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
Highlights:
Sunken Treasure (1970, color)
Jacques Cousteau, among
a plethora of accomplishments, including the Aqua Lung, the Oscar and Cannes
winning film with Louis Malle, “The Silent World, also fostered a visionary
style of earthly and art-y excavation and an undeniable sense of
discovery. This short, part of his
series, “The Undersea World” features a journey for gold in Caribbean of the
centuries long shipwrecked Spanish boat, La Nuestra Senora de la Concepion.
SF Dump Movies (19-, b/w + color)
This collection of home
movies rescued from the San Francisco Dump and acquired at flea markets shows
our city through the gorgeous amateur lens. It includes scenes of life as a glamorous Sunday excursion
and takes us on a joyous promenade down memory road. This is trash
as treasure, a true example of the unique preservation at Oddball Film
collection.
Danger: Radioactive
Waste (1977, color)
Emmy Award winning documentary director, journalism
professor and author of The Atheist’s Bible, Joan Konner, is the responsible party in this
investigative program on what we do with our nuclear waste and whether that is
good enough. This expert, part two
of the program, asks uncomfortable questions of Hanford Nuclear lab and blends
facts and experience into a terrifying look at what we are faced with as
nuclear proliferators.
The Litterbug (1961, color)
This short is a
retro-riffic reminder how not to be a pig as we navigate the trappings of our
modern world. Go along with D*nald
D*ck on this Wa*t D*sney adventure of the campy underworld of a litterbug. This classic environmental short uses
charming and rhyming patterns to “uncover” the darker side of the ignorant
citizen.
Open Pit Nickel
Mining (1944, b/w)
This film includes
interesting and rare footage of the extraction of a mineral very important to
industry and engineering and the men who do it. Nickel is that element that keeps all our stuff from
corroding. Find it in your
silverware, jewelry, kitchen, cars and more. This piece is an eye-opening process to see the meticulous
and dangerous work it takes to get our hands on this treasure of the
earth.
The Run-Around (1969, color)
Tom Lehrer lends his
voice to this set of two shorts around waste and air pollution. Musical, with a smog-accentuated and
industrial sound design, try and find answers to this leading world
problem.
Curator Biography
Soumyaa Kapil Behrens
is a filmmaker and scholar based in San Francisco. She is an Artist-in-Residence at the Kezar Gardens Ecology
Center where she maintains a blog and directs a documentary film on their
struggle against eviction from their 33 year old space in Golden Gate
Park. She also teaches film at SF
Film Society, SFSU and other local venues. Read her blog at www.kezargardens.com