The San Francisco Experiment - Thurs. Mar 29 - 8pm

Oddball Films and Guest Curator Soumyaa Kapil Behrens present, The San Francisco Experiment: A Grand Disaster. This new monthly series takes a look at the cinematic and pedagogical history of this great city. Part visual archeology and part experiment this program sheds lights on our fair city's darkest corners and it's most sophisticated triumphs.  Featuring, the classic 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Film (ca. 1930) with awesome footage from the turn-of-the-century quake aftermath and The Ageless Cable Cars of San Francisco (1955) documenting the urban growth along the relic laden journey of the still famed cable car.  Excerpts from Hell On Frisco Bay (1955) with Noir darling Edward G. Robinson and The Times of Harvey Milk (1984), one of the most important historical films ever made on SF-- and an Academy Award winner.  Rare footage from over the years including the first broadcast ever made on TV in SF, colorful hippies and sassy low riders.  Vietnam Epilogue (1973) made by the Hearst Corporation’s newsreel division also takes a look at the politics and horror that surrounded America’s war efforts in Vietnam, Nixon, LBJ, and nationwide protests all play a role in this short film that walks the line in diplomacy and dissent.  Plus! Other newsreel gems round out the night of disaster, intrigue and drama that steered San Francisco to what it is today. 

   

Date: Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 - Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8117

Bipolar! - Fri. Mar 30 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Neil Van Groder present Bipolar!: Mountain of Joy/Pit of Despair. Get ready for a roller-coaster ride of emotions in this evening of rare and contrasting films filled with empty joy against the saddest and most despondent tales in the archive. Your uncontrollable tears are sure to be followed by unstoppable, hysterical laughter in this program featuring: Bolivia, The Tin Mountain (1979), a film documenting the awful labor conditions and life of Bolivian tin miners; I am a Mime (1971), colorful facial close-ups and flashes of children’s art describe the art of mime; Alone in the Midst of the Land (1970) a futuristic view of the effect of man's destruction and waste on his environment; clips from Fifth Street Skid Row (1960s), a documentary about homelessness and alcohol abuse in 1960’s Los Angeles; The Lottery (1969), depicts a short story about an annual village lottery in which the winner is stoned to death by the rest of the community; Zoo Animals in Rhyme (1965) rhymes tell us all about our favorite animals in the zoo; The Inner World of Aphasia (1969), a dramatization about people dealing with the problems of aphasia following a stroke or brain injury; Lion (Make a Wish) (1970), uses animation, graphics, film clips, and song to illustrate the various meanings of the word lion.  Plus various Cereal and Snack commercials from the 1970’s! 

Date: Friday, March 30th at 8PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 - Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com

Strange Sinema 50: How it’s Made! - Sat. Mar 31 - 8PM

Oddball Films curator Stephen Parr presents the 50^th installment of our monthly series Strange Sinema. This very special interactive program Strange Sinema 50: How it’s Made! features an evening of how-to film making including How to Make a Movie Without a Camera (1972) takes a cue from Len Lye and Stan Brakhage and shows kids how to be avant-garde film stars; History of the Cinema (1958) a British animated history of the cinema, Begone Dull Care, a cameraless film by internationally renowned National Film Board of Canada animator Norman McLaren, with jazz score by Oscar Peterson, Camera Magic (1943) street photographer Weegee’s film about trick filmmaking; John Halas’s an undeniable classic of animation The History of the Cinema (1957), Frame by Frame, shows us how to make eye-popping films, Mandatory Edits is a rare tv film editors’ compilation of censored clips of sex and violence and Frank Film (1973) is Frank Mouris’s stop-motion free-associative collage of 11,592 media images collected from magazines; and Daffy Duck remixes Hollywood films in Daffy Duck in Hollywood (1938). Plus! Try your hand at filmmaking! Before the program starts all attendees will work together to splice, select, mutate and create a “camera less” film from Oddball’s 16mm stock images. This Exquisite Corpse film will be screened at the shows’ finale!

Date: Saturday, March 31st, 2012 at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 - Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8117

Save KUSF benefit featuring Ralph Carney and Melodious Animations - Thur. March 22 - 8pm

 Oddball Films hosts a benefit for Save KUSF featuring the great Ralph Carney & Guests live on the Cinestage! Mr. Carney is a jazz multi-instrumentalist/horn player who has spent the better part of the last 2 decades criss-crossing the world, on stage and in studios with the likes of Tom Waits, Jonathan Richman, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Elvis Costello to name only a few. Plus! A selection of the finest animation films with the jazziest soundtracks in the Oddball Films collection including Dave Fleischer’s Minnie The Moocher (1932) featuring Betty Boop, Bimbo and the music of Cab Calloway and His Orchestra; legendary animators Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambert’s vibrant Begone Dull Care (1949) with the music of the Oscar Peterson Trio; principal animator on Yellow Submarine Paul Dreissen’s Cat’s Cradle (1974) and much more! 

Date: Thursday, March 22nd at 8PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

Admission: $10 - $15 sliding scale. Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com

"Ralph's great...He's guided by some other source of information. He's like a broken toy that works better than before it was broken." 

- Tom Waits

Click here for more information about Ralph Carney.

EXPERIMENTA India - Fri. Mar 23 - 7:30pm

Oddball Films, in association with San Francisco Cinematheque and 3rd i Films, is proud to present EXPERIMENTA India. What are possible cinematic entry points to addressing the context of experimental filmmaking in India? From experiments in animation, found footage and stylised montage in the late 60’s and early 70’s to the most recent innovations in experimental narrative, this selection of films and videos, never before seen in the US, offer a peek into the aesthetic and socio-political complexities of experimental filmmaking in India.

Festival Director Shai Heredia of EXPERIMENTA India will be present to introduce these programs - which have never before been seen in the United States.

Shai Heredia is a filmmaker and curator. In 2003, she founded Experimenta, the international festival for experimental cinema in India. She has curated experimental film programs for major film and art venues around the globe, including the Tate Modern, Berlinale Film Festival, and the Images Festival in Toronto. Her latest film, ‘I Am Micro’, co-directed with Shumona Goel, has screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival and the Images Festival. ‘I am Micro’ is currently screening as part of the exhibition ‘Being Singular Plural’ at the Guggenheim Museum NYC (March 2–June 6, 2012). 

Date: Friday, March 23rd at 7:30pm*

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Admission: $10* - Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8117

*Note early start time. The price of a single admission ticket allows access to both shows. They will run back to back with a 15min intermission. Total run time for both programs is 125min. 

SFSFF presents NAPOLEON - 3/24, 3/25, 3/31 & 4/1

"A MAJOR EVENT! Don't wait for this to come to a theater near you - getting Gance's magnum opus up on a screen is a herculean task!" - Martin Scorsese, Vanity Fair (March 2012) 


Abel Gance's epic NAPOLEON is the Holy Grail of silent masterpieces. In the early 1980s, Francis Ford Coppola toured a 4-hour road show version that many still consider their most unforgettable movie experience ever. Now, thirty-one years later, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival is finally presenting legendary film historian Kevin Brownlow's complete 5 1/2 hour restoration in the United States, along with the American premiere of a magnificent score by Carl Davis, at the Art Deco Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California. Mr. Davis will conduct a 48-piece orchestra for these screenings, which also feature the original 3-screen "Polyvision" finale. Due to the technical challenges, expense, and complicated rights issues involved, no screenings are planned for any other American city. This is your chance, so grab it now!


For tickets, event trailer, FAQs and more, visit silentfilm.org . 

Get Lucky - Sat. Mar 17 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Margaret Jamieson present Get Lucky. Look out! Is it good luck, bad luck, lady luck or no luck at all? A playful blend of high advertising, low camp, sweet narratives and the real explanation for superstitions this program offers everything from Motorcycles on Ice to the Evil Eye to Lucky Seven Sampson - you’ll walk out of the screening looking for quarters on the sidewalk but expecting pianos to fall from the sky.  Standouts include:  Cannes 1959 Special Jury Prize and Academy Award winner The Golden Fish (1959) a charming film about a boy, his fish, his bird and a sneaky cat; The Superstition of Walking Under a Ladder (1934), explained by sheet-togaed Greeks visited from beyond the grave by bad luck; Don’t Push Your Luck, a 1967 work-safety film that will convince you that bad luck is worse than no luck at all; Marlon Perkins, visiting uninsured, inexplicably happy people in Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Plus! Annoying hyperglycemic white kids in Lucky Charm commercials, an episode of The Fred Waring Show with terrible acting, wonderful singing, bonnie lasses and the luck of the Irish, and much more! 

Try your luck with prize drawings featuring gifts from Libros Latinos, Weston Wear, Monument, Valhalla Books, Density, Maverick and munch on some delicious treats from Dynamo Donuts.

Date: Saturday, March 17th at 8PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 - Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8117

Free to be You and Me - Thurs. Mar 15 - 8pm

Get on your footy pajamas and get ready to shuffle down "Memory Lane" as Oddball Films and guest curator Kat Shuchter bring you the complete 1974 Emmy award-winning Television broadcast of Free to be You and Me.  Marlo Thomas gathered together a cavalcade of stars to teach children positive, “modern” values, like gender and race-equality, tolerance, selflessness and most-importantly singing and dancing.  Roberta Flack and Michael Jackson play dress-up and accept their physical shortcomings in When We Grow Up.  Mel Brooks voices a cheeky baby puppet, Alan Alda lends his voice to the story of a princess who outruns all the boys, while football player Rosie Grier sings It’s Alright to Cry.  Harry Belafonte teaches us that Parents are People, and Marlo sits and sings fireside with Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge.  There’s singing, dancing, cartoons, and plenty of laughs.  With vintage commercial breaks an episode of Sid and Marty Kroft's The Banana Splits - the love-child of Sid and Marty Krofft and Hanna-Barbera! It's a night of nostalgia you've never forgotten...  

Date: Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 8:00PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 - Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8117

Fooled By A Feeling! - Fri. Mar 16 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Emily Schleiner present Fooled By A Feeling!, an evening of films about self-fulfilling prophecies, wacky prejudice, and, ultimately, the process of making difficult choices. Featuring excerpts from Optimist-Pessimist: Which Are You?, an edited version of the 1975 Pollyanna story.  Watch the fabulous animated musical Dr. Seuss on the Loose: The Sneetches, The Zax, and Green Eggs and Ham (1973), a classic bundle of stories that deal with themes like prejudice, materialism, and compromise, vocals by Allan Sherman.  See Square Pegs, Round Holes (1974) a kooky animation about a walking and talking peg searching for a niche to call home!  Will he settle for a less than ideal situation? In The Superstition of the Black Cat (1934) a couple takes the long way home after a cat crosses their path.  Will their fearful predictions come true after they turn around and recount a myth about black cats?  Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are down on their luck in the film One Good Turn (1933), living in a shantytown and going door-to-door begging for work.  Will things go well for them if they get one good turn?!  Finally, see a 70’s documentary called Human Image: What is the Good Life?, a hilariously dated query into the lives of everyday people.  Be impressed by the excellent mustaches and bellbottoms!  

Life is just an endless chain of judgements. . . .

The more imperfect our judgement,

the less perfect our success.

- B. C. Forbes

Plus! Watch an arrogant lion eat his words when he ends up needing help from a mere mouse in the animated short The Lion and the Mouse (1959).  Whether you want to see funky animations, or a slapstick black and white, there is something here for everyone!

Date: Friday, March 16, 2012 at 8:00PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 - Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8117

The Conscious Clock: Perspectives on Time and Reality - Sat. Mar 10 - 8pm

Oddball Films and guest curator Joe Garrity present The Conscious Clock: Perspectives on Time and Reality, a program of rare and unique short films exploring the temporal dimensions of the outer and inner worlds. From objective measurement to subjective experience of change, we examine the illusory nature of time and its impression on our lives. The program includes The Story of Time (1949), a dazzling stop-motion short from the Rolex watch company, and Leisure (1976), Bruce Petty’s Oscar-winning animated history of time spent at play. Natural rhythm is explored in What Time Is Your Body? (1973), a fascinating study of biological clockwork using human isolation experiments, as well as in Maya Deren’s avant-garde ballet, Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946). Also, in Time Piece (1965), master puppeteer Jim H*nson crafts a zany self-portrait of a man in crisis. Finally, we close with Chris Marker’s seminal short film La Jetée (1962), a mind-bending reflection on time, memory, and man at the end of it all. It’s time to mind what makes you tick!

Date: Saturday, March 10th, 2012 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

The Idea of India - Thurs. Mar 8 - 8pm

Oddball Films presents The Idea of India, a program of films exploring the many facets of Indian culture from science to spirituality, from art to anthropology, from ritual to religion and more. The program focuses on the fascinating, all-encompassing and yet contradictory concepts of Indian culture and its people. Films feature a diverse selection of films examining various aspects of Indian life from the 1930s to the present day featuring rare home movies, seldom screened ethnographic films, made-in-India docs, award-winning portraits of Indian culture and footage of present day religious rituals. World renowned cultural scholar, and Bay Area resident Huston Smith examines India’s extraordinary leap of consciousness that birthed the concept, “You are God.” in India and the Infinite (1979), exploring both the paradoxes and extremes, the sensuality and asceticism in India, Juggernaut: A Film of India (1969) reveals a nuclear India through the eyes of her people as they watch the journey of a convoy carrying a calandria, the 70-ton heart of a nuclear reactor to Rajasthan, Bombay Movies (1977) follows mega Bollywood star Vinod Khanna as he introduces American audiences to cinema, Indian-style, The Dam at Nagarjunasagar (1972) is an eye-popping profile of the 30,000 people who constructed the world’s largest masonry dam in Andhra Pradesh, Drums of Manipur (1952) is a rare look at the music and cultural festivals of tribal Manipur, located in the mountainous regions of Assam, The March of Time: India’s New People (1952), a revealing portrait in contrasts of contemporary Indian society 5 years after independence, Kathakali: Dances of India (1948) is a precious film showcasing the temple dances of Southern India. The program also includes rare Kodachrome home movies of the holy city of Varanasi and legendary filmmaker S.N.S. Shastry’s I Am Twenty (1967), a verite look at over a dozen Indians and their thoughts after 20 years as a nation. Also: Clips from Heritage of India (1930s) featuring the Jantar Mantar Astronomical Observatory built in the 17th Century, the touristy curio Mystic India (1942) and South Indian temple festival footage shot live in Kerala in 2011. 

Date: Thursday, March 8^th at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco.

Admission: $10.00 - Limited Seating RSVPs to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415.558.8117

Mighty Mr. Marshall McLuhan - Fri. Mar 9 - 8PM

Oddball Films and programmer Antonella Bonfanti present Mighty Mr. Marshall McLuhan. Famous for coining the phrase "The Medium is the Message" and predicting "The Global Village" in the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan revolutionized how we think of technology and culture. Featuring films that reflect his writings and influence as a communication and media theorist, this program's centerpiece is Picnic in Space (Bruce Bacon, 1967). McLuhan explicates all the prime concepts of his cultural theories, but in constant reference to visual, auditory and physical space. Extremely rare and quite poppy, this work captures the casual tone and form of his writings.  Also screening, Charles and Ray Eames' earliest and seldom seen commissions for IBM A Communication Primer (1953), Takashi Ito's formal masterpiece Spacy (1981), Buck Dancer (1965) the great American ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax's film about an African American buck dancer/fife player, and the award winning and surreal Shout it out Alphabet (1969) by animator Lynn Smith.  

Date: Friday, March 9^th at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco.

Admission: $10.00 - Limited Seating RSVPs to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415.558.8117

Act Like A Toaster - Fri. Mar 2 - 8PM

Guest curator Soumyaa Kapil Behrens and Oddball Films present, Act Like A Toaster, an evening of 16mm films on the brain and all its potentialities.  From creativity to industry and perception to physiology, this collection of shorts connects the dots between the human brain and how it manifests in the concrete frame of the real world.  See the impact of man deconstructed to his central nervous system and sometimes even tested on animals.  Highlights include legendary Saul Bass' Academy Award winning documentary short, Why Man Creates (1968) that unlocks the mutations of the creative mind, and an episode of Hot Dog: The Show About Stuff (1970) starring Woody Allen, JoAnne Worley and Jonathan Winters that embraces education and imagination looking at how things get made. Flight, A New Awareness (1973), an inspiring environmental film that pairs the miracle of flight with a grander perception of the earth; Age of Invention (1984) by Albert Kish culminates in the machinery of destruction from WWI; and From Trees to Paper (1960s) made by the American Forest Product Industries demonstrates the process of transformation to finally make a paper product.  An eerie and intriguing excerpt from the CBS news documentary, New Frontiers of the Brain (1959) tests brain activity and complex actions on man and animal while the extremely lighthearted Perc! Pop! Sprinkle! (1969) follows kids as they practice morphing their bodies into household appliances.  This show is sure to ignite a cranial energy that could lead to who knows what!



Date: Friday, March 2, 2011 at 8:00PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 - Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8117

Stop-Motion Explosion! - Sat. Mar 3 - 8pm

Oddball Films and guest curator Kat Shuchter bring you Stop-Motion Explosion!, a program of mind-blowing stop-motion animation from the 1930s to the 1980’s. In a world saturated with CGI, Oddball Films opens the vaults to celebrate when historical, fantastical and anthropomorphic creatures were hand-sculpted and manipulated into “life.” Blast off with original 1957 Gumby shorts, in which our little clay buddy goes to Space, nearly gets eaten by a chocolate éclair and trampled by a giant glob. Frog and Toad Together (1987) brings to life the classic children’s book with the adventures of the beloved green life partners. Sink your teeth into The Munchers (1973), a psychedelic oral hygiene rock opera that will educate your sweet tooth. Then, get ready for epic battle on small-scale and mild historical-inaccuracies in Dinosaurs: The Terrible Lizards (1986). And the Japanese once again outcute the world in The Ant and the Grasshopper (1967). With jazzy and stylish George Pal Puppetoon Cavalcade of Music (1934) and so much more! It’s a night millions of minute movements in the making! 

Date: Saturday, March 3rd, 2012 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117