Save KUSF Benefit featuring The Velvet Underground - Thurs. Dec 1 - 8PM


Oddball Films hosts a benefit for Save KUSF featuring a two-hour multi-media presentation on The Velvet UndergroundRichie Unterberger, author of the recent book White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day, will present rare audiovisual material from throughout the groundbreaking group's career, including film clips; audio tracks; slides of photos from the book, telling the chronological history of the band; and expert commentary from the writer himself. Plus as a special bonus, rarely seen clips of Andy Warhol from Oddball Films' collection. 


Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2011 at 8:00PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco (map)
Admission: $10-$15 Sliding Scale - Limited Seating RSVP to 415-558-8117 or programming@oddballfilm.com


Signed copies of the book available for purchase at a discount! 


More about the Author:
San Francisco resident Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books, including Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll and a two-part history of 1960s folk-rock, Turn! Turn! Turn! and Eight Miles High. His book The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film won a 2007 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. His latest book is Won't Get Fooled Again: The Who from Lifehouse to Quadrophenia. Click here for more info. 








Strange Sinema 46 - Sat. Nov 26 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 46, a monthly screening of offbeat films, old gems and newly discovered oddities both entertaining, experimental and eye-opening, all culled from Oddball Films 50,000 film archive. This 46th installment includes A Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946), the High Priestess of experimental cinema Maya Deren’s sensual and metaphorically elusive study of the female psyche, Toot, Whistle, Plunk, Boom (1953), a “beatnik” influenced Academy Award winning short in stunning Technicolor, Trends (1967) a quirky, animated futurist film by Hungary’s first animated feature film director, Blowtop Blues (1945) featuring wild man Cab Calloway and Orchestra swingin’ through a great number, Experimental Psychology of Vision (1941), a way-out eye-popping film featuring phi phenomenon, visual other optical illusions, Help My Snowman is Burning Down (1964) Carson Davison’s award-winning beatnik rhapsody with jazz score by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, A Lichtenstein in London (1968), a tour de force on site doc of the American pop artist’s famous Tate Modern show produced by Bruce Beresford featuring commentary by Lichtenstein, gallery views and shots of some of his most well known paintings and sculptures. Plus! Gay psychedelia! 

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Date: Saturday, November 26th, 2011 at 8:00PM
Admission: $10.00 - Limited seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415.558.8117

Program Features:

A Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946, B+W, silent)
Maya Deren was one of the most influential female avant garde filmmakers of the 20th century. She was dancer, choreographer, poet, writer and photographer. In the cinema she was a director, writer, cinematographer, editor, performer, entrepreneur and pioneer in experimental filmmaking in the United States. She collaborated with Marcel Duchamp and her social circle included the likes of Andre Breton, John Cage and Anais Nin. 
This enigmatic film is a social event choreographed in the manner of a dance, illuminated by concepts drawn from Greek legend. This is a sensual and metaphorically elusive study of the female psyche often considered one of filmmaker’s most intriguing works.
For more info on Deren’s remarkable career click here.

Toot, Whistle, Plunk, Boom (1953, Color)
This Academy Award winner is in stunning Technicolor and a “beatnik” classic of mid-century animated design. It’s been ranked one of the top 50 greatest cartoons of all time.

Trends (1967, Color)  and Sisphus (1974)
Originally titled “Tendenciar”, this thought-provoking animated short was produced by the acclaimed Pannonia Film Studio in 1967. It was directed by Marcell Jankovics, the director of Hungary’s first full-length animated feature, as well as the Academy Award nominated short Sisyphus. Aside from a short introduction by a narrator, the film contains no spoken dialogue. Instead, it uses inventive images and music to speculate on the trends of the future—possible future trends in anatomy, human sexuality, communication, and other futuristic predictions are depicted. Sisyphus is an artistically spare depiction of the Greek myth of Sisphyus, sentenced to eternally roll a stone up a mountain. The animated story is presented in a single, unbroken shot, consisting of a dynamic line drawing of Sisyphus, the stone, and the mountainside.

Blowtop Blues (1945, B+W)
One of the great jazzy entertainers, A talented jazz singer and a superior scatter Calloway’s wild gyrations and on-stage showmanship at the Cotton Club sometimes overshadowed the quality of his always excellent bands. This rarity includes some real heavy hitters of early jazz including Cab Calloway and his Orchestra - Cab Calloway, vocal and leader; Russell Smith, Paul Webster, Jonah Jones, Shad Collins, trumpets; Tyree Glenn, Quentin Jackson, Keg Johnson, Fred Robinson, trombones; Hilton Jefferson, Andrew Brown, alto saxes; Ike Quebec, Al Gibson, tenor saxes;  Greely Walton, baritone sax; Dave Rivera, piano; Danny Barker, guitar;  Milt Hinton, string bass and J.C. Heard, drums.


Lichtenstein in London (1968, 
Color)
Having just been informed that a 1961 painting by the late pop artist Roy Lichtenstein  “I Can see the Whole Room! ….and There’s Nobody In It!’  has just sold for $43 million dollars Oddball thought it might be a good time to screen this British Film Institute Bruce Beresford directed film shot at the Tate Modern show in London in 1968. This film records the impact of American artist Roy Lichtenstein's (b.1923) work on the public and their reactions to it in the context of a retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London, which attracted unprecedented attention and proved one of the most popular ever held there. Shows his early paintings based on magazine ads and comic strip cartoons, such as Stove 1962 and Whaam! 1963, groups of girls' heads and landscapes and several sculptures. Commentary juxtaposes remarks by the public approving, questioning, or even rejecting the work, with extracts from previously recorded interviews with the artist made by the critics Alan Solomon for WNET, New York, and David Sylvester for the BBC. 

$43 Million? Learn to draw and do the same thing - click here.


Help, My Snowman’s Burning Down (Color, 1964) This Academy award-nominated short (and winner of 14 international awards) by Carson Davidson stars Bob Larkin (later in the cult film Putney Swope) as a Beatnik who lives on a boat dock off Manhattan with only bathroom furnishings.  A visceral tapestry woven together by stop motion and surreal special effects, this film is an Oddball audience favorite.  With original jazz score by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet.


Experimental Psychology of Vision (1941, B+W) is a way-out eye-popping film featuring phi phenomenon, visual  tricks and other optical illusions. 

Starlet Revue (B+W, 1929)
This all kiddie dance review pulls out all the stops1929 style! This is the first film to feature the Meglin Kiddies dance group—the dancing troupe that launched the careers of Shirley Temple and Judy Garland! Child dancers perform a pas de deux, a line dance, and other styles. 







Trance Cinema - Fri. Nov 25 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Trance Cinema, An Evening of Ritual and Trance Films from Bali and Indonesia. This program showcases remarkable, rarely seen award-winning films plus unique shorts exploring the unique cultural rituals and ceremonies of Bali and Indonesia. Films include Trance and Dance in Bali (1937-39), Island of the Spirits, Ma’Bugi: Trance of the Toraja, A Balinese Gong Orchestra (1971) and the cinema curio Belles of BaliTrance Cinema is part of a series of ongoing film programs exploring ritual, higher consciousness and altered states of awareness.


Date: Friday, November 25th at 8:00PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating - RSVP to: 415-558-8117 or programming@oddballfilm.com


Featuring:
Trance and Dance in Bali (1937-39) The film was produced by Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead and records a performance of the Balinese ceremonial kris (dagger) dance-drama, which depicts the never-ending struggle between witch (death-dealing) and dragon (life-protecting), as it was given in the village of Pagoetan in the late 1930s. The dancers experience violent trance seizures, turn their krises against their breasts without injury, and are restored to consciousness with incense and holy water. Narrated by famed anthropologist Margaret Mead against a background of Balinese music. This “ecstatic ethnography” was an extraordinary effort to use film and photography in the field, and the precursor to much of the visual anthropology that has gone on since then

Island of the Spirits (1970s)
Among the Hindus of Bali, cremation is thought to release the soul for its journey to Nirwana. The joyous and spectacular ceremony shown in Island of the Spirits is reserved for high-born princes today. Hugely costly, the preparations for the cremation of Prince Sudharsana include the building of fantastic effigies and a tower nine stories high. Eight hundred men carry the tower in procession through the hundred thousand celebrants. The body of his small granddaughter and the souls of twenty-seven villagers accompany the prince. At the close of this long and auspicious day, when towers and effigies together with coffins, food, money, and incense have long been consumed by flames, when the crowds have departed, the ashes of the dead will be cast into the sea. Only then will the newly liberated spirits rise unrestrained to join the heavenly soul of all the universe, Nirwana.

Ma’Bugi: Trance of the Toraja This film depicts an unusual trance ritual that functions to restore the balance of well-being to an afflicted village community. The film communicates both the psychological abandon of the trance state and the often neglected motivation underlying activities such as the ascent of a ladder of knives and the supernatural curing of the chronically ill. Ma’Bugi portrays the song, dance and pulsating tension that precede dramatic instances of spirit possession in the Toraja highlands Sulawesi (Celebes) Island, Indonesia.

A Balinese Gong Orchestra (1971)
A film explaining the famous "Gamelan Gong" that includes the orchestra Tunjuk. Each instrument is described and explained, then the orchestra performs a piece taken from the Ramayana ballet suite (written in the 1950s and based on traditional themes). An excellent introduction to this kind of strange and exciting music to Western ears.

Belles of Bali (1930s)
An unusual curio examining the female culture and day to day activities of “exotified” Balinese women.



 





An Evening With The Insane - Fri. Nov 18 - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Neil Van Gorder present An Evening with the Insane. This program of freshly unearthed rarities from Oddball Films’ 50,000-reel film archive will make you feel like you’re insane, think that the filmmaker is crazy, or plainly demonstrate some very bizarre behavior. Filled with cockeyed screen gems, some of the evening’s highlights include Free Fall (1964), by the brilliant, but troubled auteur Arthur Lipsett, Holy Ghost People (1967), Peter Adair’s legendary verite doc showcases  a West Virginia Caucasian Pentecostal congregation whose religious fervor includes trances, speaking in tongues, and rattlesnakes, You Don’t Die Here (1972) Jon Else’s open-ended documentary showing Death Valley, Calif., as a cruel and sublime landscape in which strange and eccentric desert-dwelling residents poetically reminiscing about the past, and Make a Wish (1972), a man sings a song about making a wish as psychedelic animations and montage editing make you feel like you stepped into the mind of a happy Lars von Trier. You’re sure to raise an eyebrow at one of the strangest films in the collection, Beat Me, Daddy (1943) features boogie woogie pianist Maurice Rocco performing “Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar.” Trips to the dentist will never be the same after watching Toothache of a Clown (1972), and learn the colors of the rainbow through the kaleidoscopic transforming blobs of Hailstones and Halibut Bones (1963). Plus much more! Get off your rocker and join us for what will surely be a mind-bending evening. 

Date: Friday, Nov. 18th, 2011 at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco (map)

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


Featuring:

Holy Ghost People (Reel 2) (1967, 22 mins, B&W)
This film is a documentary of a Caucasian Pentecostal congregation whose fundamentalist philosophy encourages a literal interpretation of the Bible. Reveals the religious fervor, the trances, the phenomenon of glossolalia (speaking in new tongues), and the use of rattlesnakes. Filmed by Peter Adair. This film was rightly hailed by Margaret Mead as one of the best ethnographic films ever made, and a staple of classes on anthropology and documentary film, this study of a little-known sect who put their lives on the line for their religion still packs a wallop four decades after its release.



You Don’t Die Here (1972, 19 mins, color)
Jon Else’s open-ended documentary showing Death Valley, Calif., as a cruel and sublime landscape in which  with strange and eccentric desert-dwelling residents poetically reminiscing about the past.


Make a Wish  (1972, 8 mins, color)
A man with an acoustic guitar sings a song about making a wish as a very quick, cool montage of images begins which includes animals in slo-motion, rodeo clowns, glass blowing, astronauts in space, fireworks, and cool psychedelic animations. This film was made as one of a series of short films to broaden children's awareness of the world around them, but feels like you've stepped into the mind of a madman.

A Dream of Wild Horses aka "Le Songe des Chevaux Sauvages (1962, 10 mins, color) This landmark short film is a cinematic poem which uses slow motion and soft focus camera to evoke the wild horses of the Camargue District of France, showing them as they roam on the beach through fire and water, biting and kicking one another. The raw yet elegant physicality of the horses in motion is breathtaking and euphoric.

Toothache of a Clown (1972, 10 mins, color)
Clowns are creepy the same way mimes are annoying. This film attempts to calm children's fear of the dentist by having a sad ass clown get his cavity filled. Watch our clown whine, accompanied by half-baked actors and cheap sets in this nitrous oxide-inspired nightmare!

Beat Me, Daddy (1943, 4 mins, B&W)
Features pianist Maurice Rocco performing the wild and raucous boogie woogie classic “Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar”, later performed by Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen.

Hailstones and Halibut Bones (1963, 8 mins, color)
Celeste Holme reads the poem “Hailstorms and Halibut Bones” by Mary O’Neill that is about colors and the way colors can be described.  Uses animation with lots of flowers, smiley faces, and crazy transforming blobs to help us learn the colors white, red, green, black.

L.A. Too Much (1968, 10 mins, color)
A couple having sex is interposed over shots of the architectural details of a house. Strange noises fill the sound track.  Ultimately the old house succumbs to a violent death.

Free Fall (1964, 10 mins, B&W)
By the brilliant but troubled avant-garde filmmaker Arthur Lipsett (who committed suicide in 1986), Free Fall is, in the words of Lipsett himself, an “attempt to express in filmic terms an intensive flow of life – a vision of a world in the throes of creativity – the transformation of physical phenomena into psychological ones – a visual bubbling of picture and sound operating to create a new continuity of experience – a reality in seeing and hearing which would continually overwhelm the conscious state – penetration of outward appearances – suddenly the continuity is broken – it is as if all clocks ceased to tick – summoned by a big close-up or fragment of a diffuse nature – strange shapes shine forth from the abyss of timelessness.”




Pop-Up Film Food Feast - Sat. Nov 19 - 8pm

Guest curator Jeremy Menzies and Oddball Films present Pop-Up Film Food Feast, a program that will stimulate your taste buds and answer a range of who, what and where questions about food and food production.  From strictly educational to satirically humorous, this eclectic mix of vintage films will take you from the simple life down on the cattle ranch to the high speed daily grind of peanut butter production.  Films include, You and Your Food starring Jiminy Cricket, Chemical Feast with Marshall Effron, In the Night Kitchen based on Maurice Sendak’s children’s book, Artistry in Sugar with sugar master Eric Sager, How Do They Make Hot Dog Rolls? with Woody Allen and Joanne Worley, and more! 


Date: Saturday November 19, 2011 at 8:00PM 
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp St., San Francisco (map
Admission: $10.00 - Limited seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8117






Our cornucopia of food films includes:



You and Your Food (Technicolor, 1955) Part of a long series of short animated educational films produced by the prolific animator Walt Disn*y, this film covers a full course meal of information about food and nutrition. Hosted by that magic umbrella-toting grasshopper, who will walk you through different foods for different animals and the right foods for you and me.

In the Night Kitchen (Color, 1970) Based on a children’s book written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, this short film follows a young boy through a night-time adventure in the world of fat chefs, enormous foods, and kitchen magic. Haven’t had your fill with Where the Wild Things Are? Come out and catch this colorful animated beauty for a trip down memory lane for a midnight snack.

The Sugar Cereal Imitation Orange Breakfast (Color, 1973) As explained by the film can insert: “Comedian Marshall Efron, in boy’s cap and sweater gives some inside tips to other kids on how to manipulate Mom into buying those television advertised, heavily frosted, super-sugar, breakfast cereals- which unfortunately are low in nutrition and bad for the teeth. Then, turning his humor to a display of imitation orange juice products, Effron examines brand name concentrates, liquids and powders which variously contain water, sugar, chemicals, additives, and sometimes orange juice!” 

Chemical Feast (Color, 1973) Join our host Marshall Efron again in another satirical look at today’s (or the 1970s) modern foods. Chef Effron cooks up a big ‘ol meal of slop based on the ingredients found in some common pre-packaged, heavily processed miracle ‘foods’. 

How Do They Make Hot Dog Rolls? (Color, 1970) Join Woody Allen and Joanne Worley as they ask the big question and get an inside look at the process of making those tasty, ever so soft, wiener-warming buns. From flour sack to plastic bag, become entranced by the thousands of buns pouring out of huge machines at a mile a minute.

Pork: The Meal With the Squeal (Color, 1963) Take a break from all the swine flu hubbub with this pig-focused film.  Is pork really going to be what’s for dinner after your get the low down on the other white meat?  You bet your buck it will, what with all the hams bobbling in brine, hot dog strands miles long, and juicy chops sizzling away! Don’t forget to bring your pigskin wallet, hog’s hair paint brush, and other pig-based by products to round out the experience.

Deep Fat Frying (Color, 1969) Discover the wonderful world of deep fat fried foods. Our narrator takes us on a tour through the back rooms of all those grease-soaked restaurants that chef up nothing but pure, unadulterated fried goodness. Learn how the pros do it with proper fat maintenance, food preparation, and cooking guidelines to keep that fat hot and the food sizzling. Step back in time to your pimpled, minimum wage days with the folks in ‘Deep Fat Frying’ mmmm, greasy!

Waffles (Color, 1980) A little girl is transported to a place and time (through a dream, of course) where she can go straight to the farm and get all the ingredients she needs for a breakfast favorite. Starring: a milk cow, pet dog, egg-laying hen, and a sleepy-eyed blonde girl. 

Beef: the Steak in the Grass (Color, 1973) Ahh, the bucolic world of beef production… Bucolic in the eyes of the Iowa Beef Industry Council, at least. Discover the many uses of our bovine friends through this educational short. This film ‘steers’ us through lush pasture land, to your local feedlot, right to the backyard BBQ, where Dad grills up some juicy, beefy burgers for the whole family to enjoy.

Raisins (Color, 1954) This Arthur Barr Production delves into the wide and fascinating world of raisins.  Shot on location in sunny Fresno, California, the raisin capital of the world (at least in the ‘50s), the voice-over narrator explains every step of the process. Indulge your visual senses with this Kodachrome beauty and don’t forget to get grandma another box of delicious, plump California raisins on your way home from the show.

Peanuts and the Peanut Butter Plant (Color, 1974) From field to countertop, the versatile peanut (actually a legume) has a long way to go to become the staple of the American childhood diet. See how it all unfolds in this short educational film. Then go home and lay it on thick because who doesn’t love the most versatile spreadable edible?  Oh, maybe people who are allergic…


Tuna Packing (Color, 1948) Photographed in stunning Kodachrome by Paul L. Hoefler, this short documentary-esque film reveals the colorful world of tuna packing. Huge buckets of frozen fish, labyrinths of log-flume like machines, huge steam cooking ovens, and scores of workers make the job of turning these large fish into tiny cans of shredded multi-purpose meat easy as pie, sort of…

Artistry In Sugar (Color, 1950s) Starring sugar artist, Eric Sage (who studied ornamental sugar crafting in Britain) and a plethora of sucrose sculptures, “Artistry in Sugar” is a must see for cake fanatics and culinary arts connoisseurs alike. As the beginning of the film states, “This presentation illustrates the salient features of sugar artistry. Every object featured in this picture is the product of sugar craftsmanship.”  Animated sugarscapes, incredible cakes, and endless shots of sweet, sticky beauty will please your sweet tooth and stun your aesthetic sensibilities!

Food: Surviving the Chemical Feast (Color, 1975) from the ‘Coping With Tomorrow’ series, this film takes us on a journey through the daunting world of processed foods to a greener pasture where hippies browse the natural foods store and buy grains in bulk. Visit the commune farm (cultivated by shoeless long-hairs and naked babies, of course) and take a tour of the local market to see just what it is you’re buying when you pick up that cucumber and snap off a bite. Directed by Peter Thurling.


Curator Biography:
Jeremy Menzies is a San Francisco based artist and film curator working in 16mm film, photography, and printmaking. A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, he has worked as a projectionist, curator, and archivist with the San Francisco Cinematheque, Canyon Cinema, The Filmmakers’ Cooperative, and Millennium Film Workshop in San Francisco and New York.



Seven Deadly Sins! - Sat. Nov 12 - 8:00pm


Oddball Films and curator Lynn Cursaro present, Seven Deadly Sins, Over Easy. Come see all styles of sin in a screening that re-examines greed, lust, vanity, sloth/despair, gluttony, envy and wrath! Take advantage of this rare opportunity to see gluttony, lust and greed in Peter Foldes’ acclaimed computer animated short Hunger/La Faim (1974), the mild misery of Duke Ellington's A Bundle of Blues (1933), and The Dreamer (ca.1964) shows us the lighter side of lust in glorious Technicolor!   Envy (1974) dishes up some grade school drama over a coveted bike, and “character looks” turn vanity on its head in Modern Makeup #4 (1951). Laurel and Hardy unleash their wrath in the classic Big Business (1929), plus a very special treat for the early birds in the audience. Don’t let your inner sloth stop you from coming to this one night only event!
Date: Saturday November 12, 2011 at 8:00PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp St., San Francisco 
Admission: $10.00 (cash only). Seating is limited - RSVP to 415-558-8117 or programming@oddballfilm.com

Featuring:

Big Business (1929)
On their road to riches, Laurel and Hardy give door-to-door Christmas tree selling a try. When a simple misunderstanding with a grumpy homeowner (the great James Finlayson) escalates from petty vandalism into full scale mutual destruction. Tit-for-tat was never so venomously delightful - it's comedy gold!

Hunger/La Faim (1974)
An award-winning work from computer animation pioneer Peter Foldes, the stunning computer assisted technique of shape shifting is perfectly suited to the hideous distortions of those in the dark grip of out of control appetites. Disturbingly beautiful, Hunger is a wordless nightmare of gluttony, greed and lust. It took a year and a half for Foldes and his partners at the National Research Center of Canada to make Hunger, the first computer- animated film to be nominated for an academy award.

A Bundle of Blues (1933)
The natty Duke Ellington Orchestra swing in this stylish soundie gem, performing "Lightnin'" & "Rockin' in Rhythm" before easing into the centerpiece: Ivie Anderson`s bluesy and possibly most moving rendition rendition of "Stormy
Weather" ever recorded. Moods shift rapidly in these miniature musical films as Florence Hill & Bessey Dudley dizzying tap routine to "Bugle Call Rag" perfectly demonstrates.

The Dreamer (ca. 1964)
Some may want the sassy girl, others might want her super chic hat, but don't fear this 1960's girlie reel has something for everyone!

Envy (1974)
An educational film that's not afraid to show grade school for what it really is: a hot bed of toxic envy, bike lust and resentment. Drenched in sunshine and mostly told in our hero Billy's bitter inner monologue, Envy takes time out for some classroom humiliation and a lecture from mom. It might just boil down to this: a crap bike is your safest bet.

About the Curator:
Lynn Cursaro is a local film blogger. Over the past two decades, she has worked in research and administrative positions at a variety of Bay Area film organizations.

Monkey Time! - Fri. Nov 11 - 8:00pm

Monkey Time! Apes, Chimps and Gorillas, a program featuring, pseudo human activities, animal antics and anthropological histories. Shorts include a rare episode of the TV series Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp , Chimp the Cowboy, Zippy the Chimp, Planet of the Apes movie trailers, Snow Monkeys of Japan, Chimps in Training and Show Business (!) and Monkeys, Apes and Man: The Chasm, with Dian Fossey and mountain gorillas, Jane Goodall with chimpanzees, and Wisconsin scientists studying rhesus monkeys. Plus! King Kong, Chimps in Space and more!

Date: Friday, November 11th at 8:00PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117 or programming@oddballfilm.com  

*****Free Admission and Bananas to folks who show up in full monkey costumes****


While similar in physical appearance to humans monkeys are very far removed from us so-called thinking beings. Still, humans insist on dressing up monkeys for their own amusement. While these animals certainly have a better fate than cows, pigs or chickens they nonetheless suffer for our amusement. In this program we examine and explore the hilarious and sublime lengths humans go to entertain us via these proxy mammals. Before the heyday of television and the domination of cinema, vaudeville, theater, circus acts, magic shows, impossible and death-defying stunts were all that amused thrill-seeking audiences across the US. Animal acts were a big hit and monkeys basked in their glory.


Featuring:


“Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp” (1971) in “To Tell the Tooth”. Get Smart meets James Bond in this TV spy spoof as the top agent of APE (Agency to Prevent Evil) detective Lance Link discovers a dentist working for C.H.U.M.P. (Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan) has been inserting secret radio transmitters into the teeth of military officials. For more about this crime fighting primate click here.




“Chimps in Training and Show Business” (1950s)
Watch them get trained for circus and onstage action!

“Chimp the Cowboy” (1937) + ”Chimp the Fireman” (1936) Mischievous chimp comedies feature a trained chimp donning various costumes playing multiple “career” roles.
Movie Trailers for the “Planet of the Apes” films (1970s)
Watch half men, half apes battle it out in these 3 classic trailers!

“Snow Monkeys of Japan” (1963) Visual appreciation of the Japanese Snow Monkey as an intelligent, beautiful animal.

“Monkeys, Apes and Man: The Chasm” (1971)
An overview of the monkey-man link, this film follows Dian Fossey into the Central African rain forest to study mountain gorillas, Jane Goodall into Tanzania to study Chimpanzees, Japanese scientists to Koshima Island where they are studying the macaque and Wisconsin scientists to their laboratories where they study rhesus monkeys.

Plus! “King Kong”, “Barrel of Monkeys” Chimps in Space + much, more!