Shot in San Francisco - Thurs. May 31 - 8pm

Oddball Films presents Shot in San Francisco. This program features vintage 16mm films focused on our beautiful city by the bay.  Long lost sights and sounds, rare early color cinematography and everywhere parents, grandparents and great-grandparents in their prime. Highlights include: G, by Edward Demartini, a rare portrait of San Francisco Garbage collectors in 1963, 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition (1939), astounding color scenes from the ’39 World’s Fair held on the newly constructed Treasure Island; Trojan Horse (1967), follow eccentric artist Fredric Hobbs all around “Summer of Love” San Francisco in his wild art car;  San Francisco in Cinemascope (1961), beautiful sights, cars, scenes and people captured in widescreen color!; 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (1906), see it all come tumbling down and determined folks ready to rebuild; plus China Clipper ships off Alameda in 1935, the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges under construction, a wild bicycle stunt on top of the Palace of Fine Arts and more.  See the city that knows how- when it knew how!

Date: Thursday, May 31, 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

Happy Trails: Imagining the Western Frontier - Fri. May 25 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Hannah Airriess present Happy Trails: Imagining the Western Frontier. The Western frontier has always been a vital part of the American imaginary, and has been represented in a diverse range of ways. With the recent resurgence in popularity of the western cinema, this program will deal with the way in which the genre and frontier imagery was imagined in earlier decades. Films include the historic short The Great Train Robbery (1903), trailers from the Hopalong Cassidy series (1938-1939), home movie from the San Francisco Horseman’s Association (1943), an excerpt featuring Marlene Dietrich from the western classic Destry Rides Again (1939), a travel video titled Dudin’, the experimental short Red Ball Express, and the educational documentary Ghost Towns of California (1973).

Date: Friday, May 25^th, 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.

Strange Sinema 52 - Sat. May 26 - 8PM

Oddball Films and Curator Stephen Parr present Strange Sinema 52, a monthly screening of offbeat films, old gems and newly discovered oddities all culled from Oddball Films 50,000 film archive. Entertaining, experimental and eye-opening,  tonight’s films feature: Land-Divers of Melanesia (1972), Kal Muller and ethnographic famed filmmaker Robert Gardner’s collaborate to profile Melanesian men as they attach vines to their ankles, diving headlong from a 100 ft wooden tower in the Naghol land-diving ritual; Isaac Hayes performs the Theme From Shaft in this eye-popping, over-the-top display of glitz from the 44^th Academy Awards show in 1972; Lipstick and Dynamite features furious femmes battling it out for the Women’s Wrestling Championship of the World in 1949; and the famed Tiffany Chimps star in My Children (1931!), an all-monkey "chimpsploitation" comedy short. Three brilliant, hilarious, stop-motion, live-action films by film pioneers David “Chuck” Menville and Len Janson including Stop, Look and Listen about “human-powered” automobiles, Blaze Glory, the 70’s midnight movie hit spoof of Western gunfighters and Vicious Cycles another wacko short about biker gangs terrorizing scooter clubs. Two of film genius Georges Melies’ most remembered surrealist films The Ballet Master’s Dream (1903) and Fairy Land: A Kingdom of Fairies (1903); and 7362 (1967) the languid rhythms of fades, dissolves and superimpositions permeate this masterfully avant garde film by the auteur of the optical printer Pat O’Neill. Plus: Bizarre home movies from 1958, jet crash, Needle in a Haystack contest, guy jumps into a pool of fire, and Jayne Mansfield in a rickshaw?

 

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

Date: Saturday, May 26, 2012 at 8:00PM

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

Love Lunatic: Or, How to Be Loved When You're a Psycho - Thurs. May 24 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Christine Kwon present Love Lunatic: Or, How to Be Loved When You're a Psycho, a delightful selection of films that speak on the eternally incomprehensible theme of love. The night kicks off with the original bumbling lover, Buster Keaton, as he proves what women really want isn't money, but someone to risk his life in a pistol duel in She's Oil Mine. From there, The Magic Tree transports us to the Congo with a story about a son who risks everything for mommy dearest, followed by Love Me, Love Me, Love Me, a “moral tale” about a man whose only friend is a stuffed alligator, and what he does to be loved by dogs, horses and even children. The oddity continues with Wo*dy Wo*dpecker in Solid Ivory as the cheeky fowl reminds us the perils of male/female relations go well beyond human condition, but includes dressing up as a rooster and stealing a chicken's eggs so you can play pool. The centerpiece of the night features landmark lesbian film, Desert Hearts, a rare, if earnest, depiction of romantic love between two women against the moody backdrop of Reno, Nevada. Additional films round out a showcase that prove the art of seduction, the delights of puppy love, and the lengths in which a man, woman, or chicken will go to be with their object of affection truly defies all logic and reason. 

Date: Thursday, May 24th, 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

Blackballed Cartoons! - Fri. May 18 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Blackballed Cartoons! An evening of banned or censored cartoons filled with racism, sexism, drug references and more. Subjects routinely featured in American animation - many of these cartoons were shown on TV through the late 1960’s until they were pulled from distribution. Swept from the public eye as an embarrassment by the studios and considered a danger to the public, these cartoons are a part of American cultural and artistic history, and need to be seen. Titles include: Coal Black and The Sebben Dwarfs, Tokio Jokio, Little Black Sambo, All This and Rabbit Stew, The Rasslin’ Match (with Amos and Andy), Minnie the Moocher, Bacall To Arms, Lumber Jerks, Buried Treasure and more.

Date: Friday, May 18th, 2012 at 8PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

Admission: $10 - Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8117

Pop Goes the Classroom - Sat. May 19 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Lynn Cursaro present Pop! Goes the Classroom: School Films in the Age of Groovy. Many 1960’s sensibilities trickled down to the educational films of the 1970s - with wild and beautiful results. Facts and dates gave way to concepts, color and action. Narration-free documentary shorts, such as Night People’s Day (1971) and Pier “73” (1970s), provided more than just information about hidden workplaces, they gave students room to observe. Music was a natural subject here: Crash, Bang, Boom (1970), an early seventies oddity, proved that “school” plus “band” could add up to "far out", while What is Rhythm? (1975) wants us plugged into the tempo of everything. Cans (1970) salutes the humble tin’s ubiquity and disposability in this DIY mini-doc. Basic Body Movement (1969) finds its charm in the disconnect between in vivid visuals and the laughable authority voiceover; and the unforgettable Toes Tell (1969) shares the hippie-dippy odyssey of a girl and her curious barefeet. There’s MORE! Home-baked POP-centric gingerbread will be among the complimentary treats from the curator’s kitchen!

Date: Saturday, May 19th, 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. 

San Francisco Cinematheque presents CROSSROADS 2012 - May 18 - 20

Oddball Films is proud to co-present, along with our friend from San Francisco Cinematheque, CROSSROADS 2012.  Curated by SF Cinematheque Artistic Director Steve Polta, this is the festival’s third manifestation. Running May 18–20, CROSSROADS will present a total of 52 films, videos and performance works by 47 filmmakers from around the world screened over 8 feature-length programs. Highlights of this festival include a tribute to Cinematheque founder and experimental-film matriarch Chick Strand(1931–2009); an in-person presentation of the “complete works” of Basque filmmaker Laida Lertxundi (featured in this year’s Whitney Biennial); and a special program—Apparent Motion—celebrating the Art of Live Projection with three film/music collaborative teams: Gerritt Wittmer & Paul Knowles, Kerry Laitala & John Davis, and, from Norway, Greg Pope & John Hegre (Jazkamer). For programming and advance ticket information click here. 

Trash & Treasure - Thurs. May 17 - 8PM

Guest Curator Soumyaa Kapil Behrens and Oddball Films brings you a collection of films dug up from the archive about things which clog up our earth and those we seek to extract from her. It will be a night full of inciting issues and wondrous adventure.  Jacques Cousteau and his team go on the hunt for Spanish Gold in Sunken Treasure (1970) and Emmy award winning documentary filmmaker, Joan Konner asks tough questions in an excerpt of Danger: Radioactive Waste (1977).  The historical footage of Open Pit Nickel Mining (1944) shows how violent and methodical mineral recovery is and the memorable environmental animation of D*sney’s The Litterbug (1961) features D*nald D*ck as our foppish guide through how and what we waste.  Pepper the night with home movies rescued from the SF Dump and Flea Markets that illuminate the kind of gems that often get lost in our modern world and, finally, try and clear the air with The Run-Around (1970’s) through exaggeration, music and animation.  It is sure to be a night of fantastic voyages through history, memory, air, land and sea. 

Date: Thursday, May 17, 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

Sports! - Sat. May 12 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Antonella Bonfanti present Sports! Learn the text-book plays, the tricks of the trade and the showboating moves in this program filled with the campiest, most unusual and gut-splitting films about all manner of sports. See backwards cow riding and other tomfoolery with bovines in Calgary Cowboy Stampede (1951); marvel at Hockey: Symphony on Ice (1960s); and learn to save aquatic athletes' in Non- Swimming Rescues (1975). Ever wonder How Do They Make Tennis Balls? (1970), let Woody Allen tell you in this NBC educational; Paramount Pictures technicolor short Sports in Action: Winning Style (1968) showcasing the latest fashions in active wear; Sterling Films' Sports Antics (1940s) exhibits everything from ski jumping to cycling as well as a few of the more unusual sports; and United World Films' Sports Carnival at Madison Square Garden (1955) gives a glimpse into past of one of the worlds most iconic arenas. Plus! "The Grand Old Man," quarterback and placekicker legend George Blanda shows you how to succeed on the field and in life in Think Win (1970s).    

  

Date: Saturday, May 12th, 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

Colonial Follies - Thurs. May 10 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Colonial Follies. It was not so long ago when it was completely acceptable to portray indigenous cultures as primitive or barbaric. The representation of "others," fueled by colonialist and superior attitudes, made for films that showed sophisticated and ancient peoples as mere curiosities. However, there were also filmmakers intent on respectfully depicting lives and rituals of cultures and in doing so created works of cinematic interest and beauty. This program plays these two methods of representation against each other, including films from the 1930s to 1950s ranging from heavy-handed campy travelogues like: Armand Denis' technicolor classic Savage Splendor (1949) and crackpot Moody Institute of Science's Primitive Man in a Modern World (1959), to delicate ethnographic works such as Grierson's Song of Ceylon (1934) and Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead's Trance and Dance in Bali  (1939). Plus! Don't miss the extremely rare and astounding Cult of the Snake excerpt from Wheels Across India (1938).        

Date: Thursday, May 10th, 2012 at 8PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

Admission: $10 - Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8117

A Touch of Touching - Friday, May 11 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Hila Avraham present A Touch of Touching. An evening of touching, brushing, fondling, caressing, and rubbing these films shows that cinema can be as much about grazing as it is about gazing. From sensual coition, to playing in the sand, to discovering textures with your bear toes, this program’s highlights include: Scott Bartlett’s famed and highly-tactile Lovemaking (1970); Fur Coat Club (1973), a cheerful tale of two girls playing a touch-the-fur-coat game; Sandman (1970), a curiously palpable sand animation; the instructional Communicating With Deaf and Blind People (1964) that introduces five methods of communication through touch; and concludes with Discovering Textures (1979) and Toes Tell (1969) that celebrate the richness and joys of feeling multiple and infinite textures. You’re invited to be touched!

Dates: Friday, May 11th, 2012 at 8pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

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

PAST FUTURE NOW! - Thurs. May 3rd and Fri. May 4th - 8PM

Christine Lucy Latimer: The Virtues of Fusion

Oddball Films proudly presents PAST FUTURE NOW! Films from the PAST have been selected by curator/artist Ashley Lauren Saks, that are about the FUTURE, which is NOW. Beginning with these 1970s and 80s film clips selected from the Oddball Film Archive (San Francisco) selected artists created video reactions/responses to them. This delicately curated program is meant to take the viewer through a journey from the Past to the Present to the

Future and back again. 

The program includes commissioned videos by artists:

Daniela Anastassiou & Miles Martinez, Jeanne Finley, Dan Gilsdorf & Bean Gilsdorf, Sasha Krieger, Christine Lucy Latimer, Christian McKay, Ranu Mukherjee, and Doug Garth Williams.

Christian McKay: Zobeide

Featuring Film Excerpts from:

Future Shock, 1972 // A documentary film narrated by Orson Wells, based on

the Futurist book by Alvin Toffler.

Robotics: the Future is Now, 1984 // Hosted by William Shatner

Computer Dreams, 1989 *VHS // An anthology of computer graphics and

digital effects.

Visions Of The Future, 1970s // A 3 part film montage by Richard Whittaker

involving predictions for future lifestyles, juxtaposed against “evil

environmental horrors of today.”

Signal Syntax, 1983 // An amateur film short about “death by computers”

Ethics in the Computer Age 1984 // Dramatic vignettes addressing the

consequences of software piracy and hacking.

Dates: Thursday, May 3rd / Friday, May 4th, 2012 @ 8pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

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

Treasures From TV Land - Sat. May 5 - 8PM

My Favorite Martian episode presented courtesy of
Jack Chertok Television in association with Free Comic Book Day

Oddball Films presents Treasures From TV Land. Whether it was a commercial or a sitcom, commercials or a variety show, most television production prior to the late 1970s was made on 16mm. This program features rare, weird and wonderful vintage TV screened from 16mm film prints. Highlights include excerpts from The Debbie Reynolds Show featuring the multi-talented leading lady in the skit A Date With Debbie (1960); Season 3 episode 31 of My Favorite Martian titled My Nut Cup Runneth Over (1966) about a squirrel accidentally transformed into a human; Some Like It Hot (1961), the un-aired, lost TV pilot for a series based on the classic Billy Wilder film; and clips from the queen of TV comedy Lucille Ball's shows I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show. Plus! Television Land (1971) brilliantly edited visual history of the great communicator, and loads of kooky vintage TV commercials. 

Date: Saturday, May 5th, 2012 at 8PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

Admission: $10 - Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8117