Oddball
Films and guest curator Soumyaa Kapil Behrens bring you A Hard Road to Easy Street, an evening
of films on adventures, real and imagined, that reveal it’s not so easy to be
living the good life in today’s world. The
program explores the journey of personal and creative place-making through the
lens of groundbreaking queer cinema, vintage animations, satire and hard
hitting documentary film. The highlights
of the program include Lloyd Reckord’s 1965 short, Dream A40, one of the
first queer films of its kind, a film that goes on the road with two men and
their feelings, the bold and sometimes too truthful More Than A Dream,
(1974), following two working class families-one white, one black-in the South
who have been transformed by the civil rights movement. The Boo Boo Monster Enters
A Beauty Contest (1973) has delightful character renderings and a
groovy musical score that scats the audience along with rhythm and an
independent spirit while He Was Her Man (1937), harkens back to the beginnings of Merrie Melodies with a
classic battle of sexes. The Good,
Good, Good Life (1974) is a bizarre and musical story about finding
happiness in shiny things and Of Cats and Men (1977) animates the historical journey of the domestic cat from
Egyptian times to his current seat atop the hearts of men. No matter if you
are a boo boo monster, a human being or a kitty cat, the road to success is
rife with wrong turns and misleading situations. Who prevails and who perishes? Find out Thursday night at Oddball Films!
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2012 at
8:00PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street,
San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117
or programming@oddballfilm.com
Featuring:
He Was Her Man (Color, 1937)
She sells
apples on the street in the snow while he drinks beer upstairs. She brings home the bacon but that’s not good
enough for him. When he goes off into
the night, leaving her with no more than a note, she takes matters into her own
hands. This depression era Merrie
Melodies short is progressive and full of archetypal renditions on gender
politics-then and now.
Dream A40 (B+W, 1965)
This
groundbreaking short film follows two men, one afraid to show his feelings and
one eager to. As they travel down the
road in a beautiful car, society watches them.
Jamaican born British director, Lloyd Reckord presents a strikingly
beautiful and stark tale of homosexuality before it was highly visible in film
and media. His journey from the real to
the distorted is languid and almost terrifying.
A brave film that helped shaped the face of queer cinema in its earliest
days.
Of Cats and Men (Color, 1968)
Ever
wonder how the cat got his place at the top of the domesticated animal food
chain? This Walt Disney animation takes
us through the history of the fickle feline from his early days with the Egyptians,
overpopulation, mythical fear and the eventual rise to greatness in the world
of people.
The Boo Boo Monster
Enters a Beauty Contest (Color, 1973)
Rhythmic, staccato beats structure this darling
short on the Boo Boo Monster who is always prone to making mistakes that we can
learn from. See him try to win a beauty
contest using unconventional methods.
The softness of style and the sweetness of the characters make this
lesson on race and acceptance very accessible and un-accusatory.
More Than A Dream (Color, 1974)
Douglas Kiker, NBC news reporter, takes on the
Supreme Court decision on Brown versus the Board of Education to ban
segregation in public schools. Twenty
years later, he follows two families, both working class, one white, one
black. The resulting documentary reveals
candid and eye-opening experiences for the people left with the task of
integrating themselves in the American South.
It is a brave film that represents the subjects’ feelings about
integration and embedded racism in a very honest way. Includes footage of Martin Luther King’s
famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
The Good, Good, Good
Life (Color, 1977)
One man’s
family takes it upon themselves to cheer him up after his wife’s death. They inspire and encourage him to use shiny
credit cards to buy many shiny things.
This kitsch filled short expresses itself through hilarious musical
numbers, overly cheerful characters and a strong sense of doggone goodness that
is sure to make you giggle and squeal!
Curator Biography
Soumyaa Kapil Behrens is a filmmaker and scholar based in San Francisco. She is currently directing a documentary film on the eviction of one of the oldest recycling centers from their 30-some year old space in Golden Gate Park, the crown jewel of San Francisco. She earned an MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University.