Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present What the F(ilm)?! 7: All-American Cine-insanity from the Archive, an evening of some of the most bizarre, hilarious and insane films from our massive 16mm collection. This month we're featuring a cornucopia of insane-Americana with Di$ney war-propaganda, fire puppets, psychedelic animation, atomic scare films and even a naked marching band. Walt Di$ney and Donald Duck help out in the war effort in The Spirit of '43 (1943), a bit of good old fashioned cartoon propaganda. Psychedelic animator Vince Collins produced the mind-bending animation 200 (1975) for the country's bicentennial, and it will still blow your eyeballs out today. Kinestatic collage documentarian, Chuck Braverman tells the story of America in 3 minutes utilizing 1300 still images in American Time Capsule (1968). Woody Allen and Jonathan Winters chime in on the age old question How Do They Make Hot Dog Buns? (1970) from Hot Dog, a short-lived bizarro educational program. With two camptastic slices of American cheese, Jerry Fairbanks brings us patriotic talking animals with Speaking of Animals - In Current Events (1940s) and a gorgeous technicolor road trip on a Greyhound Bus full of love with America for Me (1952). Atomic scare film Our Cities Must Fight (1951) wants you to stay in the city after the bomb drops; afterall, the nuclear fallout will dissipate in a couple of days. And since everybody loves a parade, we will be double-projecting the hilariously weird homoerotic short Nude Marching Band (1970s) with Parade, Parade (1973) the kitschy document of a small-town parade. Plus, stripping for Uncle Sam with The Pretty Priorities and their patriotic burlesque soundie Take It Off (1942), a mini-tribute to the recently departed, the insane puppet anti-drug film Deciso 3003 (1982) featuring double-headed horny puppets by Julie Taymor and narrated by the late great Eli Wallach, and even more insane surprises!
Date: Thursday, July 3rd, 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.comHighlights Include:
200 (Color, 1975)
Vince Collin’s supremely psychedelic animated celebration of our nation’s bicentennial, sponsored by the United States Information Agency. They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore. But then again, not as many LSD-inspired animators make it through the grant process.
American Time Capsule (Color/B+W, 1968)Chuck Braverman presents the history of the United States up to 1968 in 3 minutes, utilizing a montage of 1300 images set to the music of Sandy Nelson’s Beat That Drum. Originally aired on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
Speaking of Animals - In Current Events (B+W, 1940s)
From the hilarious anthropomorphic "Speaking of Animals" series produced by cheese-meister Jerry Fairbanks. We could've kept sweet little woodland creatures out of the conflict with the Axis powers, but why?! Live action critters with cleverly animated mouths crack wise while the narration compares them to the Axis leaders. Hey, is that Hirohito scampering up that tree? Cute, repellant and just plain strange, the takeaway message from this goofy bit of patriotism? Bacon fat helps keep our men fighting, so keep it coming, America!
An apt topic for an edition of Hot Dog, NBC’s delightful mini documentary series. This time the mysteries of purpose-baked rolls are revealed on a trip to Fine's Bakery in Brooklyn. Jonathan Winters and Brooklynite Woody Allen offer surreal commentary.
Fireworks are great fun, until you blow off a finger! Learn the proper way to have sparkly fun, without exploding yourself with a bizarre Sid and Marty Krofft-style fire puppet and lots of cool vintage fireworks.
America for Me (Color, 1952, Jerry Fairbanks)
What happens when two women set out on a cross-country trip on a Greyhound bus? Filmed in beautiful Technicolor, this vacation across the U.S. features trips through national parks and every kind of American small town imaginable. Not only do the two young women discover America along the way, but they also discover true love! This cheesy but charming film was one of many short films produced to advertise Greyhound buses in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
Nude Marching Band (Color, 1970s)
This bizarre slice of homoerotica will be double projected with:
Parade, Parade (Color, 1973)
This footage of a small town celebration has all the standard parade components: floats, beauty queens, convertibles, and most importantly, a chorus of cops on motorcycles doing acrobatics! The synchronicity of marching bodies forms patterns that develop a hypnotizing rhythm throughout the film.
Our Cities Must Fight (B+W, 1951)From the people who brought you Duck and Cover comes this classic scare-propaganda piece that trades on our addiction to urbanism. Thinking of heading for the hills when the bomb drops? Think again. That's tantamount to treason, and in the Army you'd be court-martialed! This film aims to guilt and shame you into sticking around to help defend your hometown and rebuild its infrastructure. And after all, nuclear contamination will dissipate after a day or two.
Take It Off- The Pretty Priorities (B+W, 1942)
A sexy, patriotic soundie about government priorities. Four girls sing about materials the government needs for the war effort. They strip off parts of their costumes and put them into a barrel marked “V” eventually they go behind screens that show their silhouettes and they take off the rest. Two men come to collect their donations and take the screen too. They're stripping for Uncle Sam!
Deciso 3003 (1982)
Peter Wallach, Eli Wallach’s brother directed this bizarre anti-drug PSA, in the height of the “Just Say No” ‘80s. Two couples of double-headed alien teens set out on what they think is just going to be any other intergalactic trip to the Drive-In (to see Vincent Price in The Fly) but when one of them thinks it’ll be cool to take some meteor pills and get handsy with his date, we all learn that being a teenager isn’t easy for anyone in the galaxy. The puppets were made by Julie Taymor, director of Across the Universe and Titus, and Eli Wallach narrates, though neither is credited on the internet movie database. Perhaps, like the teen alien flying home alone, they too feel the shame.
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.
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.