Date: Friday, November 4th, 2016 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilms.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Featuring:
Escalation (Color, 1968)
An audacious animated anti-war short from Academy Award-winning Di$ney animator Ward Kimball (1914 –2002). The film protests then-president Lyndon B. Johnson’s escalation of the Vietnam war using violence, montage and sexuality.
One of the weirdest things to come out of the depression, this “Baby Burlesk” casts a group of toddlers in adult roles, including Shirley Temple starring as a prostitute who discovers her heart of gold in the face of on honest politician. The result is cringe-worthy, but gives an honest glimpse of the laissez faire attitude towards censorship in the pre-code era.
Shirley Temple later called this film "a cynical exploitation of our childish innocence." In her autobiography Shirley Temple Black recalls the plot:"I was a strumpet on the payroll of the Nipple Trust and Anti-Castor Oil Lobby. Mine was the task of seducing a newly arrived bumpkin senator." Shirley’s mother designed the black lace undergarments and bra her daughter wears on screen.
A hilarious and Oscar-nominated short skewering political campaign commercials. Taking his movements from television advertisements featuring sinuous performers who posture for the camera as they fashion blue jeans, fictitious presidential candidate Ray Hardale offers his platform as he humorously poses for the camera. Writer and Director, Bill Tunnicliffe.
1958 Voting PSA (B+W)
Both Democrats and Republicans agree that politics are easier to swallow when sang about by adorable puppets. Sexy Auntie Samantha gets the Donkey and the Elephant together to sing about voting and the all pledge to take to the polls in November.
Both Democrats and Republicans agree that politics are easier to swallow when sang about by adorable puppets. Sexy Auntie Samantha gets the Donkey and the Elephant together to sing about voting and the all pledge to take to the polls in November.
Betty Boop For President (B+W, 1932, excerpt)
Betty runs for the office of President against Mr. Nobody while parodying real candidates. Both candidates state their platform through song and dance, referring to political issues of the time. The House of Representatives is portrayed by elephants and asses-just like they are in real life!Betty sings: “Oh, when I'm the president, When I'm the president, I'll give you all a great big kiss, When I'm the president!” We see Times Square with billboards proclaiming that Betty Boop has been elected; there are fireworks and a tickertape parade.
Keep those pants up, Private Snafu! A cunning mosquito is loaded with malaria and he’s eying your USDA choice rump! The witty Private Snafu series was designed to convey vital information to servicemen who had wildly varying levels of education and literacy skills. Made by the folks who brought you Looney Tunes, this one was written by Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss!
Looney Tunes: Meet John Doughboy (B+W, 1941, Robert Clampett)
America's Defense Effort is caricatured in this phony newsreel introduced by Porky Pig. Full of goofy site-gags and jokes about the draft, the mess hall and the clucking machine gun nests, this isn't quite propaganda as much as satire. Jack Benny and Rochester are a secret weapon in an uncomfortably racist moment in an otherwise tame and hilarious cartoon.
Ford Motor Company sponsored this campy long form PSA on why everyone needs to do their part in participating in elections or we'll all end up with somebody nobody really wanted. This pro-voting propaganda will surely guilt you all the way to the polls. With a cameo performance by John Fiedler, the voice of Piglet from the beloved animated Winnie the Pooh series.
All-Star Bond Rally (Michael Audley, B+W, 1945)
In recent years, the nation has proven it can wage war without Bob Hope, but for decades it seemed unthinkable! Here Hope does his best to get Mr. and Mrs. America to invest in freedom at a hundred bucks a pop as he's joined by Frank Sinatra, Betty Grable, Harpo Marx, Bing Crosby and more in this musical propagandatainment spectacular. Hollywood pinups such as wacky Carmen Miranda and luscious Linda Darnell come to life to flirt with shocked servicemen in a saucy montage sequence.
200 (Color, 1975)
Vince Collins' supremely psychedelic animated celebration of our nation’s bicentennial, sponsored by the United States Information Agency. They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore. But then again, not as many LSD-inspired animators make it through the grant process.
Coast Guard Spars (B+W, 1942)
“Join the Spars and release a man for sea.”
“Join the Spars and release a man for sea.”
A military recruitment propaganda film about female coast guard “spars” and their mission in the military. Women march in uniform and learn “the language of the sea,”.“You may not get to be an admiral but you may get to be the admiral’s secretary”. See women spars issuing awards patches, spar women driving (chauffeur), spar women radio technicians, ship to shore operators, typing at a typewriter that says “censored”. 
Speaking of Animals - In Current Events (B+W, 1940s)
From the hilarious anthropomorphic "Speaking of Animals" series produced by cheese-meister Jerry Fairbanks. We could've kept sweet little woodland creatures out of the conflict with the Axis powers, but why?! Live action critters with cleverly animated mouths crack wise while the narration compares them to the Axis leaders. Hey, is that Hirohito scampering up that tree? Cute, repellant and just plain strange, the takeaway message from this goofy bit of patriotism? Bacon fat helps keep our men fighting, so keep it coming, America!
Curator’s BiographyKat Shuchter is a graduate of UC Berkeley in Film Studies. She is a filmmaker, artist and esoteric film hoarder. She has helped program shows at the PFA, The Nuart and Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater and was crowned “Found Footage Queen” of Los Angeles, 2009. She has programmed over 250 shows at Oddball on everything from puberty primers to experimental animation.About Oddball Films
Oddball Films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like The Nice Guys and Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Transparent and Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, 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.