The Weird Weird West - Chimps, Cartoons and Rock 'n' Roll - Fri. Jan. 31 - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present The Weird Weird West - Chimps, Cartoons and Rock 'n' Roll, a program of some of the strangest, most inventive, psychedelic, hilarious, animated, musical and interesting takes on the Old West.  From chimp cowboys to interpretive dancing ghosts, Marlene Dietrich to Lenny Bruce, this is one night that goes way beyond the genre of the Western while still revering its tropes.  Jon Byner's Something Else (1970) was a short-lived TV musical spectacular and this all-star episode set in a ghost town features performances by Roberta Flack and Phil Ochs, as well as the Action-Faction dancers.  Brilliant animators Chuck Menville and Len Janson animate themselves as cowboys riding sans horse in the hilarious Blaze Glory (1969). Shorty the Chimp has got his spurs on and he's ready to take down those bandits in Chimp the Cowboy (1937). In Le Western (1971), Jean-Charles Meunier animates French coins into a western melodrama. In an excerpt of Destry Rides Again (1939) Marlene Dietrich captivates a saloon full of men (including Jimmy Stewart) until she gets a barrel dumped over her head! Legendary comedian Lenny Bruce takes on the Lone Ranger and Tonto in the incendiary animated routine Thank You Mask Man (1968). Plus! Cowboy Soundies (1940s) with Tex Ritter and a Devo-esque whipping frenzy, excerpts from the psychedelic western Zachariah, Kodachrome travelogue/commercial Dudin' (1955) and more strange surprises. So, hop on your horse and mosey down to Oddball for the weirdest westerns you've ever seen!

Date: Friday, January 31st, 2014 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/2014/01/the-weird-weird-west-chimps-cartoons.html

Cinema Parisienne - Vintage Paris through the Filmmaker's Lens - Thur. Jan 30 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Cinema Parisienne - Vintage Paris through the Filmmaker's Lens, a program of 16mm films from the 1920s-1970s highlighting the art, architecture and nightlife of Paris. While vacation season may be over, that doesn't mean we can't take a rare trip across the world and back in time to celebrate the romantic mystery of the Paris of yesteryear with short films in a wide-variety of genres and styles, but all singularly Parisian.  Films include the Academy-Award winning silent comedy One-Eyed Men Are Kings (1974); Rendezvous (1976), Claude Lelouch's one-take mad-dash through Paris at 140 mph; Streets of Paris (1933) featuring burlesque queen Sally Rand and her infamous fan-dance; Allegro Ma Troppo (1963), a mesmerizing night in Paris at 2 frames a second; Brooklyn Goes to Paris (1956), a comedy-travelogue with hilarious Brooklynite Arthur Cohen; Anemic Cinema (1926), the Parisian-made Dada-ist film by Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray; an excerpt of Le Corbusier (1977) meditating on the modern architectural master's Notre Dame du Haut; and the much-loved oscar-winning classic The Red Balloon (1956).  Plus, the early birds will get the stunning treat of the visually-astounding documentary Kinetic Art in Paris (1971).

Date: Thursday, January 30th, 2014 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/2014/01/cinema-parisienne-vintage-paris-through.html

Cult of Personality - Charismatic Mini-Docs - Fri. Jan. 24 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Cult of Personality - Charismatic Mini-Docs with an evening of short portrait documentaries about outlandish, endearing and out-there characters from a selection of notable and award-winning filmmakers. In I Remember Barbra (1980), Kevin Burns takes to the streets of Brooklyn for recollections of Barbra Streisand from the many colorful characters of her hometown. Tom Palazzolo captures the friendly frenzy of a lunch-rush at Jerry's Deli (1976) with its benevolently loud owner barking and snarking with his amused clientele.  A lovably eccentric inventor in rural England has the solution for rising gas prices in Bate's Car: Sweet as a Nut (1974). Charles Braverman's Trader Vic's Used Cars (1975) features the most charismatic and upfront used car salesmen you will ever meet.  Get inside the mind, and Chicago mansion of Hugh H*fner, in The Most (1963) and behind the music and community outreach of James Brown - The Man (1967).  Meet teenage ventriloquist Shirley Dinsdale and her right hand gal, Judy Splinters in the Universal's Popular Person Oddity Double-talk Girl (1942). Plus, an entertaining excerpt from Martha Coolidge's (Valley Girl, Real Genius) portrait of her Yankee Grandmother, Old-Fashioned Woman (1974). Stranger than fiction, realer than reality TV, Oddball has got character in spades!

Date: Friday, January 24th, 2014 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/2014/01/cult-of-personality-charismatic-mini.html

Glamour, Grit and Gams: The 1930s Make a Spectacle of Themselves - Thur. Jan 23 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Lynn Cursaro present Glamour, Grit and Gams: The 1930s Make a Spectacle of Themselves. Hollywood glitz, newsreels and popular comedy give a mostly light-hearted view of a complex era. Warner Brothers’ much-loved musicals were a bold blend of workaday woes and the fevered vision of dance director Busby Berkeley. We'll feature two stunners: the bluesy My Forgotten Man from Gold Diggers of 1933 and the Surrealist mindboggler, I Only Have Eyes for You from 1934's Dames. A defiant Barbara Stanwyck clashes with rough, pre-stardom Clark Gable in a clip from notorious pre-code Night Nurse (1931). Styles may change, but Filming the Fashions (1933) shows that the male gaze is forever. Alfalfa sings in Bored of Education (1936), an Our Gang favorite. The nutty nuptials in Love, Honor and Oh Boy! (1940s) include a dance marathon wedding. Franklin Roosevelt spares more than a dime in various newsreel clips. Betty Boop makes a spectacle of her lingerie in Any Rags (1932). A frisky vibrator gets the better of Zasu Pitts in Two Ladies in a Turkish Bath (1932). A visit to the dark side of Toontown awaits in Fritz Freleng's sordid He was Her Man (1937). And more! Complimentary homemade treats from the Kurator's Kitchen!  All in 16mm unless otherwise noted.

Date: Thursday, January 23, 2014

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

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

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Learn Your Lesson...About Being Different - Shockucational Acceptance - Fri. Jan. 17 - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Learn Your Lesson...About Being Different - Shockucational Acceptance, the eleventh in a series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic shockucational films and TV specials of the collection.  This time, we're celebrating our differences with mime bullies, wheelchair musical numbers, homophobic jocks and even Michael Jackson singing about self-acceptance.  Michael Keaton stars in A Different Approach (1978), an all-star musical comedy benefitting disabled workers' rights (with cameos by Two Golden Girls!).  In the Captain Kangaroo cartoon The Most Important Person: I'm the Only Me! (1972), a shaggy alien thinks all human children look alike, but can a rainbow of kids teach him how wrong he is (in song)?  Schoolhouse bullying always goes better with rhyming mimes, as we find in People: Different But Alike (1970).  Homophobic nerd bullying turns to acceptance and appreciation after a good talking to from coach in Who's Different? (1984). Learn that there's nothing "wrong" with your neighbor, it's just that He's Mentally Retarded (1975). Michael Jackson and Roberta Flack act as children accepting their physical shortcomings in the musical number "When I Grow Up" from Free To Be...You and Me (1978). Kristy McNichol has a different kind of family in her foster home with her wheelchair bound foster brother in an excerpt of the ABC Afterschool Special The Pinballs (1977).  Leigh McCloskey (Dallas) tries to impress a blind girl by donning blind goggles in another extra special Afterschool Special Blind Sunday (1976).  With more special surprises, it's time you learned your lesson!

Date: Friday, January 17th, 2014 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

Tunes and Toons: Animated Adventures in Musicland - Thur. Jan. 16 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Tunes and Toons: Animated Adventures in Musicland, a night of charming, stunning and vibrant animation, all about the magical process of making music.  Di$ney's Symposium on Popular Songs (1962) takes you through the first half of the 20th century of popular music through a mixture of cell-animation, stop-motion and paper cutouts, in gorgeous color (try not to lose your head when rutabagas start dancing!).  The British musicians of the Hoffnung Palm Court Orchestra (1965) keep calm and carry on playing, even in the face of calamity.  Ward Kimball's Academy Award-winning Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom (1953) is percussively savvy and a gorgeous demonstration of mid-century graphics.  Fairy tales get a modern twist when a princess must choose between two musicians working to make a "new sound" in The Pretty Lady and the Electronic Musicians (1972).  Gumby gets into a surreal battle of wits with a shape-shifting piano in the zippy Gumby Concerto (1957).  George Pal carved hundreds of wooden puppet heads for the Art Deco marvel Cavalcade of Music (1934).  Plus, a beatnik teases a Calypso Singer (1966), Will "California Raisins" Vinton directs the psychedelic claymation rock concert, Mountain Music (1975), the dazzling Blame it on the Samba (1948) and a surprise pre-show!  Whether you're a musician, an animation enthusiast, or just in need of a bit of fun, Oddball's got the tune for you.

Date: Thursday, January 16th, 2014 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

What the F (ilm)?! - Cine-Insanity from the Archive - Fri. Jan. 10th - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present What the F (ilm)?! an evening of some of the most bizarre, hilarious and insane films from our massive 16mm collection. From puppet anger management to rockin' Grandpas, Bergman spoofs, junky dogs and more cine-insanity, this is one night of rare and hilarious head-scratchers you won't want to miss. Grandpa gets bored of the old-age home and signs his soul over to the devil to become a rockin' sex machine in The Old Man and the Devil (1970s). Caninibis: The Junky Dog (1979) is the story of one cartoon dog who loves to get high, even when he's working for the cops. See if you can handle the cliffhanger ending to Pamela Wong's Birthday for Grandma (1977), a quaint yet befuddling look at life in Chicago's chinatown through the eyes of a little girl.  Madeline Kahn speaks mock-Swedish in the hilarious academy award nominated Bergman spoof De Düva(1967).  Nightmare scenarios play out while you're babysitting and then your attacker becomes your teacher in the over-the-top shock-defense film, Self Defense for Girls (1969). Learn how credit can change your life, or just burden you with crap and debt in the bizarre, hilarious and musical The Good, Good, Good Life (1974).  Watch little girls beat their pillows and angry puppets beat each other with baseball bats in Feelings: Don't Stay Mad (1972). The wacky Signal Syntax (1980) will have you watching out for your personal computer, because it might be trying to kill you.  It's a night of cine-insanity too weird to pass up! 

Date: Friday, January 10th, 2014 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

Film Capsule 1964 - Groundbreaking Cinema Half a Century Later - Thur. Jan 9th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Film Capsule 1964 - Groundbreaking Cinema Half a Century Later with a selection of some of the most fascinating, award-winning, visionary and mind-blowing shorts from 50 years ago.  This multi-genred program includes insightful documentaries, innovative animation and transformative avant-garde works, all made in 1964.  The Academy Award competition for best animated short was incredibly stiff that year and we have included three offbeat nominated masterpieces, including Eliot Noyes Jr.'s Clay, Origin of the Species, a fun, metamorphic claymation take on Darwin's Theory of Evolution.  Other nominees were: Carson Davidson's Help, My Snowman is Burning Down with a beatnik living in a bathtub and featuring music by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and John Korty's deadpan Breaking the Habit, another beat-inspired short about the difficulty in quitting cigarettes.  Saul Bass' The Searching Eye, follows a boy who sees the history of man in a sand castle and the creation of the earth in a piece of rock.  Merce Cunningham documents the experimental choreographer, his imaginative interpretation of dance and theater as well as his collaborations with notable artists like Robert Rauschenberg and John Cage.  Paul Julian's animated adaptation of Maurice Ogden's poem The Hangman will haunt you with it's eerie depiction of a town forever lost to conformity.  Harold Becker paints a portrait of mid-60s Harlem and the unsung blues-master Blind Gary Davis.  Canadian experimental filmmaker Arthur Lipsett's Free-Fall is a pulsating, eye-popping montage of still and moving images.  Plus, footage of the 1964 World's Fair in color, a jet-setting pre-show and other surprises; it's a night of film and nostalgia 50 years in the making!   

Date: Thursday, January 9th, 2014 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

Strange Sinema 72: Gypsies, Hoboes, Nomads and Vagabonds - Fri. Jan. 3rd - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema, a monthly screening of new finds, old gems and offbeat oddities from Oddball Films’ collection of over 50,000 film prints. Drawing on his archive of over 50,000 16mm film prints Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has complied his 72^nd program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This installment Strange Sinema 72: Gypsies, Hoboes, Nomads and Vagabonds, a screening examining nomadic life around the world from gypsies in Eastern Europe to traveling traders of Tibet to the legendary hoboes and comedic vagabonds of North America. This genre-bending 16mm film program explores global and pop cinematic concepts of nomadic life showcasing ethnographic films such as Gypsies (1972), a rare, non-narrative look inside traveling Gypsies of Poland, Tibetan Traders (1958) portraying the life of a semi-nomadic Himalayan tribe traveling through Tibet and India, Nomads of the North (1950), Alaskan Eskimos protect reindeer from killer wolves, documentaries such as Circus Nomads (1975), capturing the colorful and hardship-laced culture of the traveling  circus life, the silent comedy of The Tramp (1915) featuring Charlie Chaplin’s fastidious hobo falling in love with a girl he rescued from robbers, the cartoon antics of Porky Pig: Riff Raffy Daffy (1948) featuring a homeless Daffy Ducky versus policeman Porky Pig, the comedic duo of  Abbott and Costello: Hollywood And Bust (1955) featuring them as train hopping, gambling hobos and Under A Gypsy Moon (1938), showcases  the Five Balabanows and acrobatic acts performing around a “Gypsy Campfire”-Hollywood goes gypsy! Plus Hunting Wild Doves in the Mali Highlands and a trailer for the film King of the Gypsies!

Date: Friday, January 3rd, 2014 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: www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com