Homoneurotica: Sublimating Sexuality - Thur. Sep. 26 - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Homoneurotica: Sublimating Sexuality, a program of films that explores veiled and closeted homosexuality and the homophobia of yesteryear with 6 decades worth of vintage navy training films, mental hygiene primers, incendiary cartoons, homo-erotica, experimental works and more. Films include Scorpio Rising (1964), Kenneth Anger's experimental masterpiece of homoeroticism, bikers and rock n' roll; a wonderful U.S. Navy training film, Swim and Live! (1943), starring many shirtless men, helping other shirtless men who will swim their way to winning the war; Thank You Mask Man (1971), a vivid send up on race, class and sexuality in this legendary animated short by the infamous comedian and satirist Lenny Bruce; Boys Aware (1973), a classic Sid Davis shock film that will alert you to the menace of neighborhood homosexual predators; Lumber Jerks (1955) with charmingly effete life partners "The Goofy Gophers" decorating their tree stump; The Closet (1985) Joe Tiffenbach's homoerotic dripping body-builder massage and excerpts from breathtaking silent Lot in Sodom (1933, courtesy of the Jenni Olson Queer Archive), Mary goes through a lesbian "phase" in Social Sex Attitudes in Adolescence (1953) and Rock Hudson Home Movies (1993). Plus! The most obvious gay man that no one knew was gay, an early performance of Liberace with two luscious ladies flanking his piano.

Date: Thursday, September 26th, 2013 at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

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

Money Manners and Capital Games: Asset-Kicking Edutainment - Fri. Sep. 27 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Lynn Cursaro present  Money Manners and Capital Games: Asset-kicking Edu-tainment. Money, moolah, cabbage, readies, dough. It wouldn’t have so many names if it wasn’t so important! From the most basic history and functions of money in grade-school gem Money, Money, Money (1972) to a savvy car dealer’s wild sales methods in Charles Braverman’s brilliant Trader Vic’s Used Cars (1975), money is one subject that can always generate interest. Painless penny-watching is the aim of both the anarchic consumer education work of Marshall Efron Brand Names and Labeling Games, (1973) and Magical Disappearing Money (1972). Vegas yields hilarity, riches and ladies in Brooklyn Goes to Las Vegas (1953). The fine print of monthly bills gets a surprisingly entertaining treatment in Credit Card Bouquet (1973). The emotion spending vs. saving issues kids face in Learning to Use Money (1973) are the kind that last a lifetime. Dark impulses are afoot in puppetland when the Great Piggy Bank Raid (1974) goes down. Porky Pig learns that 10 cents a night is no bargain when the innkeeper is Daffy Duck in Dime to Retire (1955).  Plus! Ginger Rogers sings "We're in the Money" from an excerpt of Gold Diggers of 1933 and some sound advice about investment and horses from Oscar-winning director Mike Nichols in a snippet of Nichols and Dimes (1982), directed by Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, the editors/co-directors of Grey Gardens. But the entertainment value doesn’t stop there: Not only will there be super-rich home-baked goodies from the kurator’s kitchen, but all films will be presented in 16mm.

Driven to Sell

Date: Friday, September 27th, 2013 at 8:00PM.

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

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

Animation Infatuation - Fri. Sep. 20 - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Animation Infatuation, an evening of rare and incredible international animation from the 1950s-1970s. From quirky to dark, cell-animation to silhouette artistry, it is sure to be a gorgeous night. The inspiring DIY film Frame by Frame (1973) will open your mind to the endless possibilities of experimental animation that lay at your fingertips. The Thieving Magpie (1967), an Italian animation by Emmanuel Luzzati, set to Rossini’s famous overture, shows what happens when birds revolt against their hunters. The little mole gets into an adorably sticky situation in the Czech favorite The Mole and the Chewing Gum (1974).  And the band played on, and on, and on, in the face of calamity and random acts of nature in Hoffnung's Palm Court Orchestra (1965). Peter Foldes' early computer animation Hunger (1973) is a nightmarish metamorphic stunner that won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes.  And speaking of award-winners, we have the jazzy, mid-century marvel and Oscar winner Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom (1953) from the great Ward Kimball.  One Trendsetter (1969) gets fed up with his hordes of copycats, so he devises a dark plan to get rid of them once and for all. Lotte Reiniger's incredible silhouette puppetry The Magic Horse (1952) will blow you away with it's elegant beauty.  Plus! Animated Commercial Breaks (1950s) and even more surprises, it's going to be a great night to get animated!

Date: Friday, September 20th, 2013 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 68: Whacked! - Thur. Sep. 19 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 68: Whacked!, Oddities From the Archives, an evening of offbeat discoveries and choice rarities from the stacks of Oddball Films’ 50,000 reel film archive. This installment, Strange Sinema:Whacked! is an eye-popping program of perverse pleasures featuring films too weird or way-out for their genres. With a drunk cat, a stoned dog, a claymation rock opera, talking chimps and other far-out oddities, this is one night too bizarre to miss. The cine-madness includes The Cat Who Drank and Used Too Much (1987), an Oddball favorite and wacky film from the anti-drug genre of mental hygiene films about an alcohol and drug-using cat named Pat; Help, My Snowman’s Burning Down (1964), Carson Davidson’s award-winning beatnik rhapsody; Caninabis-The Junky Dog (1979), about a pot smoking(!) undercover police dog;  Ego (1970), a mesmerizing animated short of eroticism and desire by Italy’s Bruno Bozzetto with soundscore by ultra-lounge master Franco Godi; The Groping Hand (1968), hunky homo erotica and down and dirty soul music meet in this 1960’s North Beach soft-core curio; The Munchers (1973), chocolate bar orgies and sugar pushers make this Jesus Christ Superstar styled claymation a mind-blowing dental hygiene spectacular; Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp (1971), Get Smart meets James Bond as A.P.E. (Agency to Prevent Evil) monkey detective Lance Link battles a C.H.U.M.P. (Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan) dentist who secretly implants radio transmitters into teeth; Perc! Pop! Sprinkle! with tiny tots instructed to act like percolators and toasters in the most bizarre exercise film ever; and The Wizard of Speed and Time (1979), a supersonic dash across the country at hyper-speed.  Sinema just doesn’t get stranger than this!

Date: Thursday, September 19th, 2013 at 8:00PM

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco

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

Ladyfest Bay Area presents Settle Down and Image This - Thur. Sep. 12 - 8PM

Oddball Films and Ladyfest Bay Area present Settle Down and Image This, a program curated by Christine Kwon. What is the code of conduct for women at home and abroad? And how are these rules of behavior imagined on film? Settle Down and Image This is a tongue-in-cheek program that seeks to shift viewers uncomfortably in their seats. Ambiguous, funny and at times precariously satirical, the program prods at the contradictions and complications of how we understand a woman's place and space. What values are assigned as strength, what do we consider antiquated behavior, and how does class, ethnicity, and tradition play into our celebrations and condemnations? The program pairs contemporary music with Oddball's rare and eclectic 16mm film collection. Featuring Commercials from the 60s and 70s so bizarre you won't believe they're real; Lipstick and Dynamite, footage from a 1949 women's wrestling match; Noisy Nancy Norris(1967), a spirited story-book reading by a young Shirley MacLaine; and segments from Black Panther Liberation School (1969), showcasing protests following the killing of Bobby Hutton and young children as students of the social movement; along with Vintage Home Movies (1950s-60s), Educational Primers and the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth (1950).

Date: Thursday, September 12^th, 2013 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


Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Learn Your Lesson...About Smoking: Puff Puff Pass the Shockucation - Fri. Sep. 13 - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Learn Your Lesson...About Smoking: Puff Puff Pass the Shockucation, the seventh in a series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic shockucational films and TV specials of the collection.  This month, we are taking on smoking, from tobacco, to marijuana, to banana skins with a triple helping of preachy cartoons!  Master of the educational shock film, Sid Davis brings us the hilarious tale of a young "weedhead" in Keep Off the Grass (1970).  Behold the wild go-go frenzy of the psychedelically animated The Drag (1965).  This dog's bark is worse than his bite, especially after all the joints he's been smoking with the cops in the freshly unearthed Canadian cartoon Caninabis: The Junky Dog (1979).  Sonny Bono - in a pair of gold lamé pajamas and sporting droopy, blood-shot eyes -  tells us about the "unpleasant bummer" of pot in an excerpt from Marijuana (1968).  John Korty's animated beatniks help us in Breaking the Habit (1964), if you can dig it, man.  Forget the garlic, one woman's chain smoking is enough to keep Dracula away in Ashes of Doom (1970).  And since he has been away too long, we are bringing back the King of the Afterschool Special, Scott Baio in the hilarious and minimally convincing Stoned (1980).   Plus! Vintage Cigarette Commercials, more snippets and surprises, and the Di$ney reenacted bummer Smokeless Tobacco: The Sean Marsee Story (1986) for the early birds.  Isn't it time about time you learned your lesson?

Date: Friday, September 13th, 2013 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

Aligning the Trance Particles - Fri. Sep. 6th - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Scotty Slade bring you Aligning the Trance Particles, a program of physical and metaphysical forms of trance exploration that examines ancient traditions alongside experimental film practices. In tandem with the ongoing Trance Cinema film series, this program begins under the microscope, so that we might start to imagine the molecular alignment of our own inner beings, in Crystallization (1975). Once aligned on a molecular scale, it will be time to climb up the particulate ladder with Norman McLaren’s A Phantasy (1952), a space-borne surrealist film of dance and ritual glow. From there, we’ll bounce into Maya Deren’s A Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946), and once our minds have become fully lubricated, the incredible film Pomo Shaman (1964) will be there to move us into the next realm. In that deep space of next level consciousness, let us be further blown away by Pat O’Neill’s color ceremony in 7362 (1952). We’ll then jump back through time, from special effects land to the Kalahari, where everyone will be encouraged to get up and move around with the !Kung Bushmen in N/um tchai: The Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen (1973). The evening will end with Takashi Ito’s mind bending gymnasium camera ritual symbolic mental portal exploration Spacy (1980). Everyone is encouraged to melt.

Date: Friday, September 6, 2013 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