppy’s life cycle, from eager bud to the gracefully shedding of its bounty of seeds. Watch as these innocent flowers are processed into “the scourge of the East”, all deliciously narrated in crisp BBC English.

Invisible Forces(1920s, B+W)

In Invisible Forces, surface tension and capillary action are demonstrated using sugarcubes, soap bubbles and a couple of genuine ordinary people of the 1920s, whose film careers ended here, we’re pretty sure.

The Big Little World of Roman Vishniac (Color, 1980’s)

Photographer, biologist, and art historian, Roman Vishniac is most widely remembered for his photographic documentation of pre-Holocaust Jewish culture in Central and Eastern Europe. Vishniac also contributed to the development of photo microscopy (photographs taken through microscopic lens) and time-lapse photography. In this film, showcasing various marine specimens, the gentle Vishniac discusses his love of the natural world and the abundance of life found on the seashore.

Laser (Color, 1979 Robert Deubel)

A lush and mesmerizing visual depiction of lasers and their various uses from medical to industrial. From gorgeous vintage laboratory interiors to an optical kaleidoscope of the many uses of this magical harnessed light beam, with a great moogy soundtrack.

Eagle Ray Experiment (B+W, 1935, silent with added sound)
Soaring and diving in hypnotic concentric circles, the eagle rays in this French medical film form almost abstract patterns while swimming in their tanks. Ray flesh seen in extreme close up jitters and recoils across the entire screen, recognizable only as living, resisting tissue. This is definitely the most beautiful medical film in the archive, and as long as you can’t read the French inter titles, you won’t find out why the good docteur is so keen on these poor creatures.

Aquarium (Color, 1978)
A close-up look at colorful and exotic sea creatures set to a synthesizer sound score.

For the Early Birds:

Spaceborne (1977, Color)

Take a ‘trip’ through the cosmos through the eyes of NASA. This film floats through local and deep space with a visually stunning array of images gathered from a decade plus of space exploration and investigation. Footage from manned flights, telescopes, and observatories come together in this mind-blowing compilation set to futuristic electronic music. Leave the world behind and delve into the realm of galaxies, stars, and planets.

About Oddball Films
Oddball films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.

Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.

Oddball Films presents OBEY: Brainwashing, Thought-Control and Shock Therapy, a program of 16mm films from the archive that explore the malleable nature of the human mind and those that would seek to manipulate that nature into obedience and conformity. From psychology to psychiatry, cults to cartoons; this one-of-a kind program will leave you wondering who is really in control of your brain. Behold the marvels of "modern" psychiatry in the 1950s, including an unabashed look at shock therapy as one method of mental conditioning in What's on your Mind? (1956). From one shock, to another; view excerpts from one of the most notorious experiments in the world of psychology in Stanley Milgram's Obedience (1963) featuring the original Milgram Experiment where participants were asked to shock another participant to explore the boundaries of morality in the face of authority. In De Overkant (1966), Belgian filmmaker Herman Wuyts brings us a bleak interpretation of a totalitarian society in which independence equates to death. Woody Woodpecker gets into the mind-control business in Hypnotic Hick (1953). The dark animated adaptation of Maurice Ogden's The Hangman (1967) is a chilling vision of the dangers of conformity. And one young man tells his own story of life in the Moonie church, and the deprogramming that it took to get him out of it, in the rare TV special Moonchild (1983). Early birds will be treated to 1984: Revisited (1983) featuring Walter Cronkite recounting how close society is coming to an Orwellian dystopia of thought police and perennial surveillance (and this was 32 years ago; it's even more pervasive now!).

Date: Friday, June 19th, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

What's on your Mind? (B+W, 1956)

A shocking early short from the National Film Board of Canada about psychiatry. See the mind of a deranged schizophrenic and follow scores of mal-adjusted people discover the plentiful ways in which 1950s psychiatry offered as help in re-normalizing the human mind, including group therapy and a disturbing and unapologetic shock therapy sequence.

Obedience (B+W, 1963, excerpt)
A stunning look at the way people can so easily coerced into harming others; the all-important Milgram Experiment demonstrates people's willingness to comply with authority figures that led to such regimes as the Nazis and Fascists. Watch as subjects are given instructions to shock another participant when they answer a question incorrectly. Although some people refuse to give an increasingly higher voltage to the unseen participant (an actor) in the next room - as that person begins to yell out in pain - there are just as many who have no problem shocking away. This film was made by Stanley Milgram himself and will send a chill down your spine as you consider the ramifications.

De Overkant (B+W, 1966)
This Belgian short made by Herman Wuyts is a bleak and shocking look at an imaginary, but terrifying totalitarian civilization. All people are forced to walk along the walls of the street, never looking at each other or the world beyond the walls. As the hordes shuffle down the street - their hands brushing along the walls but never touching one another - one man dares to run into the middle of the street, where he is promptly gunned down. As more men give their lives for the freedom of choice, the people attempt an uprising, that is quickly and bloodily dispensed with before the masses run back to the relative safety of acquiescence.

Hypnotic Hick (Color, 1953)
After learning the art of mind control from some old books, Woody Woodpecker goes and has some un-permitted fun at an ol’ Buzzard’s expense!

The Hangman (Color, 1964)

Paul Julian, previously known as an animator for Warner Bros' Looney Tunes, directs this haunting adaptation of Maurice Ogden's poem of the same name. A mysterious hangman comes to a small town, taking upon himself the responsibilities of town judge, jury, and executioner, but rather than questioning the stranger's arbitrary sentencing, the town's residents stay satisfied with their own well being, and look idly on as their community dwindles and their neighbors, one-by-one, face the noose-but might they too be beckoned by the hangman? Surreal in its visual style with long shadows and sharp color contrasts, and made all the more unsettling by an eerie jazzy sort of score. Is it about the Holocaust, playground bullies, McCarthyism? Discussion when the lights go up.

Moonchild (Color, 1983)

"I've been here for a week and I never knew you guys were Moonies" 

A rare made-for-TV special. A reenactment of real life deprogrammers and ex-Moonies re-create the story of young man's journey through the Unification Church. Chris Carlson stars as himself to reveal how he unexpectedly got sucked into a cult, and it all started in San Francisco! Youth recruiting tactics and high pressure indoctrination are exposed. This film attempts to show how the effects of cult brainwashing can be reversed by simulating the painstaking process of deprogramming. Get a taste for it now with this opening clip...

For the Early Birds:

1984: Revisited (Color, 1983)

This startling documentary describes modern-day methods of thought control, selective manipulation of news and information source, emotional manipulation at mass rallies and hate sessions... and when all else fails-- torture. A serious thought-provoker and call to action to everyone concerned with protecting the future of our country. Host Walter Cronkite compares George Orwell's novel 1984 to "present-day" society. He describes modern day uses of technology and methods of thought control, manipulation of the news and information sources, and other likenesses to the author's book in order to Alert viewers to the dangers to our freedom.

About Oddball Films

Oddball Films and guest curator Christina Yglesias present How to be an Artist. This mix of never before screened gems and oddball classics will include instructional art films, experimental weirdness, sexy sculptors, and meditations on the meaning of art itself. First, see if you have what it takes for a career in the arts with Art Talent Test (1950s) feauturing Michael Kent, "world-renowned talent scout". If you pass the test, move on to Sculpture: Process of Discovery (1975). Rock sculptor Norm Hines will wow you with his thoughtful process and his rock hard abs in this accidentally erotic film. Get a mini fantastical art history lesson with the lovely animated film Seven Arts (1958) in which adorable dinosaurs witness and take part in early humans discovering the arts. Things will get weird with Exquisite Corpse (assembled in 2012), a film created by Oddball audience members from scraps of disparate films. Go beyond the elementary with the funky and fun instructional film Crayon (1964). We'll keep things funky with Art from Found Materials (1971), where one man's trash becomes another man's ugly sculpture. Learn how to keep your paintbrushes happy with Care of Art Materials (1948), an adorable mix of imaginative animation and live action. Now that you've made it this far, get existential with What is Art? Art (1966). The evening will finish with a beautiful, entirely hand-painted film of mysterious origin Kathy's Museum Class (1970's, Color). Early comers will get to see a super-secret behind-the-scenes film.

 Date: Friday, June 26th, 2015 at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco 

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

 Featuring:  

Exquisite Corpse (assembled in 2012, color & B&W)

 Created collaboratively by Oddball audience members, this film is creates a lovely collage of various clips. Let this true exquisitite Corpse Film inspire you to get experimental.   

Art from Found Materials* (1971, Color) 

Find the inspiration to "make imaginative art objects: (aka: turn trash into ugly art) with this fun film with an even funkier score.   

Kathy's Museum Class* (1970, Color)  

This mysterious film is entirely hand-painted (otherwise known as "direct animation") for a mesmerizing colorful abstract effect.   

Care of Art Materials* (1948, B+W)  

Bob Ross would love this cute and helpful film that is a mix of animation and live action, with an animated mouse instructor and brushes with sad faces.   

Sculpture: Process of Disovery* (1975, Color)  

This look into the process of sculptor Norm Hines becomes softcore erotica in some of the moments when, as he says, "It's just me and the rock." He hauls stones from the quarry shirtless and glistening, oils up completed stone works, and blows minds with his thoughtful insights on process and art.   

Seven Arts (Color, 1958) 

The development of human culture by the first caveman, who, frightened by his own shadow, attacks it with his axe to create the first work of art. By accident, the first examples of architecture, drama, literature, and music come into existence. Adorable dinosaurs observe, enjoy, and participate in the developments. From Romanian animator Ion Popescu-Gopo.  

What is Art? Art* (1966, Color)

 This educational film for children will get us to stop thinking so hard about the title's question. Covering the elements of form, color, and texture- we see the wonder of art for arts sake.   

Art Talent Test(Color, 1950s) 

Michael Kent, “World-renowned Talent Scout” wants you to know that there are valuable careers in the arts, but only if you have the talent. We’ve all seen the ads from Art Instruction Schools in the back of magazines for decades. You may have even tried your hand at recreating that cheeky little turtle in a cap. Now, see an early-promotional film from the late 50's or early 60's and see if a career in the arts is for you.   

Crayon (Color, 1964)

 Crayon is not afraid to go-go-go outside the lines . . . with a cool vibraphone score! Schoolroom auteur Stelios Roccos brings his vibrant style to an inspiring study of amazing crayon techniques from plain old coloring-in, to the melty fun of encaustic and batik.  

*Oddball Premieres!       

About Oddball Films 

Oddball films is the film component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.  

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema, a monthly screening of new finds, old gems and offbeat oddities from Oddball Films’ vast collection of 16mm film prints. Drawing on his archive of over 50,000 films, Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has complied his 89th program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This installment, Strange Sinema 89: Visionaries of Time and Space, explores artists working with speed and light, time and space. By slowing and accelerating time, compressing and distorting space (and distance), arresting and suggesting movement, these filmmakers explode the boundaries of conventional film, inducing a meditative, trance-inducing and in some cases a near-epileptic response in the viewer. Other artists use new technologies creating invisible art by magnetism, prisms, lights, moving objects, converging lines, and number patterns. Films include the mesmerizing documentary Kinetic Art in Paris(1971), a viscerally challenging, kaleidoscopic homage to the future of perception, featuring some of the world’s foremost kinetic artists; Lapis(1965), made by cinema pioneer James Whitney consisting entirely of hundreds of constantly moving points of light and one of the most accessible experimental films ever made; Art For Tomorrow(1969) an eye-popping exploration of experimental tech-oriented art incorporating early IBM computers, cybernetics, heart beat triggers, and invisible art by magnetism all narrated by Walter Cronkite; Free Fall (1964) famed Canadian filmmaker Arthur Lipsett creates a synesthetic experience through the intensification of image and sound utilizing single-frame editing and tribal music; Maya Deren’s A Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) incorporates film techniques -reprinting, varying camera speeds, and direction and movement of the camera-integrating representational performance art into abstract, non-narrative filmmaking through intersecting currents of subconscious, parallel realities; Paul Roubaix’s Allegro Ma Troppo(1963) is a hyperkinetic vision of Parisian nightlife between 6PM and 6AM, shot at two frames per second utilizing automatic cameras; A Chairy Tale (1957) the surrealistic virtuoso collaboration of three of the geniuses of the National Film Board of Canada; Norman McLaren, Claude Jutra and Evelyn Lambert, about a chair that refuses to be sat upon, forcing a young man to perform an acrobatic and comedic dance with the chair, with music by Ravi Shankar; and The Wizard of Speed and Time (1979)Mike Jitlov’s legendary high speed mind-blowing special effects short.

Date: Thursday, June 25, 2015 at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Featuring:

Kinetic Art in Paris (Color,1971)

The works of Kinetic artists Julio Le Parc, Victor Vasarely, John Rock Yvar aren’t the only things explored in detail in this ultra rare, quirky documentary that features music from the short-lived cult British pop duo White Trash. Viscerally challenging, this kaleidoscopic homage to light, sound, motion and restraint is quintessential viewing for anyone with a desire to be fascinated by anything…even if just for a moment. Don’t miss this!

Lapis (Color, 1965)

Cinema pioneer James Whitney’s film consists entirely of hundreds of constantly moving points of light. Lapis performs such marvelous transformations of positive and negative space, projected color and after-image, similarity and difference, that the viewer cannot help but contemplate the relationships of the unit to the whole, the individual consciousness to the cosmos, of space to time - and not a dry, forced meditation, but a supremely sensual, purely visual dialogue.

Like a single mandala moving within itself, the particles surge around each other in constant metamorphosis, a serene ecstasy of what Jung calls "individuation." For 10 minutes, a succession of beautiful designs grows incredibly, ever more intricate and astounding; sometimes the black background itself becomes the pattern, when paths are shunned by the moving dots. A voluptuous raga soundtrack by Ravi Shankar perfectly matches the film's flow, and helped to make LAPIS one of the most accessible "experimental films" ever made.

The images were all created with handmade cels, and the rotation of more than one of these cels creates some of the movements. John Whitney, his brother had built a pioneer computerized animation set-up—the prototype for the motion-control systems that later made possible such special effects as the "Star Gate" sequence of 2001. James used that set-up to shoot some of his handmade artwork, since it could ensure accuracy of placement and incremental movement.

*For more information about James Whitney’s work:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Whitney_(filmmaker)

Art for Tomorrow (Color, 1969)

“The artist is beginning to react to the impact of science and technology and beginning to come to terms with it. The artist better be rather careful or he will be losing his job and the engineer will become the artist of the future.”

In this film, from the Twentieth Century television program narrated by Walter Cronkite the art of the future is foreseen in new techniques demonstrated by artists and engineers using distinctive methods and new technology including computers, cybernetics, heart beat triggers, invisible art by magnetism, prisms, lights, moving objects, converging lines, and number patterns. This fascinating look at the “future past” features a kaleidoscopic portrait of avant-garde art works by Yaacov Agam (who uses strobe lights), Wen-Ying Tsai (vibrating steel rods), John Mott-Smith (computer-generated ideas), *Jean Tinguely (machine-made sculpture), Victor Vasarely’s early experiments with IBM computers, Jean Dupuy and many more.

*Here’s a link to a clip from Tinguely’s mind-blowing Homage to New York (1960) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MqsWqBX4wQ

Free Fall (B+W, 1964)

Free Fall features dazzling pixilation, in-camera superimpositions, percussive tribal music, syncopated rhythms and ironic juxtapositions. Using a brisk “single-framing” technique, Arthur Lipsett attempts to create a synesthetic experience through the intensification of image and sound. Citing the film theorist Sigfreud Kracauer, Lipsett writes, “Throughout this psychophysical reality, inner and outer events intermingle and fuse with each other – 'I cannot tell whether I am seeing or hearing – I feel taste, and smell sound – it's all one – I myself am the tone.'”

*Note: Free Fall was intended as a collaboration with the American composer John Cage, modeled on his system of chance operations. However, Cage subsequently withdrew his participation fearing Lipsett would attempt to control and thereby undermine the aleatory organization of audio and visuals.

Ritual in Transfigured Time (B+W, 1946)

Maya Deren's Ritual in Transfigured Time is a formalized, aesthetic composition of regimentation and studies of dynamic human forms that prefigure the films of such diverse filmmakers as Yvonne Rainer and Claire Denis. Deren incorporates representational performance art into abstract, non-narrative filmmaking through intersecting currents of subconscious, parallel realities, revealing the film's tone and intrinsic logic through the choreography of organic bodies in performance of ritual, and in the process, creates a haunting and sublime exposition on the spatial (rather than linear) dimensionality of time, synchronicity, and the potentiality of fate. With Rita Christiani, Maya Deren, Anaïs Nin, Gore Vidal and Frank Westerbrook.

Allegro Ma Troppo (Color, 1963)

A Parisian evening, conveyed through automatic cameras and imaginative cinematography of the life of Paris between 6PM and 6AM shot at two frames per second utilizing automatic cameras. From strippers to car crashes, Paul Roubaix’s Allegro Ma Troppo evokes the intensity and variety of nocturnal life in the City of Light through speeded-up action, freeze-frame, and virtuoso editing.

A Chairy Tale (B+W, 1957)

Shot partly with pixilation and partly at 12 frames a second this surrealistic fable is the directorial collaboration of three of the geniuses of the National Film Board of Canada; Norman McLaren, Claude Jutra and Evelyn Lambert. The musical accompaniment is by Indian musicians Ravi Shankar, Chatur Lal, and Modu Mullick. In this film, a chair, animated by Evelyn Lambart, refuses to be sat upon, forcing a young man to perform an acrobatic and comedic dance with the chair.

“A Chairy Tale” won the Canadian Film Award for Best Arts and Experimental Film, as well as a BAFTA Special Award, and earned an Academy Award nomination for Live Action Short Subject.

The Wizard of Speed and Time (Color, 1979)

A young man in a green wizard costume runs throughout America at super speed. Along the way, he gives a pretty girl a swift lift to another city, gives golden stars to other women who want a trip themselves. He then slips on a banana peel and comically crashes into a film stage, which he then brings to life in magical ways.

Jittlov is a special effects technician, and produced all of the special effects in the film himself, many through stop motion animation.

This short film originally was shown as a segment of an episode of

The Wonderful World of Disney. The film segment then began to be shown at science fiction conventions around the country, gaining popularity, prompting Jittlov to eventually create a (semi) fictionalized account of how this short film came to be, in the form of a feature film.

About Oddball Films

Totally Strange 80's - Sex, Drugs and Roller Skates - Fri. Apr. 24 - 8PM

Ad Nauseam - Vintage Commercial Extravaganza - Thur. Apr. 23 - 8PM

Travels, Trips, and Journeys: A Night of Vintage Voyages - Fri. May 1st - 8PM

Strange Sinema 87: Sex and Youth in the Atomic Age - Thur. Apr. 30 - 8PM

Learn Your Lesson on Prom, Parties and Peer Pressure - A Social Shockucation - Fri. May 8th - 8PM

The Body Beautiful - Thur. May 7th - 8PM

Cinema Soirée - Quadratura Circuli (Squaring the Circle) - films by tooth and others - Thur. May 21 - 8PM

The Future is Fuzzy - Science Fiction Strangeness - Fri. May 15 - 8PM

The Visionary Animation of John and Faith Hubley - Thur. May 14 - 8PM

Strange Sinema 88: Groundbreakers of the Avant-Garde with Live Accompaniment by Bohdan Hilash - Fri. May 22nd - 8PM

Guitar Stories - Les Paul, Elizabeth Cotten, Blind Gary Davis - Fri. May 29th - 8PM

(Un) Feminist Flashback - Sexist Absurdities from Yesteryear - Thur. May 28th - 8PM

Cinema Soiree: Video Synthesizer Works with Denise Gallant of Synopsis Video - Thur. June 18 - 8PM

Learn Your Lesson...About Safety: A Dangerous Shockucation - Fri. June 5th - 8PM

Underground Queer Cinema - Thur. June 4th - 8PM

Sex, Death and Cartoons - Fri. June 12th - 8PM

Scientific Psychedelia - Thur. June 11th - 8PM

OBEY: Brainwashing, Thought-Control and Shock Therapy - Fri. June 19 - 8PM

How to Be an Artist - Fri. June 26 - 8PM

Strange Sinema 89: Visionaries of Time and Space - Thur. June 25 - 8PM