Strange Sinema 53: Kinetica - Thurs. June 28 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 53: Kinetica, 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, this program’s films feature an eclectic mix of kinetic, motion-oriented innovative art and sounds from the 20^th century. Films include the mesmerizing documentary Kinetic Art in Paris (1971), a viscerally challenging, kaleidoscopic homage to light, sound and motion featuring some of the world’s foremost kinetic artists.  The Dreamer That Remains (1973), Stephen Pouliot‘s portrait of Harry Partch, one of the most eccentric and influential composers of the 20th century. Partch invented instruments (cloud chamber bowls, cong gongs, and more), experimented with drama and ritual and created a live ensemble utilizing dozens of custom-built instruments. Arabesque (1975), John Whitney’s pioneering computer-generated trance film; Who is Victor Vasarely? (1968) featuring French/Hungarian Op Art genius Victor Vasarely filmed at his home, studio space and art exhibitions; and  Discovering Electronic Music (1983) an introduction to the synthesizers and computers used to create electronic music, including the legendary Fairlight CMI, one of the first sampling synthesizers used in music production. Segments from Faces of Chinatown (1963) depicting the underbelly of San Francisco’s Chinatown, from its beginning to the early 1900’s with music performed by Harry Partch; Catalog (1961) Cinema innovator John Whitney’s kaleidoscopic demo reel made with equipment salvaged from WWII; and a trailer for Raga, the rare doc of famed Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar.

Date: Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 8:00PM.

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

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

Portrait of a Lady: The Fashionable Struggle - Fri. June 29 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Christine Kwon present Portrait of a Lady: The Fashionable Struggle. Gender studies students put your black-rimmed glasses on for a night that explores the glory and plight of that most mysterious of human subjects: a woman. The collection kicks off with Woman Speaks (1940s), a rare and fascinating series profiling pioneering ladies of the 1940s. In The Fur Coat Club (1973), two young rascals sneak into an upscale fur shop, where they confront frightening illusions and thwart real-life thieves. And none is more iconic of a young girl’s imagination then Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1981), a pedantic yet uncanny animated retelling of the children’s classic. The centerpiece of the night features a segment of Carl Dreyer’s acclaimed masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), and rounds out with Union Maids (1976), an inspiring and insightful exploration of the labor movement in the 1930s, told through the eyes of three women who bravely fought for equal rights during this period. Refined, ravishing, and rife with complexity, the ladies in this collection serve to dispel the myth of the magical woman and present something much more real — women who play, fight, and work, and look damn good doing it.   

Date: Friday, June 29th, 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

Come Fly With Me! Fri. June 22 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Come Fly With Me! - an evening of vintage travel films.  Let us whisk you away to exotic faraway places, to lands forgotten by time on modern, glamorous and sexy airplanes. Early travelogues in shimmering black and white, 1950s travel films in stunning Kodachrome color, and swinging sixties go-go holidays! Highlights include Pan Am’s World (1966); a trip to pre-revolution Cuba in Rhumba Holiday (1947); and bandleader Harry Owens stars in Polynesian Holiday (1955), a rare tongue-in-cheek island vacation short featuring the Oscar winning song “Sweet Leilani.” Pre-Laugh In Arte Johnson guides a jet-setting tour of 12 swinging locations in Delta Airlines promotional film Tempo Twelve (1964); take comic tour by Brooklynite Arthur Cohen in Brooklyn Goes To Paris (1956); and much more! 

Date: Friday, June 22nd, 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

Guy Trouble - Thurs. June 21 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Kat Shuchter bring you Guy Trouble, a program of vintage films designed to shed light on the tough lot of that underprivileged minority, Men. Some troubles start at birth, like Craig in He’s Mentally Retarded (1975).  Whereas from mere boys, guys are bombarded by threats of predators as seen in Boys Beware (1973) where we are taught that the homosexuality is a "sickness of the mind." They are subject to the horrible onslaught of puberty and all the awkward terror it encompasses, as actor Ken Howard and three young men he picked up for a camping trip, learn in Facts for Boys (1981). In High School the downtrodden gender must also face the pressures of measuring up and the belligerent side effects, as we discover in Benny and the 'Roids (1988). As men grow up, they are still not immune from everyday pressures or from threats of syphilis as the army teaches us in Sex Hygiene (1941), or from the often deadly after-effects of fun, like The Hangover (1978).  With plenty of man-centric commercials and trailers, this is one testosterone filled night to start Pride weekend off balls deep!

Date: Thursday, June 21 at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco 94110

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

Unstoppable - Fri. June 15 - 8PM

Oddball Films, with guest curator Lynn Cursaro, presents Unstoppable: The Many Moods of Momentum, an exploration of the forces of physics and emotion. Classic cartoons, crash test footage, experimental cinema and a school film or two depict all sorts of ceaseless activity. Hoffnung’s Palm Court Orchestra (1965) play on in the face of disaster. Is the stuff of life piling up or collapsing in Arthur Lipsett’s dream-like, experimental Free Fall (1964)? A staggering array of colorful playthings spin in Charles and Ray Eames’s Tops (1969). In Mouse Activated Candle Lighter (1967), a simple Rube Goldberg contraption is painstakingly explained. When a silent era wonder dog gets in on the chase in Teddy at the Throttle (1917), he’s a true star and action hero. Rendezvous (1977) puts you in the driver’s seat for a wild ride through Paris. Wile E. Coyote just won’t quit, as we will see yet again in Beep, Beep (1952) and Whoa, Be-Gone! (1959) And MORE! From the Kurator’s Kitchen: complimentary home-baked treats for all attendees!

Date: Friday, June 15th, 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

Crazy Cats! - The Cat Came Back - Thurs. June 14 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Crazy Cats! - The Cat Came Back. This evening of crazy cats includes shorts films starring cats, about cats, and people dressed as cats!  Highlights include: The Incredible Cat Tale (ca. 1960), a live action cat adventure from Hungary; The Perils of Priscilla (1969), a neglected pussy sets out on her own and hits the big city; Of Cats and Men (1968), an animated history of Felis Cattus Domesticus; the sinister side of felines in Superstition of the Black Cat (1934); The Cat’s Meow (1976), hilarious educational short was the surprise hit of our previous program; plus Busby Berkeley, Felix The Kat, The Fabulous Cat Girl burlesque and much more!

Date: Thursday, June 14 at 8:00PM 

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco 94110

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

Bad Behavior - Thurs. June 7 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Bad Behavior, a program exploring teen traumas, cultural conflict and youthful rebellion. Whether in a French Boarding school in 1933 or on the streets of the San Francisco’s Mission district in 1971 disaffected youth have many ways to express their frustration. The program features the legendary Jean Vigo film Zero for Conduct (1933). One of the most poetic films ever made and one of the most influential, Vigo based his first fictional film on his own miserable experiences in a French boarding school, and the result is one of the greatest films about youth ever made.  Its influence is felt in other filmic tales of disaffected youth, from Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959) to Alan Parker’s Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982), and Lindsay Anderson’s If… (1968). Also screening will be the noirish story of a tough teenage boy Boy With a Knife (1956) starring B-movie legend Richard Widmark and Chuck Connors and The Bully (1951), a classic mental hygiene film featuring Chick Allen-school bully! Plus! Clips from the rare, shot-in San Francisco film Latino: A Cultural Conflict (1971) charting the path of a Salvadorian delinquent in SF’s Mission district. With priceless shots of the Mission.

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

Date: Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 8:00PM

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

Lost Animation - Fri. June 8 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents an evening of Lost Animation -rarely screened classics and obscurities of world animation. Most are quite scarce despite scads of accolades and international awards.  Films include: Claymation (1978), legendary clay animator Will (California Raisins) Vinton in the studio; The Romance of Transportation, whimsical Canadian animation from 1952 with a dynamic jazz soundtrack; Harold and Cynthia (1971); consumerist culture skewered; The Mole and The Rocket (1965), beautiful Czech cartoon for kids (and mid-century style-loving adults); Queer Birds (1967), bizarre and innovative metaphoric Czech animation; Closed Mondays (1974), brilliant claymation from Will Vinton; Boom (1974), more cold war jitters from Polish animator Bretislav Pojar; The Sword (1967), surprise hit from the Lost Animation Fest; Clay, or Origin of The Species (1965), the Oscar-winning claymation by Eliot Noyes, Jr.; PLUS! He Was Her Man, the banned 1937 Looney Tunes cartoon based on the old murder ballad “Frankie & Johnny”.

Date: Friday, June 8 .2012 at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco 94110

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

!!Blind Reason!! A Night of Mad and Bad Scientists- Fri. June 1st - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Emily Schleiner present !!Blind Reason!! A Night of Mad and Bad Scientists!  The program is packed with films about time-travel, hideous experiments, and ultimately, the fine line between intelligence and folly in the lab.  Featuring excerpts from La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962), the renowned precursor to 12 Monkeys; The Invisible Woman (A. Edward Sutherland, 1940), a time-capsule of a film about a fashion model who uses a mad scientist’s experiment toward her own ends; and Dr. Cyclops (Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1940) a science fiction & horror gem wherein Dr. Cyclops shrinks his collaborators at the same rate as his sanity diminishes.   Watch a series of monster movie trailers, including The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962) and The Time Travelers (1964).  Catch a glimpse of outrageous scientists attempting to roust a sloth in the truly rare Moody Institute of Science 1950’s documentary Slow as a Sloth. Slap your knee while watching Mr. Pasteur and the Riddle of Life (1972), a delightfully animated documentary that demonstrates how it is possible to reach false conclusions in science experiments! Be amazed by the diabolical laughter and well-lit gadgets!   Plus!!! Watch an ambitious scientist get thwarted while carrying out experiments on the Three Stooges in A Bird in the Head (Edward Bernds, 1946).  Whether you want to see comically bird-brained shenanigans, or mysterious time-traveling visitors, there is something here for everyone!

And remember, don't do anything that affects anything, 

unless it turns out you were supposed to, 

in which case, for the love of God, don't not do it! 

-- Professor Farnsworth, Futurama

Date: Friday, June 1st, 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