Oddball Films: Cinema Soiree - Canyon Cinema - Thur. Nov. 5th

Oddball Films welcomes famed distributor Canyon Cinema Foundation to our Cinema Soiree Series, a monthly event featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights and films. Showcased are a selection of rare films from its vast catalog of experimental and avant-garde works celebrating San Francisco - its makers, landscape, culture and weirdos. This program highlights works made in the Bay Area over a period of 30 years and offers glimpses of beloved artists (such as George Kuchar), subversive behaviour and transformed cityscapes. Presented on 16mm, this Soiree will include Nathaniel Dorsky’s 17 Reasons Why (1987) affording viewers a unique opportunity to check out the film’s namesake and historic San Francisco landmark sign up close in the Oddball archive (where the sign now resides). Also included are: a rare local presentation of Tomonari Nishikawa’s dual projection work Into the Mass (2007), Greta Snider’s irreverent documentary Hard Core Home Movie (1989), Alice Anne Parker Severson’s Introduction to Humanities (1972), Degrees of Limitation (1982) by Scott Stark, a disheveled rogue running loose through the area where now stands AT&T Park in Thad Povey’s The Story or AARGH-X: Wildman of Mystery (Episode 1) (1997), By the Sea (1982) by Toney Merritt, and more! First emerging in 1961 from Bruce Baillie’s backyard as a screening series, Canyon Cinema has been firmly rooted in the Bay Area for over 50 years and is an organization integral to San Francisco’s art and cultural heritage. Antonella Bonfanti, the director of the Canyon Cinema Foundation as well as the staff of Canyon will be here to introduce the films and discuss the role of Canyon in the film community.

This is a mini-benefit screening for Canyon Cinema! *Note the special admission price of $12*

Plus - Make a Donation and receive a gift! T-shirts, Tote Bags, Vintage Catalogs and other rare delights among the benefits which will be available. Cash Only!

Date: Thursday, November 5th, 2015 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $12.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

HARD-CORE is a frank and irreverent documentary that asks the question, "what is hard-core?" Seedy, grainy, and fast-paced, this is a nostalgic look at an ephemeral moment in the history of a subculture: punk rock in San Francisco in the late eighties. Everyone from fucked-up teenagers to elderly Mexican tourists attempts to explain the allure and mystique of the scene. Filmed at SF's historical petting-zoo/theater/punk rock emporium The Farm.

Sisters! | Barbara Hammer | 1973 | 8 minutes | COLOR | SOUND

A celebration and collage of lesbians, including footage of the Women's International Day march in SF and joyous dancing from the last night of the second Lesbian Conference where Family of Woman played; as well as images of women doing all types of traditional "men's" work. 

Discovered running loose in the streets of the city, a disheveled rogue is hunted and captured by a bounty hunter.

Music: Ween; Filmed at 30 Berry Street, San Francisco

Degrees of Limitation | Scott Stark | 1982 | 3 minutes | COLOR | SILENT
A single 100' roll shot with a hand-wound 16mm Bolex. For each shot the camera was wound one additional time, allowing me to make it a little bit farther up the hill. Will I reach the top before the film runs out? A study in self-imposed limitations.

In Marin County | Peter Hutton | 1970 | 10 minutes | COLOR | sound

"IN MARIN COUNTY approaches the subject of America's ecological disaster as a comic yet bizarre vision. The tradition of Old MacDonald's farm has long since disappeared and in its place are bulldozer and insect sprays. Our fascination with these mechanized wonders of civilization may well prove to be more lethal than we would have imagined. Peter Hutton has succeeded in making an important statement on ecology and the strange delight Americans take in destroying things." - Whitney Museum of American Art.

Attaching two super 8 cameras on my bicycle, one on each pedal, I captured the side views of streets, while riding the bike from the Headlands Center for the Arts to San Francisco. The ride joined in the the Critical Mass, an event by San Francisco bicyclists on the last Friday of each month. The dual projection image shows the new landscape of the city.

By the Sea | Toney W. Merritt | 1982 | 2.5 minutes | COLOR | SILENT
A film made from Merritt’s old studio apartment on Telegraph Hill. A portrait of sorts.

17 Reasons Why | Nathaniel Dorsky | 1987 | 19 minutes | COLOR | SILENT
17 REASONS WHY was photographed with a variety of semi-ancient regular 8 cameras and is

projected unslit as 16mm. These pocket-sized relics enabled me to walk around virtually "unseen," exploring and improvising with the immediacy of a more spontaneous medium. The four image format has built-in contrapuntal resonances, ironies, and beauty, and in each case gives us an unpretentious look at the film frame itself ... the simple and primordial delight of luminous Kodachrome and rich black and white chugging thru these timeworn gates.

About the Canyon Cinema Foundation:

Since 1967, Canyon Cinema has been the west-coast hub for accessing groundbreaking experimental films. Our collection includes 3,500 titles representing the work of over 250 artists including legends such as Bruce Baillie, Chick Strand, Stan Brakhage, Robert Nelson, Gunvor Nelson, Lawrence Jordan and many more. A leading resource for scholars, curators and enthusiasts worldwide, Canyon Cinema fosters scholarship and supports the community that surrounds artist-made moving image works. First emerging in 1961 from Bruce Baillie’s backyard as a screening series where local Canyon, California audiences watched artist-made films by Bay Area filmmakers, Canyon Cinema has been firmly rooted in the region for over 50 years and is an organization integral to San Francisco’s art and cultural heritage.

Visit the Canyon Cinema Foundation website to find out more - www.canyoncinema.com

Cinema Soiree - Canyon Cinema - Thur. Nov. 5th - 8PM