Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Learn your Lesson...After School: An Afterschool Extra Special Shockucation, the seventeenth in a series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic educational films, mental hygiene primers and TV specials of the collection. This month we've got a triple feature of all-star ABC Afterschool Specials recently unearthed from the archive about STDs, Dyslexia and Teenage parenting with River and Joaquin Phoenix, Rob Lowe, Dana Plato and Zach Galligan. These melodramatic programs graced the afternoon airways from the early-70s through the mid-90s and offered preteens and teens a healthy dose of social conditioning while touching on a variety of touching and hard-hitting subjects, from marijuana use to alcoholic parents, disabled siblings, illiteracy, bullying and so much more! They launched dozens of young careers and featured seasoned veterans as concerned teachers and distant parents. Zach Galligan from Gremlins stars in the gonorrhea cautionary tale A Very Delicate Matter (1982). River Phoenix is a thirteen year old dyslexic with a very special teacher who won't give up on him in Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia (1984). And Rob Lowe takes off his shirt (a lot!) and takes on parenting in Schoolboy Father (1980). Come early for a surprise bonus special!
Date: Friday, July 18th, 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
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Featuring:
Schoolboy Father (Color, 1980)
Rob Lowe plays the titular schoolboy who learns of his impending fatherhood and while the mother wants to give the baby up for adoption, he struggles with wanting to keep and raise the baby with his own single mother. Lowe spends the majority of the movie topless, which must have been great eye candy for the loads of pre-teen girls watching after school. Also starring Dana Plato and Nancy McKeon.
Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia (Color, 1984)River AND Joaquin Phoenix play brothers in this touching tale of learning disabilities. River plays Brian, a thirteen year old who can't read straight. All the letters jumble themselves in front of his eyes; literally (they animate it for the viewing audience). Some teachers think he's stupid, but not Miss Tomas who sees the potential in the young boy who just needs to learn the right way to learn. Miss Tomas is played by Madge Sinclair who played Eddie Murphy's mother in Coming to America.
A Very Delicate Matter (Color, 1982)
An extra itchy ABC Afterschool special starring Zach Galligan from Gremlins. Kristin, a teen girl is shocked when her ex-boyfriend tells her about his nasty case of the clap. Will she get tested and tell her new boyfriend or will the shame eat her up inside? What lessons in protection can we all learn from Kristin?
About the Afterschool SpecialThe ABC Afterschool Special graced the television airwaves from 1972 to 1997. NBC decided to get in the game in 1975 with their own offering: The NBC Special Treat, followed by the CBS Schoolbreak Special in 1984. These shows sought to present powerful and persuasive cautionary tales and melodramas for teens and preteens. With subject matter from steroid abuse to anorexia to teenage pregnancy, these shows were often preachy and schmaltzy, but always...always Special!
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.