Weird Science - Thur. Dec. 3rd - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Weird Science, a compendium of eccentric, unknown science films from 60ish years of scientific discovery, all on 16mm film from the archive. From animated TB germs to sequin-clad aliens, to babies in goggles, songs about slugs and even electric shocks from eels, it's a bizarre night of scientific infotainment. An alien and his computer friend land on Earth and seek to classify the animal life they find in the incredibly weird Mission Third Planet: Creatures of the Land (1979). Noir and B-movie legend Edgar G. Ulmer brings us a tale of tuberculosis for the kiddies with an animated TB bug in Goodbye Mr. Germ (1940). Find out what happens when your vision is flipped upside down (and you're paid to live like that for two weeks!) in the imported short Living in a Reversed World (1958). Sun Healing (1930s), a jaw-dropping forerunner of the infomercial, pitches an ominous health device that's "safe" to use on your own children. Sing along with kids about those disgustingly cute yellow mollusks, Banana Banana Banana Slugs! (1988). Get a double dose of Christian science with the evangelical Moody Science Institute and the literally shocking Electric Eel (1954) as well as Slow As a Sloth (1954). Plus, the trailer for ”The Brain That Wouldn’t Die”, clips from Popular Science and more!


Date:
 Thursday, December 3rd, 2015 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

Learn your Lesson from the '60s - A Groovy Shockucation - Fri. Nov. 20th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Learn your Lesson from the '60s - A Groovy Shockucation, the 32nd in a monthly series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic educational scare films, mental hygiene primers and TV specials of the collection. This month, we're heading back half a century to learn all about sex, drugs and talking cars from the decade of experimentation: the 1960s. "Blast off to Kicksville" in the howlingly-funny drug scare film Narcotics: Pit of Despair (1967). A rabbi, a priest and a psychologist talk about sexual development, masturbation, nocturnal emissions and more squeamish topics in Parent to Child About Sex (1965). Behold the wild go-go frenzy of the psychedelically animated anti-smoking film The Drag (1965). Mike Miller is a good Mormon Boy, but will he be lured by fast cars and wild women in the hilarious Measure of a Man (1962) from Mormon-mental hygiene pioneer Wetzel Whitaker. Little Jimmy nearly gets his by a car and then dreams of talking cars with creepy eyeballs that blast him on his safety knowledge in the mind-boggling The Talking Car (1969). Three groovy young girls and their dad get a lesson in over-shopping in Consumer Education: Budgeting (1968). Plus, nightmare musical cartoon Sniffy Escapes Poisoning (1965) and an excerpt of The Hippie Temptation (1969). Get here early to see when Sonny Bono gets high (pre-taping) and dons a gold lamé pajama set to tell you all about Marijuana (1968). Everything screened on 16mm film from the archive.



Date:
 Friday, November 20th, 2015 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. Nov. 19th - 8PM


Oddball Films presents Tunes and Toons: Animated Adventures in Musicland, a night of charming, ridiculous, stunning, and vibrant animation from the 30s through the 80s - all about making beautiful music and all on 16mm film from the archive. From the classic to the crazy with cartoon orchestras, beatniks, hippies, dancing rutabagas, Gumby, Bugs Bunny and more, it's going to be an eye-popping and knee-tapping night. 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!). A banjo-strumming Bugs Bunny gets back at an obtrusive opera singer in the Chuck Jones classic Long-Haired Hare (1949). Oscar-winner Ernie Pintoff brings us the hairy tale of Harry, a man willing to suffer (and stink) for his music in The Violinist (1959) with the voice talent of Carl Reiner. One orchestra is full of dogs, pigs, donkeys, and one grumpy conductor in Friz Freleng's The Mad Maestro (1939). Halas and Bachelor studios brings us Hoffnung's Music Academy (1965) featuring the strangest music school you've ever seen with yo yo violins, bicycle-wheel harps and pool playing pianos. Gumby gets into a surreal battle of wits with a shape-shifting piano in the zippy Gumby Concerto (1957). The brilliant Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto gives us a sexual, political and absurd revue of Opera (1973). From Sofia Films in Bulgaria comes Caw! (1982), a quirky tale of birds, music and (dis)harmony. 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, November 19th, 2015 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)?! 14: Cine-Insanity from the Archive - Fri. Nov 13th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents What the F(ilm)?! 14: Cine-Insanity from the Archive, an evening of some of the most bizarre, hilarious and insane films from our massive 16mm collection.  This compendium of 16mm madness is too strange to be believed and too baffling to be forgotten.  This time around we've got boxing chimps, boxing robots, burlesque cartoons, mimes, musical promotional films, a John Cleese office training film and even more celluloid psychosis!  British comedy legend John Cleese produced, wrote and stars in Meetings, Bloody Meetings! (1976) a hilariously infotaining training film on running more effective meetings.  Famed French mime Marcel Marceau takes us through the comedic and the ridiculously melodramatic facets of the age-old creepy traditions of mime in Pantomime: Language of the Heart (1975). The hilarious Doubletalk (1975) lets you in on what everyone is really thinking when a boy has to meet his date's parents. Take a musical-political break with Schoolhouse Rock and Sufferin' till Suffrage (1974). Little Billy heads out into the woods and makes friends with a man wearing a shag carpet in the f#*ed up communication primer Billy and the Beast (1972).  Bell telephone presents a mini-musical of telephone switching boards and automatic shoe machines in the West Side Story of promotional films Conversation Crossroads (1958). Get a taste of antiquated entertainment with the spoof newsreel Goofy Movies Number 4 (1934) featuring boxing chimps, ladies on train tracks, and rockets on row boats. Plus, two antique cartoons:  M*ckey Mouse builds a robot boxer and pits him against an ape in Kongo Killer (1933, AKA M*ckey's Mechanical Man) and Krazy Kat's girlfriend takes the stage to do a risqué burlesque fan dance in Frogs and Kats (1930s). 


Date: Friday, November 13th, 2015 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

Art and the Machine: The Birth of Electronic Arts - Thur. Nov. 12th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Art and the Machine: The Birth of Electronic Arts, a program of 16mm films from the 1960s-1980s on the advent of machine-made art and the impact on not only the art community, but the world at large.  From early computer animation to the strobe light art of Yaacov Agam and the machine-made sculpture of Jean Tinguely to the musical world of Moogs and Theremins, it's a night of invention, innovation and artistry. Bell Laboratories brings us Incredible Machine (1968) which previews the latest developments in computer-assisted imagery, electronic music, and voice processing.  Walter Cronkite explores the synthesis of art and technology in Art for Tomorrow (1969), featuring predictions for art in the future as well as a compendium of cutting edge artists of the day like Jean Tinguely, Yaacov Agam, Victor Vasarely, Wen-Ying Tsai, John Mott-Smith, all who use machines in their artwork.  Get in a moogy kind of mood with Discovering Electronic Music (1983) and groove along with the educational cartoon fairy tale The Pretty Lady and the Electronic Musicians (1972). Plus, a double-dose of early computer animation: John Whitney's Arabesque (1975), a legendary masterpiece of shimmering, oscillating waves set to the music of Persian composer Maroocheher Sadeghi and Peter Foldes' Hunger (1974), a metamorphic nightmare of greed, gluttony and lust.


Date: Thursday, November 12th, 2015 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 94: Sex in Cinema - Fri. Nov. 6th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 94, a monthly screening of new finds, old gems and offbeat oddities from Oddball Films’ vast collection of 16mm film prints. Drawing on his collection of over 50,000 16mm film prints, Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has compiled his 94th program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This installment, Strange Sinema 94: Sex in Cinema is an eye-popping exploration of sex in cinema and all its genres from industrial films, commercials, animated features, amateur films, documentaries and musical shorts.  Sex sells, they say and this program showcases the vast variety of outlets for it. We lay the foundation for our program with The Most (1963), a rarely screened, award-winning biopic by Richard Ballentine and Gordon Sheppard, that chronicles Pl*yboy’s Hugh H*fner, the man known for selling sex to America and creating a socio-sexual cultural phenomenon. Insightful and ferocious, this doc uncovers the banal layers of H*fner’s lifestyle and narcissistic “genius”. Winner of the San Francisco International Film Festival’s Golden Gate Award. We continue our program with a jaw-dropping sexist commercial for Chemical Bank (1970s) When her needs are financial her reaction is chemical” and a 1960s inspired occult spot for Bigelow Carpets followed by Wear Safety Shoes (1970s), a fetishistic advertisement for safety shoes. Other gems include a peek inside Fredericks of Hollywood (1970s) and its sexist camp and over–the-top fanny pad saleswomen, Erik Is Here! (1960s) featuring a man, his Viking ship and his sexy cigar, Sadie the Sunbather (1948), a rare, titillating soft-core “nudie cutie” by Seaside films featuring a buxom female and a snarky sexist narrator and Clorets (1950s), a pseudo-scientific study of bad breath (!) and social stigmas. Other highlights include Texas Strip (1948), the musical Soundie that inspired the Devo video “Whip It”, where a singing cowboy flirts with cowgirls sitting on a fence, then strips one of them with his whip (oh my!), the trailer for American Dreamer (1971) the most pretentious, hilariously awful, mind-boggling bio-sex film to ever come from the coked out head of Dennis Hopper. Other eye-popping shorts include highlights from the infamous New York Erotic Film Festival (1971), a fashion trip to polyester land as statuesque models show off Christian Dior Action Wear Hosiery and Yves St. Laurent belts and scarves amidst the picturesque ruins of Athens in The Greeks Have a Word For It (1969), Woody Woodpecker in romantic drag romances Wally the Walrus in The Gate Crasher (1969) and don’t miss The Magician (1970s) as he strips he-men naked through the wonders of stop-motion animation. We climax with a Salvo soap ad starring Wally Cox (TVs Mr Peepers) as he plays two roles (one in drag) to sell laundry detergent and Dirty Duck (1974) Charles Swenson’s infamous animated cult film trailer produced by sleaze meister Roger Corman!

Date: Friday, November 6th, 2015 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 

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

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