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
Featuring:
Frame by Frame (Color, 1973)
At this point in time it’s rare that imagemakers touch their media. But film (16mm or 8mm) is inherently a hands-on, tactile process. In that lies the simplicity and beauty of the filmmaking process. Frame by Frame provides a detailed an informative look at film animation techniques including flicker, time lapse and single frame techniques. Other techniques such as cut-outs and drawing on tracing paper. The film emphasizes a free-form approach to filmmaking with eye-popping pop art and psychedelic clips.
The Thieving Magpie (Color, 1967)
In this Italian animation, three kings who tire of war turn to recreational bird hunting, sweeping the skies with barrages of arrows, and sending countless birds plummeting to their demise. One wily magpie, however, manages to evade the kings and, in turn, terrorize them with his antics, eventually amassing an army of bird troops to avenge themselves against the killer kings. Directed by Emmanuelle Luzatti, this film received an Academy Award nomination.
The Mole and the Chewing Gum (Color, 1974)
From the darling Czech Little Mole series by Zdenek Miler. Careless campers leave amongst their litter a piece of bubble gum, and an inquisitive Mole finds it, pops it in his mouth, and discovers that gum is quite a tricky and sticky substance to get rid of. Even his friends are unable to help him. Finally, a lazy old cow comes along, gobbles up the gum and frees Mole, then complacently ambles away blowing immense bubbles.
Hoffnung Palm Court Orchestra (Color, 1965)
No matter what the calamity, from fire to shipwreck and beyond, this blissful trio plays on in sweet, sweet oblivion. A colorful cartoon take on the veddy, veddy British idea of keeping calm and carrying on, from the makers of Oddball fave Birds, Bees and Storks.
Hunger (Color, 1973)
At an extremely rapid pace, images dissolve, move, morph and/or reappear into things or objects that become more and more exaggerated and absurd in this hilarious cartoon by Hungarian director Peter Foldes. One of the first computer-generated films, this Jury Prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival and Academy Award Nominee is a satire focusing on the self-indulgence that plagues our ‘hungry’ world, and depicts a man as he continues to eat, and eat, and eat!
Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom (Color, 1953)Academy Award winner in stunning Technicolor- this short was originally released in theaters as part of the “Adventures in Music” educational series. Directed by the brilliant Ward Kimball, this is a classic of mid-century cartoon design and has been ranked one of the top 50 greatest cartoons.
The Trendsetter (Color, 1969)Cool British animation from the great Vera Linnecar portrays a little man who is annoyed with the little hipsters who ape and one up his every move. Illustrates how the trendsetters depend on others for their sense of self worth.
The Magic Horse (B+W, 1953)
Lotte Reiniger, fascinated with Chinese silhouette puppetry, was the first to create a feature length animated film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). Her paper cut-outs are phenomenally intricate and lush, with dreamlike imagery and unlike any other form of animation. This short is from a series of fairy tales she completed in the 50’s, and is a further continuation of the Prince Achmed stories.
Curator’s Biography
Kat Shuchter is a graduate of UC Berkeley in Film Studies. She is a filmmaker, artist and esoteric film hoarder. She has helped program shows at the PFA, The Nuart and Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater and was crowned “Found Footage Queen” of Los Angeles, 2009.
About Oddball Films
Oddball films is the film component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.