Oh Canada! Visionary Cinema from our Neighbors to the North - Fri. July 5th - 8PM

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 

Classic Cartoon Cavalcade - Fri. June 28 - 8PM

Oddball Films and curators Lynn Cursaro and Kat Shuchter bring you Classic Cartoon Cavalcade, an evening of some of our very favorite classic cartoons hand-picked from the San Francisco Media Archive's massive collection.  From the kooky to the spooky, silly to the sexy with a little Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies, Tex Avery, Fleischer Brothers, Walt Di$ney and imitators, just to name a few.   Tex Avery brings us a sexy adaptation of an old fairy-tale in Red Hot Red Riding Hood (1943).  Get down with Blame it on the Samba (1948) a mesmerizing Technicolor mix of live action and animation created by Walt D*sney and starring Ethel Smith, the Dinning Sisters and a dizzying array of animated characters.  Mosquitoes go to boot camp in the hilarious send up of War-time newsreels in Of Thee I Sting (1946).  Daffy Duck gets film noirish in The Super Snooper with a femme fatale duck pulling the strings.  We have a double shot of Paul Terry's Terrytoons: the charming silent fable Venus and the Cat (1921) and the ill-fated love story of The Bee and the Butterfly (1932). Merrie Melodies gives us two shots at classic Hollywood with Hollywood Steps Out (1934) and cartoon Bogey and Bacall in the uncensored version of Bacall to Arms (1946). Krazy Kat and his tiny puppy get entangled in skeletal-hilarity in Krazy Spooks (1933). Early Looney Tunes hero Buddy runs the show at Buddy's Theatre (1935). Plus, the world's tiniest elephant in Punch Trunk, an appearance by Betty Boop, and even more surprises than you can handle!


Date: Friday, June 28th, 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 

Vintage Queer San Francisco - Thur. June 27 - 8PM


Oddball Films presents Vintage Queer San Francisco, a program of ultra-rare documentaries and short films from the 1960s and 1970s.  Get pride weekend started off right with this groovy and glamorous smattering of local queer nostalgia and whimsy. Naughty and thought-provoking, the investigative documentary Gay San Francisco (1969) gets down and dirty with the queer scene of the late 60's.  Sinderella (1962), produced by local "Lorelei" is a fabulously kitschy, campy, draggy version of the classic fairy tale.  See how San Francisco made itself up in the disco era with Flame! San Francisco Drag Queens (1976).  The Groping Hand (1968) is a little-slice of homo-erotica shot in the nudie bars of North Beach. Plus! Drag legend Charles Pierce sings “San Francisco” from The Charles Pierce Review (1969), rare clips of Harvey Milk, drag queens in the Black Sabbath Parade,  and behold the pageantry of The Halloween Show at the Levee (1969) for the early birds!  So take pride in our city by the bay and see how we turned it out back in the day!


Date: Thursday, June 27th, 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 

A Brighter Yesterday: Science and Technology of the ‘20s and ‘30s - Fri. June 21 - 8PM


Oddball Films and guest curator Lynn Cursaro present A Brighter Yesterday: Science and Technology of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Using gorgeous educational and mesmerizing promotional films, plus cartoons and sci-fi; we look at the many faces progress between the wars, whether purely scientific or not. Sun Healing (1930s), a jaw-dropping forerunner of the infomercial, pitches an ominous health device that's "safe" to use on your own children. Take a good look at opium with Dream Flowers (1930s) featuring beautiful, meditative microphotography of a cross-section of an opium poppy. Associated Oil promises to Deliver the Goods! (1939) at the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair. Science goes horribly wrong in both the stunning horror classic The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and the Ub Iwerks Willie Whopper cartoon Reducing Creme (1934).  The gruesome Battle of the Centuries pits ants against termites in a miniature war with maximum action. Basic physical principles are the focus of Invisible Forces (1920s), and the visuals of capillary action in sugarcubes will tantalize and mesmerize. Tree innards are explored in the sugary and contemplative Maple Sugar and Syrup (1920s). Dadaist Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray play with perception in the surreal experimental classic Anémic Cinéma (1926), a visual cacophony of hypnotic puns. You can be assured of purity in both your mass bottled milk with Science in the Creamery (1920s) and your makeup in the kitschy and marvelous Accent on Beauty (1930s).  Plus, the curator will apply baking sciences to supply delicious home-baked pies and treats!



Radiantly Healthy
Date: Friday, June 21st, 2013 at 8:00PM.

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

Strange Sinema 65: Strange Stunts - Thur. June 20 - 8PM


Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 65: Oddities From the Archives, an evening of newly discovered and choice rarities from the stacks of Oddball Films’ 50,000 reel film archive. This installment of the strangest show in San Francisco - Strange Sinema 65: Strange Stunts features a horde of adrenaline junkies, High Wire Daredevils, Dust Eating Drivers, Human Boomerangs, and Strait-Jacket Escapes.  The hair-raising feats include High Wire (1984), an early profile of high wire artist Philippe Petit (subject of the 2008 film Man On Wire) teetering between a skyscraper and the NYC Cathedral of St. John Divine, with sound score by Philip Glass; Dust Eaters (1955), rocking rebels in the stock car racing subculture of the early 50s; Houdini Never Died (1978), a doc featuring Harry Houdini’s strait-jacket escape over Niagara Falls achieved by magician and psychic debunker James Randi; Stunt Crazy (1930s), an assortment of fantastically foolhardy leaps, dives, and the like; excerpts from Niagara Falls (1985), an award-winning doc shot by Ken Burns serves as a background for the magnificent marvels of American stuntsmanship; and Rendezvous (1976), director Claude LeLouche’s one take high speed dash through the streets of Paris. All this and more with selected live electronic accompaniment by Indonesian musician Iman Fattah.

Philippe Petit on High
Date: Thursday, June 20th, 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 

Learn Your Lesson...About Sex - Shockucational Contraceptives - Fri. June 14 - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you Learn Your Lesson...About Sex - Shockucational Contraceptivesthe fourth in a series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic shockucational films and TV specials of the collection. This time, it's all about sex and its potentially devastating aftermath.  Teens talk about virginity, sex, and other taboo subjects in Romance, Sex and Marriage: All the Guys ever Want is S.E.X. (1976). Peter Sellers lends his voice to an animated father struggling to educate his child in the Birds, Bees and Storks (1965). Di$ney brings us a very different kind of cartoon, the disturbingly knee-slapping VD: Attack Plan (1972) featuring a syphilitic army sergeant directing his VD troops into battle against stupid humans.  The Canadians bring us a melodramatic account of Teenage Pregnancy (1971).  You better watch out for Herpes: The New Sexual Epidemic (1981) and all the problems that come with it. One girl's got a dirty little secret in the hilarious Innocent Party (1959). And since not all lessons about sex are bad, we'll also be learning How to Undress in Front of Your Husband (1937) with Mrs. John Barrymore. Plus! an excerpt from the twisted doctor’s training film Sex and The Professional, the entirely unsexy intro to a couple's film on better fellatio from The Center for Marital & Sexual Studies #17: Oral Pleasuring, the graphic vintage Army VD training film Sex Hygiene (1941) for the early birds, and even more surprises!



Date: Friday, June 14th, 2013 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Watch What You Eat - Thur. June 13 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Watch What You Eat, a program of witty and thought-provoking short films that will make you rethink your next meal.  The program features the Oddball Premiere of a new short documentary The Trouble with Bread (2013) chronicling filmmaker Maggie Biedelman's quest to uncover the truth behind the new epidemic of gluten intolerance. The filmmaker will be here, in person to answer your burning bread questions. Then, our neighbors to the North try to uncover a mystery, the Mystery in the Kitchen (1958) with the housewife's guide to proper family nutrition and poison control in the family meal.  Comedian Marshall Efron hits us with a double dose of food truths as he mixes up a pie out of chemicals in Chemical Feast (1973) and gives us the lowdown on your breakfast "foods" in The Sugar Cereal Imitation Orange Breakfast (1973). Creepy little boys and girls sing about the foods they'd like to eat in The Eating, Feel Good Movie (1974).  Visit a commune farm and a local market to learn about Surviving the Chemical Feast (1975).  Plus, the cartoon Junk Food Man (1977) that combines drawn animation with photographic collage to teach nutrition with the snack-pusher "The Creep."  With vintage commercials and more surprises to sink your teeth into!


Date: Thursday, June 13th, 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 

Sid Davis: Nightmare Maker - Thurs. June 6th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Sid Davis: Nightmare Maker, an evening celebrating the career of the master of the educational shock film. Sid Davis films were famously funded by an initial $1000 donation by John Wayne.  He went on to produce numerous classics of the educational scare film genre, priding himself by making each one for $1000- a miniscule amount even in its day. From drugs, to speeding, to child-molesters to impaling little girls with scissors, this program touches on all of Davis' favorite topics.  We begin where he did, with The Dangerous Stranger (1950), about the threat of child molesters. Davis sold the film to police and schools, reaping $250,000 which he used to fund the rest of the treasures of the evening.  How to Protect your Bike (1973) may teach you more about stealing than protecting anything.  Freak out on acid with the knee-slapping LSD: Trip or Trap? (1967) and mellow out with marijuana with the "weedheads" and "dope fiends" in Keep Off the Grass (1970).  Sammy's got a need for speed that might turn deadly if he's not careful in What Made Sammy Speed (1957).  Davis' own daughter gets stabbed with scissors in the parade of household accidents that is Live and Learn (1951).  Plus more hilarious shockers in store!


Date: Thursday, June 6th, 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 

Submerged Cinema - Fri. June 7th - 8PM


Oddball Films and guest curator Landon Bates bring you Submerged Cinema, a screening teeming with celluloid cephalopods and European seamen.   Among other wet wonders, we'll spy the likes of shimmering starfish and gnashing sharks, in films that range from nature docs to sci-fi shockers.  Peering through our 16mm porthole, we'll begin our descent into the murky depths with that nephew of Neptune, that red-capped Renaissance man of the sea: Jacques Cousteau.  In Sharks, an episode from The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau (1970), the captain and his Calypso crew provoke that ferocious fish--and all for the sake of science.  Biology is on the brain again, when an unsuspecting team of researchers find themselves in the lair of The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954); in this excerpt from the Jack Arnold classic, the eponymous monster stalks a scientist’s wife from below, Jaws-like.  Smaller and less hostile 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; which will lead us to L'etoile de Mer (1928), Man Ray's somber surrealist film, starring a starfish and shot through textured glass to produce a delirious underwater look.  Before concluding with one last Cousteau--Night of the Squid (1970)--we'll get a dose of Diver Dan, a puppet-laden live action children's show from the early 1960's.  In "Secrets of the Throne," our scuba man Dan finds himself in hot water, bubbling in the prison cell of an evil king.  So, pinch your nose, hold onto your trunks, and start your summer off with a splash at Oddball! 

Date: Friday, June 7, 2013 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117