Oddball Films presents Fight the Power: Radicals, Resistance and Revolution, an empowering and entertaining evening of film rarities documenting the history and enduring legacy of the anarchists, revolutionaries, protestors and artists that stood up to change the world. From Feminists to Black Panthers, this cinematic ode to dissent and demonstration features documentaries, experimental and collage film and even stop-motion animation. Charles Braverman's kinestatic World of '68 (1968) sums up the riotous year of 1968 in four minutes including the politics, pop culture and the devastation of two of the most tragic assassinations in American History through a pulsating collage of hundreds of still images. The New York Radical Women's organization stage a protest with a sheep at the Miss America pageant in the experimental documentary Up Against the Wall Miss America (1968). In Protest: Black Power (1975), view the struggles, set-backs and triumphs of the Black Power movement with footage of Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and Martin Luther King. See the women's labor movement through the eyes of three union organizers in Union Maids (1976). For a cartoon break, there is the anti-fascist stop-motion revolution of Tadeusz Wilcosz's Bags (1967). Sit in on the steps of our own city hall with the anarchistic Diggers in Nowsreal (1968). Plus, multi-projection of original raw news footage of Black Panthers: Liberation School (1968), the SFSU Student Strike (1969), and the Watts Riots (1968) with an added revolutionary soundtrack. Come early to see how one Michigan town turned their antagonistic hippy/cop relations around with a football game in the entertaining documentary The Pigs vs. The Freaks (1973). All films are original 16mm prints from the archive.
Date: Thursday, August 28th, 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
Featuring:
Up Against the Wall Miss America (B+W, 1968)
This film, produced by Newsreel, (a series of radical, cooperatively run, decentralized film collectives organized in 1967) documents the infamous 1968 Miss America Beauty Pageant demonstrations in Atlantic City, NJ staged by the New York Radical Women organization. The 1968 protest shocked the country, creating major publicity and helped to raise awareness as well as perpetuate myths about the new Women’s Liberation movement. In this film, women’s liberation activists satirize the pageant using guerilla theater techniques, creating a giant puppet and introducing a sheep as the real winner of the contest.
World of ’68 (Color, 1968)
In Charles Braverman's signature kinestatic style; a hand-tinted pulsating montage highlighting the turbulent days of 1968 (the Beatles, MLK, RFK, Chicago riots, assassinations, civil rights, protests) set to music by the psychedelic drum sounds of Iron Butterfly. Originally aired on the Smothers Brothers Hour.
Protest: Black Power (Color, 1975)
This powerful documentary analyzes and defines 'Black power' with descriptive passages of its leading exponents. Features footage of speeches by prominent civil rights and black leaders including Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, H. Rap Brown, Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King, presenting a variety of different viewpoints.
Bags AKA Worek (Color, 1967)Mysterious and creepy stop-motion film from Poland- a burlap sack proceeds to consume everything in sight, until all the objects- scissors, sewing machines, etc. revolt, organize and subdue it. Directed by Tadeusz Wilcosz.
Union Maids (1976, B+W, excerpt)
This compelling doc unearths the vivacious history of the 1930s women’s labor movement, told through the experiences of three workers who rapidly became rank-and-file activists, union organizers, and socialist leaders.
Nowsreal (Color, 1968, excerpt)
A beautiful print of this super rarity filmed in and around San Francisco in the Spring of 1968, documenting in abstract fashion the “end” of the Digger movement- the loose collective of artists, radicals and free thinkers who were closely associated with and shared a number of members with a guerilla theater group the San Francisco Mime Troupe. They envisioned a society free from private property, and all forms of buying and selling (actor Peter Coyote was a founding member of the Diggers).
We moved the Diggers onto the City Hall steps and occupied them for three months, giving out food to city employees, washing our hair in the fountain, reading poetry on the steps. We made a film about that titled Nowsreal. We made a decision that the Diggers would end when the event ended on the summer solstice. On the last day, we put “San Francisco is Entering Into Eternity” on a theatre marquee. We held events in five different parts of the city, watched the sun go down, and asked each other: “What are we going to do now? - co-producer Peter Berg in conversation with Ron Chepesiuk from the book “Sixties Radicals, Then and Now”
Raw news footage from the Watts riots. This film, featuring rare color footage (and the only existing camera original) highlights the heat and the hate, the mayhem and the madness of black rage and American society on the brink.
Strike! (Color, 1969, Silent w/ added soundtrack)
Found in a dumpster, this revealing film was shot by a student cinematographer and records the brutal 1969 SF State University protest and strike.
Black Panthers: Liberation School (1968, B+W, silent w/ added soundtrack)
In this powerful document of 1960s Oakland, young people of all stratas join the Black Panther Party in protest over the killing of Panther member Bobby Hutton. Angela Davis and other leaders speak to a boisterous crowd.
In this powerful document of 1960s Oakland, young people of all stratas join the Black Panther Party in protest over the killing of Panther member Bobby Hutton. Angela Davis and other leaders speak to a boisterous crowd.
For the Early Birds (starting at 7:45pm):
The Pigs vs. The Freaks (Color, 1973)
After several violent clashes between the police and the long-hairs of East Lansing Michigan, one hippy had the novel idea to challenge the police to a friendly football game. 16,000 people showed and The Freaks won, two years in a row. This film documents the third annual game. Will the pigs finally be able to triumph over their long-haired opponents, or will the hippies take the title for a third time? Directed by Jack Epps Jr and Jeffrey Jackson.
About Oddball Films
Oddball films is the film component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educationals, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.