Oddball
Films presents Strange Sinema 46, a monthly screening of offbeat films, old gems and newly discovered
oddities both entertaining, experimental and eye-opening, all culled from
Oddball Films 50,000 film archive. This 46th installment includes A
Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946), the High Priestess of experimental cinema Maya
Deren’s sensual and metaphorically elusive study of the female psyche, Toot,
Whistle, Plunk, Boom (1953), a “beatnik” influenced Academy Award winning short in stunning
Technicolor, Trends (1967) a quirky, animated futurist film by Hungary’s first
animated feature film director, Blowtop Blues (1945) featuring wild man Cab
Calloway and Orchestra swingin’ through a great number, Experimental
Psychology of Vision (1941), a way-out eye-popping film featuring phi phenomenon, visual
other optical illusions, Help My Snowman is Burning Down (1964) Carson Davison’s award-winning beatnik rhapsody
with jazz score by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, A Lichtenstein in London (1968), a tour de force on site doc
of the American pop artist’s famous Tate Modern show produced by Bruce
Beresford featuring commentary by Lichtenstein, gallery views and shots of some
of his most well known paintings and sculptures. Plus!
Gay psychedelia!
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Date: Saturday, November 26th, 2011 at
8:00PM
Admission: $10.00 - Limited seating RSVP to
programming@oddballfilm.com or 415.558.8117
Program Features:
A
Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946, B+W, silent)
Maya Deren was one of
the most influential female avant garde filmmakers of the 20th
century. She was dancer, choreographer, poet, writer and photographer. In the
cinema she was a director, writer, cinematographer, editor, performer,
entrepreneur and pioneer in experimental filmmaking in the United States. She
collaborated with Marcel Duchamp and her social circle included the likes of
Andre Breton, John Cage and Anais Nin. This
enigmatic film is a social event choreographed in the manner of a dance,
illuminated by concepts drawn from Greek legend. This is a sensual and
metaphorically elusive study of the female psyche often considered one of
filmmaker’s most intriguing works.
For
more info on Deren’s remarkable career click here.
Toot, Whistle, Plunk,
Boom (1953, Color)
This Academy
Award winner is in stunning Technicolor and a “beatnik” classic of mid-century
animated design. It’s been ranked one of the top 50 greatest cartoons of all
time.
Trends (1967, Color) and Sisphus (1974)
Originally
titled “Tendenciar”, this thought-provoking animated short was produced by the
acclaimed Pannonia Film Studio in 1967. It was directed by Marcell Jankovics,
the director of Hungary’s first full-length animated feature, as well as the
Academy Award nominated short Sisyphus. Aside from a short introduction by a narrator, the
film contains no spoken dialogue. Instead, it uses inventive images and music
to speculate on the trends of the future—possible future trends in anatomy,
human sexuality, communication, and other futuristic predictions are depicted. Sisyphus
is an
artistically spare depiction of the Greek myth of Sisphyus, sentenced to
eternally roll a stone up a mountain. The animated story is presented in a
single, unbroken shot, consisting of a dynamic line drawing of Sisyphus, the
stone, and the mountainside.
Blowtop
Blues (1945,
B+W)
One of the
great jazzy entertainers, A talented jazz singer and a superior scatter
Calloway’s wild gyrations and on-stage showmanship at the Cotton Club sometimes
overshadowed the quality of his always excellent bands. This rarity includes
some real heavy hitters of early jazz including Cab Calloway and his Orchestra
- Cab Calloway, vocal and leader; Russell Smith, Paul Webster, Jonah Jones,
Shad Collins, trumpets; Tyree Glenn, Quentin Jackson, Keg Johnson, Fred
Robinson, trombones; Hilton Jefferson, Andrew Brown, alto saxes; Ike Quebec, Al
Gibson, tenor saxes; Greely Walton, baritone sax; Dave Rivera, piano;
Danny Barker, guitar; Milt Hinton, string bass and J.C. Heard, drums.
Lichtenstein
in London
(1968,
Color)
Having
just been informed that a 1961 painting by the late pop artist Roy
Lichtenstein “I Can see the
Whole Room! ….and There’s Nobody In It!’ has just sold for $43 million dollars Oddball thought it
might be a good time to screen this British Film Institute Bruce Beresford
directed film shot at the Tate Modern show in London in 1968. This film records
the impact of American artist Roy Lichtenstein's (b.1923) work on the public
and their reactions to it in the context of a retrospective exhibition at the
Tate Gallery, London, which attracted unprecedented attention and proved one of the most popular ever held there. Shows his early paintings based on magazine
ads and comic strip cartoons, such as Stove 1962 and Whaam! 1963, groups of
girls' heads and landscapes and several sculptures. Commentary juxtaposes
remarks by the public approving, questioning, or even rejecting the work, with
extracts from previously recorded interviews with the artist made by the
critics Alan Solomon for WNET, New York, and David Sylvester for the BBC.
$43
Million? Learn to draw and do the same thing - click here.
Help,
My Snowman’s Burning Down (Color, 1964) This Academy award-nominated short (and
winner of 14 international awards) by Carson Davidson stars Bob Larkin (later
in the cult film Putney Swope) as a Beatnik who lives on a boat dock off
Manhattan with only bathroom furnishings.
A visceral tapestry woven together by stop motion and surreal special
effects, this film is an Oddball audience favorite. With original jazz score by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet.
Experimental
Psychology of Vision (1941, B+W) is a way-out eye-popping film featuring phi phenomenon,
visual tricks and other optical
illusions.
Starlet
Revue (B+W,
1929)
This all
kiddie dance review pulls out all the stops1929 style! This is the first film
to feature the Meglin Kiddies dance group—the dancing troupe that launched the
careers of Shirley Temple and Judy Garland! Child dancers perform a pas de
deux, a line dance, and other styles.
Oddball Films hosts a benefit for Save KUSF featuring a two-hour multi-media
presentation on The Velvet Underground. Richie Unterberger, author
of the recent book White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day, will present rare
audiovisual material from throughout the groundbreaking group's career, including
film clips; audio tracks; slides of photos from the book, telling the
chronological history of the band; and expert commentary from
the writer himself. Plus as a special bonus, rarely seen clips of Andy Warhol from Oddball Films' collection. 
