Oddball Films presents Oh Canada! Visionary Cinema from our Neighbors to the North, with a program of exquisite short documentaries, animation and experimental works, all from Canadians, eh! Clever, hypnotic, mind-blowing, and often politically progressive this program highlights the work of some of the best innovators Canadian cinema has to offer. The brilliant experimental animator and director of the National Film Board of Canada, Norman McLaren gives us two breathtaking works of pixilation animation. The first, 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. In Neighbors (1952), McLaren presents a much darker world (in beautiful color) where neighbors come to words, then blows, then bombs over who gets the beautiful flower that grows between their houses. Raymond Garceau documents the annual Quebec spruce Log Drive (1957) with song and incredible, awe-inspiring imagery. Evelyn Lambert's Mr. Frog Went A-Courtin' (1974) is simultaneously beautiful, charming and slightly disturbing. Almost a decade before Ray and Charles Eames made their seminal film Powers of Ten, Eva Szasz directed Cosmic Zoom (1968), beginning in close up on the Ottawa River and zooming out to reveal the Earth and the stars. Grant Munro's clever anti-war short Toys (1966) brings to life war toys before horrified children's eyes through stop-motion animation. Arthur Lipsett gives us a pulsing, eye-popping vision of consumerism and pop culture in Very Nice, Very Nice (1961). The charming cartoon The Romance of Transportation in Canada (1952) gives an entertaining history on Canada's westward expansion and urbanization. For the early birds, feast on the cute overload that is Ponies (1972), a simply lovely wordless meditation on a herd of frolicking ponies. After you're all America'd out, come on down to Oddball to celebrate Canada's history of visionary cinema.
Date: Friday, July 5th, 2013 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
