Sex, Drugs and Di$ney - Educational Shorts from the Magic Kingdom - Thur. Jan 2nd - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you Sex, Drugs and Di$ney - Educational Shorts from the Magic Kingdom.  While obviously more well known for their animated features, Di$ney (as Walt Di$ney Educational Media) has been making educational primers since the 1940s with audacious subject matter like menstruation, venereal diseases, child-molestation, drug abuse and more.  This program features high/lowlights of Di$ney's educational side with shocking shorts, some animated, some live-action and all Di$ney.  Always the trailblazers, the dreamily animated The Story of Menstruation (1945) is reported to be the first film to use the word "vagina" in its screenplay.  In VD Attack Plan (1973), a cartoon syphilitic sergeant directs his VD troops into battle against ignorant humans.  Benny's a teen that's got it all, but he might lose it if he trades his friends for steroids in Benny and the 'Roids (1988).  Learn all about growing up, from an animated embryonic cycle to adolescent pimples in the zippy musical short Steps Towards Maturity and Growth (1969).  Not ones to shy away from heartbreaking reenactments, Smokeless Tobacco: The Sean Marsee Story (1986) cashes in on the triumph and tragedy of a teenage hero turned cancer statistic.  No subject was too taboo, even child-molestation, like the creepy dramatization Now I Can Tell You My Secret (1984).  And for a little fun on the road, Goofy's behind the wheel and causing all sorts of mayhem in Freeway Phobia (1964).  And Donald learns how he can help out in the war effort in The Spirit of '43 (1943), a bit of good old fashioned propaganda.With even more surprises in store, you'll never think of Di$ney the same way again!

Date: Thursday, January 2nd, 2014 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

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

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

World Premiere of Mall Madness - Fri. Dec. 27 - 8PM

Oddball Films is excited to premiere Mall Madness, a feature-length video mash-up of over 100 movie mall scenes.  Just when you thought you wouldn't have to see the inside of a mall for months, Company Incorporated brings you an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride full of sex, romance, escalators, shoot-outs, car chases, killer robots, zombies, explosions and (of course) shopping all set in a celluloid mall!  Featuring an All-Star cast, including 4 different Arnold Schwarzeneggers and Nicolas Cages, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lopez, 2 Lindsay Lohans, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, Jackie Chan, Hulk Hogan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Michael Cera, 3 Kelli Maroneys, 2 Kristy Swansons and too many more to mention!  The film begins innocently enough; just kids hanging out and having a great time, but after some shopping, dancing and stopping in at the food court to gab about their love lives, the tone begins to change...for the worse.  Suddenly, every woman in the mall is being watched and followed. Then, watch out as a flurry of cars crash through the mall with The Blues Brothers and Jason Statham at the steering wheel.  But that's nothing in comparison to the shoot out of all shoot outs, with bullets flying from everywhere, leading up to a Hellevator sequence to make you lose your head before a gloriously bloody orgy of killings, all culminating in over one dozen mall explosions!  Leave the kids at home and hold onto your seats, because a trip to the mall has never been more exciting than this!  

Date:Friday, December 27th, 2013 at 8:00pm 

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Classic Cartoon Cavalcade - Thurs. Dec. 26 - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you Classic Cartoon Cavalcade, an evening of some of our very favorite classic cartoons hand-picked from the San Francisco Media Archive's massive collection.  From the kooky to the spooky, silly to the sexy with a little Lo*ney Tunes, Merrie Melodies, UPA, Tex Avery, Fleischer Brothers, Walt Di$ney and imitators, just to name a few.  Beginning where sound cartoons began, Walt Di$ney and Ub Iwerks' Steambo@t Willie (1928) not only introduced synchronized sound to the world of cartoons, but introduced the world to Mi©key Mouse. After the wild success of Steambo@t Willie, the animation world was abuzz with Mickey imitations, like the train conducting fox of Rudolph Ising's eternally peppy Smile, Darn Ya Smile (1931) and Tex Avery's "Beans" in the solid gold short Gold Diggers of '49 (1935).  Toontown's original leading lady, Betty Boop loses her top for Bimbo, the junkman, in the Fleischer Brother's Any Rags (1932).  Comic book sweetheart Little Lulu gets a nasty blow to the head that causes celebrity-filled hallucinations in The Babysitter (1947).  Mr. Magoo befriends a tennis-playing walrus in UPA and John Hubley's hilarious Fuddy Duddy Buddy (1941).  Bugs resorts to word games and cross-dressing when he has to contend with Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck in Chuck Jones' Rabbit Seasoning (1952).  Pepe Le Pew's will make you swoon in another Chuck Jones masterpiece and the Academy Award-winning For Scent-imental Reasons (1949).  Then it's a double shot of Friz Freleng, with his Depression-era He Was Her Man (1937) and the progressively eco and gay friendly Goofy Gophers in (the uncensored) Lumber Jerks (1955).   Plus, the goofy entomological oddity Bug Parade (1941), a wacky lesson in the similarities between animals and humans in Unnatural History (1957), and the mind-blowing Di$ney treatise on music for the first-half of the 20th century A Symposium on Popular Songs (1962) for the early birds, and even more surprises!


Date:Thursday, December 26th, 2013 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Learn Your Lesson...About Drinking - An Intoxicating Shockucation - Fri. Dec. 20th - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Learn Your Lesson...About Drinking - An Intoxicating Shockucation, the tenth in a series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic shockucational films and TV specials of the collection. This month we're tackling alcohol with drunk dogs, drunk moms, drunk husbands and more!  The kids at Jackson Junior High are already experts on alcohol, but can they cure the St. Bernard Patches from his hangover? Find out in the utterly ridiculous Route One (1976).  Tony's another junior high student and already a raging alchoholic in the very special classroom film The Glug (1981).  Bill's got a nagging wife, a terrible commute, a high-pressure job and worst of all, a nasty Hangover (1978).  Schlockmeister Sid Davis shows us the overly-bloody conclusion to drinking and driving in the scare-classic Alcohol and Red Flares (1970s). Be on the jury for one Mr. "Al K. Hall" while he defends himself against a barrage of witnesses whose lives he affected in the ridiculous cartoon The Day They Tried Alcohol. With a drunk-tank full of Beer Commercials and loaded excerpts, like the ABC Afterschool Special Francesca, Baby (1976), Robert Mitchum narrating America on the Rocks (1973), drunk-driving massacre Just Another Friday Night (1980s) and so much more, it's time you learned your lesson!  And as an added bonus, the World's smallest cinema I Vitelloni: Cinema Piccolo will be visiting before and after the show for private 1-2 person screenings of short films.

Date:Friday, December 20th, 2013 at 8:00pm 
(7PM-8PM for I Vitelloni:Cinema Piccolo)

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

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

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com/2013/12/learn-your-lessonabout-drinking.html

A Visit From I Vitelloni: Cinema Piccolo - Fri. Dec. 20 - 7PM

Oddball Films is excited to invite you to the World's smallest cinema:  I Vitelloni: Cinema Piccolo.  Visiting Dutch cinephile Maarten van der Weijden has shipped over his car-sized microcinema and will be sharing it with Oddball audiences before and after the show on Friday night. This little mobile vehicle has been transformed into a small private cinema for one or two persons to screen short films for film and music festivals and cultural events in the Netherlands.  The cinema is currently on its pint-sized West Coast tour, on its way to Hollywood.  Don't miss the chance to sit in your own private movie theater!

Date: Friday, December 20th, 2013 from 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

Web:  http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

www.cinemapiccolo.nl
www.facebook.com/cinemapiccolo.nl

A Salute to Cute: When Bunnies Go Wild! - Thurs. Dec. 19 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Lynn Cursaro present A Salute to Cute: When Bunnies Go Wild! a precious night of vintage 16mm films featuring the cutest of the cute. From live-action bunnies to stop-motion mice, we are breaking open the vault on adorable to celebrate all things cute and fuzzy.  A burrowing critter reaches for the sky in the shimmering The Mole and the Green Star (1970) from beloved Czech animator Zdenek Miler. Adventures of Bunny Rabbit (1974) is a live-action orgy of twitching noses. Tiny puppet ants warn of the dangers of Poison in the Home (1970s). Courtly singing mice make sweet treats from The Rolling Rice Ball (1965), based on a Japanese folktale. Depression-era sweetheart Shirley Temple takes a saucy turn as a half-pint harlot in Polly Tix in Washington (1933). A squeaky message of puppet tolerance is the pay off in New Zebra in Town (1970). Tweety, Warner Brothers' standard-bearer of ‘dorable, hides out in Room and Bird (1951). A girl daydreams a playdate with a carousel lion in the dollhouse world of Imagination Film (1977) from the USSR. Plus!  More adorable surprises and complimentary homemade sweet treats for all, including fluffy pink marshmallows and traditional gingerbread lions from the kurator’s kitchen.

Date: Thursday, December 19th, 2013 at 8PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

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

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-salute-to-cute-when-bunnies-go-wild.html

Strange Sinema 71: (Mostly) Strange Silents - Fri. Dec 13 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema, a monthly screening of new finds, old gems and offbeat oddities from Oddball Films’ collection of over 50,000 film prints. This installment of Strange Sinema 71: (Mostly) Strange Silents is a mesmerizing mélange of silent cinema strangeness featuring the earliest stag film ever made On the Beach aka Getting His Goat (1923); Polish director Ladislas Starévich’s Revenge of the Cameraman (1912), a brilliant stop motion animated film with a cast of insects; Laurel and Hardy’s side-splitting Big Business (1929) featuring the twosome traveling door to door selling Christmas trees and wreaking havoc; The Mouse Activated Candle Lighter (1974) showcasing a very quirky Rube Goldberg device; Laughing Gas (1914) starring Charlie Chaplin as a “accidental” dentist pumping patients full of laughing gas, knocking them out with clubs, and pulling the wrong tooth out of an unfortunate patient, Free Fall (1964), Arthur Lipsett’s brilliant, pixillating percussive montage; Dream Flowers (1930s) takes a historical look at opium poppy cultivation; Haunted Spooks (1920) starring the silent great Harold Lloyd as a brokenhearted gent seeking to commit suicide until he stumbles upon an equally desperate woman; Sun Healing: The Ultra Violet Way With Life Lite (1940s), promotes a quack medical device as a cure for skin disease; Meshes in the Afternoon (1943), one of the most important experimental films of the 20th century and Maya Deren's classic feminist exploration into the interior images of a woman whose daydreams restore mystery and danger to the ordinary objects of her everyday life; Camera Magic (1943), brings us the legendary Arthur Felig’s (Wegee) sensational camera tricks; and What is the World Coming To? (1926) predicting life in the future as we watch gender-bending screwballs get married. Plus! Felix the Cat in Russia (1924) and Excerpts from Baron Munchausen’s Hallucinations (1911) featuring Georges Méliès surreal cinematography!

Date: Friday, December 13th, 2013 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

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

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com/2013/12/strange-sinema-70-mostly-strange.html

An Elemental Evening of Psycho-Geography with Kerry Laitala - Thur. Dec 12 - 8PM

Oddball Films welcomes filmmaker Kerry Laitala for An Elemental Evening of Psycho-Geography.  Animator, photographer, moving image artist and teacher Kerry Laitala has been a local San Francisco filmmaker for 19 years, but her roots are in New England. She recently spent a summer revisiting the region, especially investigating the Franconia Notch area of New Hampshire, where tourists once flocked to view a naturally-occurring stone formation known as the Old Man Of The Mountain, until it toppled ten years ago. Ms. Laitala is now in the process of making an artwork inspired by the "Old Man" and its missing mark on the landscape. She will give us a first look at some of the audiovisual materials she has collected on the subject. She'll also show films from her personal collection of 16mm prints, including the 1924 Epic Of Everest, a documentary record of a failed attempt to climb to the world's highest mountain summit, and Cine Wanderings In The White Mountains, a unique peer into the region of New Hampshire's "Old Man" in his heyday of the 1930s. These two works will be accompanied by live original music by Brian Darr. Laitala also will screen another wintry landscape work shot in the ghost town of Bodie, California, as well as her meditation on mortality Secure The Shadow, 'Ere The Substance Fade (1997).

 

Date:Thursday, December 12th, 2013 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

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

Web:http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com/2013/12/an-elemental-evening-of-psycho.html

Product Pandering - The Wild World of Vintage Promotional Films - Fri. Dec. 6th - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Product Pandering - The Wild World of Vintage Promotional Films with the most jaw-dropping, visionary and camptastic promotional films of the archive. From clothes to cars, technology to tunes, these stunning time capsules of antique innovations will make you marvel, laugh and covet the beautiful goods of yesteryear.  Rolex brings us a dazzling Technicolor chronology of man's progress to tell time, using stunning microphotography and stop-motion animation in The Story of Time (1951).  Turn your kitchen into a swingin' go-go party with Westinghouse's refrigerator covers in Oddball favorite Match Your Mood (1968).  Road trip across the country with three stylish gals, who got all their twin sets, gowns, and bathing suits at Penney's, in the Monsanto (!) sponsored The Scenemakers (c. 1960).  Step right along with Sunsteps (late 1940s), a vintage shoe-enthusiast's Kodachrome dream from the BF Goodrich company.  And while we're in Kodachrome dream land, RCA brings us an inside look into their electron tube factory and the process of pressing vinyl in an eye-popping excerpt from our exquisite print of The Challenge of Tomorrow (1964). Learn to heal what ails you (and your begoggled baby) with a hand-held wonder lamp in Sun-Healing: The Ultraviolet Way (1930s). Princess Cruises wants you to know how a cruise can make All The Difference in the World (1970's) and the grandiose narrator is willing to pound it into your head with the help of a staff and clientele in the shortest of short-shorts.  Motown is in the business of selling stars, and they want you to keep on truckin' with former Temptations singer Eddie Kendricks (1973).  Jam-Handy gives us a loving tribute to the transmission on a 1951 Chevy, with the stunning The Velvet Glove.  Plus, more surprises for the early birds! Everything will be screened on 16mm and in most cases from uncirculated and therefore pristine prints.

Date:Friday, December 6th, 2013 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

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

Web:http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com/2013/12/product-pandering-wild-world-of-vintage.html

The Ecstasy of Art - Thur. Dec. 5th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents The Ecstasy of Art, a visually striking and tantalizing program of vintage 16mm films that display the exquisite ability of film to capture and immortalize not only artwork, but the conception, creation and even reception of it as well.  Yves Klein utilizes the nude bodies of women as his Human Paintbrushes in this provocative excerpt from Mondo Cane (1962).  Delve into the world of multi-media master Robert Rauschenberg in the fascinating portrait USA Artists: Robert Rauschenberg (1966).  Ken Rudolph takes us through the history of Art in 8 pulsing minutes in Gallery (1969). Bruce Beresford's Lichtenstein in London (1968) is a tour de force on site doc of the American pop artist’s famous Tate Modern show featuring commentary by Lichtenstein, gallery views and shots of some of his most well known paintings and sculptures. Martha Graham's visionary choreography and Isamu Noguchi's sets play off one another in an excerpt from the powerful Seraphic Dialogue (1970).  Don't understand modern art?  Neither does the old curmudgeon in Will "California Raisins" Vinton's Academy Award winning claymation short Closed Mondays (1974).  Plus, an excerpt from Woo Who? May Wilson (1970), a genuine and ballsy portrait of a grandmother turned cheeky New York Art Star and more surprises from the archive.

Date:Thursday, December 5th, 2013 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

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

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-ecstasy-of-art-thur-dec-5th-8pm.html

You Are a Rainbow: The Quest for Consciousness - Thurs. Nov. 21 - 8PM

In the ongoing and infinite search for higher consciousness, Oddball Films and guest curator Scotty Slade invite you to the Bay Area Premiere of: You Are a Rainbow: The Quest for Consciousness. Completed in 1980, this nearly lost in the aether documentary examines the “schools” and individuals involved in and related to the Human Potential Movement. Within this film, we are exposed to a seismic unearthing of behind the scenes footage of healing workshops - the young and loving embracing in cosmic dances at the renown Esalen Institute in Big Sur, at SF Playground where everyone gets to be a star, at Leonard Orr’s rebirth ceremonies, in which enlightenment seeking people are lead through a process of cathartic rebirth. We are exposed to the bone-structure teachings of Moshé Feldenkrais, the philosophies of Esalen founder Michael Murphy, William Shutz, and philosopher George Leonard. We speak with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh about the meaning of life, and we consider far out ideas because we’re Californians and that’s what we do! Shot between 1975 and 1980 in California, from Big Sur to San Francisco, this film has never been shown in the Bay Area until now! Gather round and form your own opinions as to the validity and sincerity of the people in this film. No matter what your final thoughts are, there’s knowledge, beauty, and insight to be drawn from this prodigiously rare film. Plus, The evening will begin with several mind opening 16mm shorts from the Oddball Archive.

Date: Thursday, November 21, 2013 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com/2013/11/you-are-rainbow-quest-for-consciousness.html

Strange Sinema 70: Incredibly Strange Robots - Fri. Nov. 22 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents an evening of retro robots and futuristic freaks in Strange Sinema 70: Incredibly Strange Robots. Strange Sinema is Oddball Films' monthly screening of oddities, recent discoveries and unusual rarities culled from their 50,000 16mm film archives. This eye-popping program of futuristic delights premiered to a packed house at the 3rd Annual Robot Film Festival in July at the Bot and Dolly Studios in San Francisco.  Incredibly Strange Robots is both a tribute to robots, robotics and mechanized machines and features eclectic and oddball shorts, excerpts from feature docs, motion picture production shorts, cartoons and a Polish avant garde film. Films featured include an excerpt from Elektro The Smoking Robot (1939) featuring the legendary walking, talking and smoking(!) robot from the 1939 New York World's Fair; No. 00173 (1966), Jan Habarta's chilling look inside a futuristic factory with brilliant industrial music soundscore by Eugeniusz Rudnik;  The Weird World of Robots (1968) with famed sci fi writer and futurist Isaac Asimov and Walter Cronkite examining the strange and surreal world of robots in the 1960s. This film feaures  Asimov advocating worker robots to replace blue collar workers, robotic dogs, human amplifiers and more. Other films include an excerpt of Ray Bradbury's Electric Grandmother (1981) starring Maureen Stapleton as a robotic grandmother who replaces the real thing. A Westworld Production Short (1973) gives us a behind-the-scenes look at Michael Crichton’s classic cyber “Westworld”, where a vacation fantasy world for rich vacationers goes horribly wrong.  Daffy Duck stars as a futuristic appliance salesman with screwball devices and robot machines which go haywire in Design For Leaving (1953), The Robotic Revolution (1986) demonstrates how robots can assemble watches and automobiles, stock supermarket shelves, assist in surgery, play the organ, and build other robots. In Mr. Koumal Invents a Robot (1968), Mr. Koumal has a hard time polishing his shoes, so invents a machine to do it in this snappy Czech animated short. We conclude with  Ballet Robotique,(1982) A beautifully shot footage of GM assembly line showcases robots in action, synchronized to classical music performed by London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Ballet Robotique was nominated for two Academy Awards. Plus! Robot karate, droid commercials, clips from visionary NYC robot maker Michael Sullivan's Sex Life of Robots featuring music by the Alloy Orchestra, and much more!

Date:Friday, November 22nd, 2013 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

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

Web:http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com/2013/11/strange-sinema-70-incredibly-strange.html