Oddball
Films presents Strange Sinema, a
monthly screening of new finds, old
gems and offbeat oddities from the collection. Drawing on his archive of over 50,000 16mm
film prints Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has complied his 75th
program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This installment, Strange
Sinema 75: Strange Discoveries celebrates the 75th
anniversary of monthly Strange Sinema screenings. In true Strange Sinema style
this program presents entirely new discoveries from the archive’s recent
acquisition of 300 new 16mm film prints. Most, if not all of these films are
rarely screened and unavailable online. Films include Die Pistole (1964), a
powerful stop-motion short and wry commentary by West German animation
filmmaker Wolfgang Urchs; Art For Tomorrow (1969) an
eye-popping exploration of experimental tech-oriented art incorporating early
IBM computers, cybernetics, heart beat triggers, invisible art by magnetism all
narrated by Walter Cronkite; Two Bagatelles (1953), two experiments in pixilation co-directed by animation genius and
founder of the National Film Board of Canada Norman McLaren and filmmaker and
actor Grant Munro; Opus (1969) a fascinating tour-de-force montage of British art,
architecture, theater and swingin’ London fashions-all that was shocking in
1969; directed by experimental cinema legend Don Levy. Other discoveries
include Himalayan Shaman of Northern Nepal (1967), focusing on the work of a shaman including spirit possession, sucking
out evil spirits and purifying his mouth with fire; Enfantillage (Kid Stuff) Pierre Trudeau’s potent metaphorical film
combines drawings and puppet animation conveying the extreme effects of family
discord on a small child; and Subject: Narcotics (1951), a very
early drug education film produced for police orientation and training
presenting dramatized sequences of addicts in shooting galleries with excellent
footage of pre-renewal downtown Los Angeles (a neighborhood now lost). Lumiere’s First Picture Show (1895-1897) is a compilation of the earliest films ever made by French
cinema pioneers the Lumière Brothers as well as a vintage look at the Lumières'
patented cinematograph, a combination camera, projector, and film printer. To
end up the evening we present a fascinating profile of a Nigerian Yoruba healer
in Ifa Divination Diagnosis: A
Traditional Specialist (1977).
Date: Friday, April 25th, 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
Featuring:
Die Pistole (Color, 1964)
Wolfgang Urchs was among the prime shapers of film
animation in the West German media landscape of the sixties. Urchs made only a
few of the graphic films he had envisioned as most of his work was for hire in
the industrial and advertising realms. Die
Pistole, a powerful stop-motion animated film demonstrates that even the
most insignificant little bug is capable of great things, and that each of us
can make his own modest contribution; though the film makes it clear that the
path is still a long one, steep and rocky. Urch was a member of the radical
cinema group that published the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962. The manifesto
was a call to arms to establish a "new German feature film”. The
signatories to the manifesto became known as the Oberhausen Group and are seen
as important forerunners of the New German Cinema that
began later in the decade.
Art for Tomorrow (Color
1969)
“The artist is beginning
to react to the impact of science and technology and beginning to come to terms
with it. The artist better be rather careful or he will be losing his job and
the engineer will become the artist of the future.”
In this film, from the Twentieth Century television
program narrated by Walter Cronkite the art of the future is foreseen in new
techniques demonstrated by artists and engineers using distinctive methods and
new technology including computers, cybernetics, heart beat triggers, invisible
art by magnetism, prisms, lights, moving objects, converging lines, and number
patterns. This fascinating look at the “future past” features a kaleidoscopic
portrait of avant-garde art works by Yaacov Agam (who uses strobe lights),
Wen-Ying Tsai (vibrating steel rods), John Mott-Smith (computer-generated
ideas), Jean Tinguely (machine-made sculpture), Victor Vasarely’s early
experiments with IBM computers, Jean Dupuy and many more. Here’s a link to
Dupuy’s work “Heart Beats Dust”
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/hearts-beats-dust/
Two Bagatelles (Color, 1953)
Two experiments in pixilation co-directed
by animation genius and founder of the National Film Board of Canada Norman
McLaren and filmmaker and actor Grant Munro (who coined the word
“pixelization”). In the first, (which was inspired by their award-winning film
NEIGHBOURS/VOISINS) a man waltzes to a synthesized version of a Johann Strauss
melody; in the second, he moves around playfully to a tune played on a street
organ.
Opus (Color, 1969)
Produced for world-wide distribution for
the British Government (Central Office of Information) and for continuous
showing in the British Pavilion of Expo ’67, Montreal was directed by famed
experimental filmmaker Don Levy. This
film is a fascinating tour-de-force montage of British art, architecture,
theater and fashions-all that was shocking in 1969. Opus is a whirlwind of
music and montage of modern British machine sculptors, excerpts from Royal
Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the Homecoming by Harold Pinter, The Persecution and
Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as performed by the Inmates of the Asylum at
Charenton under the direction of the marquis de Sade, directed by Peter Brook,
extracts from Sir Frederick Ashton’s Ballet Monotones performed by the members
of the Royal Ballet Company and swingin’ British fashions, cars and lifestyles!
Himalayan Shaman
of Northern Nepal (Color,1967)
Filmed in a Himalayan valley near the Dhaulagiri massif this
ethnographic work focuses on the work of a shaman, his costume and rituals
including spirit possession, sucking out evil spirits from his clients, contact
with the "other world", foretelling the future and purifying his mouth with fire.
Directed by John T. and Patricia
Hitchcock, pioneers in ethnographic filmmaking. Hitchcock was also a noted
cultural anthropologist who studied shamanism and cultures of Himalayas of
Nepal and India. For a preview visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I_eMebAqoM
Enfantillage (Kid Stuff) (Color, 1990)
Pierre Trudeau’s film combines drawings and puppet animation conveying
the effects of family discord on a small child. In the peace and quiet of his
room, a boy draws at his desk, appearing not to notice the angry voices that
intrude from the hallway. As his parents' quarrel escalates, however,
resentment invades the child's tranquility. The figures he has drawn spring to
life. In a lonely and desolate landscape, the clown and robot engage in combat.
The music intensifies and the distraught child is spun on a carousel that
expresses his rage and revolt. No one hears his muted cry. When calm again
descends on the household, all that remains to remind one of the recent
conflict is a blackened sheet of paper.
Subject:
Narcotics (B+W, 1951)
"If a junkie is lucky, he dies early."
Produced for police orientation and
training, police officers, and "restricted from the general public and
from all youth groups” this early drug education film presents drug addiction
not simply as a crime but as a deep-seated social problem. With dramatized
sequences of addicts in shooting galleries and excellent footage of pre-renewal
downtown Los Angeles, a neighborhood now lost. Produced and directed by
renowned filmmakers Denis and Terry Sanders, who wrote this film with Jay
Sandrich.
Lumiere’s First Picture Show (B+W, 1895-1897)
A compilation of short silent films by French cinema
pioneers the Lumière brothers shot in the early days of cinema. The shorts are
accompanied by informative text that gives background information on each film,
as well as historical context with regards to filmmaking and the Lumière
company. Shorts include the famous "L'arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat"
(1896) ("The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat"), "La sortie des
usines Lumière" (1895) ("Employees Leaving the Lumière
Factory"), and a vintage look at the Lumières' patented cinematograph, a
combination camera, projector, and film printer.
Ifa
Divination: A Traditional Specialist (Color,
1977)
Produced by Singer-Sharrette Productions and part of the
Nigerian Traditional Healing Series this fascinating short
explores the traditional Yoruba healing system practiced in Nigeria.
Ifá refers to the system of divination and the verses of the
literary corpus known as the Odù
Ifá. Here we witness a
traditional healer at work. For further
information visit: http://www.unesco.org/culture/intangible-heritage/29afr_uk.htm
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.