The Archivist's Dilemma: Q&A With Oddball Films' Stephen Parr
Oddball's XXX-mas Spectacular - Fri. Dec 19 - 8PM
Date: Friday, December 19th, 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.comJew Ought to be in Pictures: Choice Comedy Rarities from the Chosen People - Thur. Dec. 18 - 8PM
In honor of Hanukkah, Oddball Films and Jewish curator Kat Shuchter bring you Jew Ought to be in Pictures: Choice Comedy Rarities from the Chosen People. This program of comedy masters features rare films with hilarious Jews like Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar, The Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, Mel Blanc, Friz Freleng, Tom Lehrer, Alan Arkin, Eli Wallach and more. All four Marx Brothers bring us ridiculous warfare that includes dozens of costume changes, parliament breaking into song and Harpo Revere in This is War?(1933, excerpts from Duck Soup). From Mel Brooks, we have his Oscar-winning animated short The Critic (1963) and a live performance with Carl Reiner of the 2,000 Year Old Man (1961). Reiner also teams up with Sid Caesar in a rare excerpt from Your Show of Shows (1950s). Bobby Rydell flusters the king of deadpan, Jack Benny by impersonating him in a segment of the Jack Benny Program (1961). Song satirist Tom Lehrer's Pollution (1969) gets the montage treatment for one hysterical political statement. Two animated Jews (director Isadore "Friz" Freleng and voice talent Mel Blanc) team up for one classic Merr*e Melod*es short Stage Door Cartoon (1944). Woody Allen's early career and process are revealed in the documentary Woody Allen: An American Comedy (1977). Making it's Oddball debut is Oscar-nominated short That's Me (1963) written by and starring Alan Arkin. Plus! Lane Truesdale sings Who's Yehoodi? to a lecherous painting of a hassid, Rodney Dangerfield peddles Miller Lite, Sammy Davis Jr. sells Alka-Seltzer, Tony Curtis and Jack Klugman play board games, film trailers with Peter Sellers and Jerry Lewis and much much more! So, grab your yarmulke, your tallit and your torah and get ready to laugh your tuchus off!
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117 or RSVP@oddballfilm.com
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com/
Learn Your Lesson...from the Mormons: An LDS Shockucation - Fri. Dec. 12th - 8PM
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 I Want it All! - Consumer Culture on the Skids - Thur. Dec .11th - 8PM
Oddball Films presents I Want it All! - Consumer Culture on the Skids, a program of vintage films that fall on both sides of the issue of wealth, consumption, and advertising. With long and short-form commercials, cartoons and capitalist-skewering satire, it's an evening that will make you think differently about pulling out your wallet. Pick the color of your refrigerator to Match Your Mood (1960s), a swingin' promotional film from Jam Handy and an Oddball audience favorite. Then, pick the color of your shiny new 1951 Chevy in The Rainbow is Yours (1951). Woody Allen and Joanne Worley try to answer that burning question in a segment from the show Hot Dog-How Do They Make Dollar Bills (1971). Learn how credit can change your life, or just burden you with crap and debt in the bizarre, hilarious and musical The Good, Good, Good Life (1974) Three groovy young girls and their dad get a lesson in over-shopping in Consumer Education: Budgeting (1968). We all know sex sells; learn the tricks of its best sellers in a Special Edition segment on Frederick's of Hollywood (1970s). Unrelenting advertisements and the implied pressures impede young love in the bittersweet mixed-media animation Harold and Cynthia (1971). The grocery witch is here to teach you how to spend your money wisely in Magical Disappearing Money (1972). Plus, a slew of real commercials and a reel of bizarre faux commercials with the head-scratching It's Not Commercial (1950s).
Date: Thursday, December 11th, 2014 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco (map)
Admission: $10.00 - Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Strange Sinema 83: Bizarre Cinema Histories - Fri. Dec. 5th - 8PM
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
Cartoons in Space - Intergalactic Animation - Thur. Dec. 4th - 8PM
Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you Cartoons in Space: Intergalactic Animation, a program of international Space Age animated shorts about rockets, planets, aliens and more outer space fun. As the 1950s ushered in the Space Age, the international imagination was seized by space-fever as man made his first attempts to blast out of this atmosphere and into the vast universe beyond. The animation world was no exception and began producing some of the most imaginative interpretations of the present and future of interplanetary travel. Daffy Duck and Marvin the Martian square off over Planet X in the hilarious classic Chuck Jones cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century (1952). From the acclaimed Zagreb Films and Oscar-winner Dusan Vukotic comes the utterly charming tale of a little nerdy girl, her homemade rocket and a terrifying alien beast in The Cow on the Moon (1958). With two from Czech animation giant Kratky Film Praha; Frantisek Vystreil's Kosmodrome 1999 (1967) imagines a 1999 of zippy interstellar travel and Zdenek Miler's Mole and the Rocket (1965), features the little mole in a journey from the bottom of the ocean to the stars above. Everyone's favorite clay toy-boy Gumby runs away from home and blasts off to The Small Planets (1957) only to discover a bunch of bratty kids. Even the insurance industry goes spacy with a little green alien in the super-rare promotional film Man from A.U.N.T.I.E. (1967). Scientists study the foliage of a mystery planet to try and solve Earth's hunger problem in the Eastern European stop-motion puppet animation Journey to a Star: A Science Fantasy (1969). Science mixes with imagination in Beyond the Stars: a Space Story (1981). With the opening credits for Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space (1972, courtesy of the Jenni Olson Queer Archive), and a visit from Space Angel (1963) the outer space answer to Speed Racer, using human mouths for dialogue, and more spacy surprises, get ready to blast off into the outer reaches of space and the imagination!
Date: Thursday, December 4th, 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 Cinema Soiree Series
Oddball Films presents the Cinema Soiree Series, an upcoming monthly soiree featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights. Join us for screenings and eye-opening discussions on a wide-range of celluloid subjects.
Jim Morton on East German Cinema - Thursday, September 18th
Richie Unterberger on Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Rock - Thursday, October 23rd
Jim Morton on East German Cinema - Thursday, September 18th
Richie Unterberger on Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Rock - Thursday, October 23rd
John Turner on Outsider Artists and Korla Pandit - Thursday, November 20th
Laurel Braitman on Animal Madness - Postponed
Cinema Soiree with John Turner on Visionary and Outsider Artists - Thur. Nov. 20 - 8PM
Oddball Films
presents Outsider Artists and a
sneak peak at John Turner’s portrait of Korla Pandit, the visionary television
organist as part of its the Cinema Soiree Series, a monthly soiree featuring visiting authors,
filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights. Join us
for screenings and eye-opening discussions on a wide-range of celluloid
subjects. Tonight we bring you John Turner, author, producer, director and
photographer of folk art and popular culture (see bio) and the director of the
upcoming documentary of legendary cult organist Korla Pandit. John will introduce selected shorts of American and
international outsider artist films such as: Messages From The Garden (1998) a fascinating profile of the world
of Howard Finster, famed artist, storyteller and visionary artist; Possum
Trot: The Life and Work of Calvin Black 1903-1972 (1977) SF filmmakers
Allie Light and Irving Saraf showcase the wildly eccentric art a folk artist
who lived in California's Mojave Desert and created more than 80 life-size
female dolls, each with its own personality, function, and costume performing
live in his “Bird Cage Theater”; Emery Blagdon and the Healing Machines by Thom Peterson, focuses on the extraordinary
kinetic and healing sculptures and paintings the self-taught artist Emery
Blagdon created between 1956 and 1986; The Mystery of the Electric
Pencil (Color, 2012), the extraordinary story of discovery
of the art of The Electric Pencil (John Edward Deeds) committed to life in a state
lunatic asylum in Nevada Missouri at the age of 17; From Windmills to Whirligigs: A Conversation with Vollis
Simpson (1997) a mechanic and visionary artist who created a cluster of
gigantic whirlygigs on his farm using scrap metal; Nek Chand: The Rock Gardens of Chandigarh
(Color, 1985), astonishing film about self-taught sculptor Nek Chand’s 25 acre
complex of several thousand sculptures combined with huge buildings and a
series of interlocking waterfalls-acknowledged as one of the modern wonders of
the world with over 5,000 visitors each day; Watts Flowers (date
unknown) Simon Kelly’s experimental short is an explosion of color and form
that is the Watts Towers in Los Angeles. The film features rare footage of
creator Simon Rodia at work; Dilmus Hall
features an interview of famed African American folk artist from Georgia.
And lastly John Turner will screen a trailer from Korla his upcoming doc about the sensational cult organ legend Korla Pandit. Plus! A Boy Creates (1971), a non-narrative film follows a young boy
through the abandoned ruins of San Francisco’s Playland at the Beach and tracks
him tending to his army of found art swamp statues in the long gone Emeryville
Mud Flats.
Date: Thursday, November 20th, 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 Strange Sinema 82: The Wild World of Saul Bass- Fri. Nov. 21 - 8PM
Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 82, a monthly screening of new finds, old gems and offbeat oddities from the archive. Drawing on his collection of over 50,000 16mm film prints, Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has compiled his 82nd program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This month we present Strange Sinema 82: The Wild World of Saul Bass. Films include the Oddball audience favorite Bass on
Titles (1982), a documentary showcasing one of
the 20th century’s legendary graphic designers, filmmakers and title producers
- Saul Bass and featuring some
of the designer’s iconic title sequences and logos and Why Man
Creates (1969), a series of explorations,
episodes and comments on creativity by Saul Bass and winner of the Oscar for
Best Documentary Short in 1969. Other films include highlights from the International Clio Awards
(1966), Madmen style award-winning
commercials like ads for Westinghouse Jet Set appliances, Colt 45 Malt Liquor
and the infamous Noxzema sexy shaving cream “Take it Off” commercial as well as Maurits Escher (MC Escher) (1988), a short doc of M.C.
Escher, noted Dutch surrealist, mathematician, and graphic artist whose work has
had a major influence in the arts worldwide. Plus
trailers for films with Bass-designed titles sequences and more!
Date: Friday, November 21st, 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 MESS with Techno-Counterculture Iconoclast R.U. Sirius - Fri. Nov. 14 - 8PM
Date: Friday, November 14th, 2014 at 8:00pm
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
The Future is Calling: Stunning Science Shorts from Bell Labs - Thur. Nov. 13 - 8PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com Learn Your Lesson from Di$ney: An Animated Shockucation - Fri. Nov. 7th - 8PM
Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Learn Your Lesson from Di$ney: An Animated Shockucation, the 21st in a monthly series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic shockucational films and TV specials of the collection. While obviously more well known for their animated features, Di$ney (as Walt Di$ney Educational Media) has been making educational primers since the 1940s with audacious subject matter like menstruation, venereal diseases, child-molestation, drug abuse and more. This program features the high and lowlights of Di$ney's educational side. Always the trailblazers, the dreamily animated The Story of Menstruation (1945) is reported to be the first film to use the word "vagina" in its screenplay. In VD Attack Plan (1973), a cartoon syphilitic sergeant directs his VD troops into battle against ignorant humans. Donald Du©k helps us learn how we can help in the war effort in the WWII propaganda short The Spirit of '43 (1943). Learn all about growing up, from an animated embryonic cycle to adolescent pimples in the zippy musical short Steps Towards Maturity and Growth (1969). From the same series, we learn about The Social Side of Health (1969), including an animated drug trip and more zippy songs. Their entries into musical education include some of the most stunning animated shorts of the collection including the Oscar-winning Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom (1953) and the overview of 20th century music: Symposium on Popular Songs (1962) which includes the cutest dancing rutabagas you've ever seen as well as a mix of cell, cut-out and stop-motion animation. Learn about the imaginary future of car travel in a stunning excerpt of Magic Highway USA (1958). It's a magical night to learn your lesson!
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 Automania 2000: Vintage Cars on Film - Thurs. Nov. 6th - 8PM
Oddball Films presents Automania 2000: Vintage Cars on Film, a night of awesome automobiles from the 1950s-1980s dug out of the Oddball Archive. This high-octane 16mm program features midget car racing, mid-century automotive animation, kitschy promotional and scare films, vintage car shows and commercials all highlighting that magic machine on four wheels; the automobile. Behold the beauty of the "newest" line of Chevy sedans in the stylish promotional film The Rainbow is Yours (1951) from Jam Handy. Get in on some midget car racing with the "phantom racer" in Bullet on Wheels (1951). Halas and Batchelor studio brings us an animated vision of a future so obsessed with cars, they begin to take over the whole world in Automania 2000 (1963). The Car of Your Dreams (1984) chronicles car commercials from their inception to the 1980s in a fast-paced, thought provoking, and eye-popping montage of hundreds of ads. The National Film Board of Canada brings us a martian's point of view of our auto-obsessed world in the witty cartoon What in the World? (1964). Learn all about the importance of seat belts when dolls go flying through the front windshield in the ridiculous scare film Safety Belt for Susie (1962). Plus, get a taste of some homegrown auto-worship with the Kodachrome time capsule San Francisco Excelsior: Low Rider Car Show (1965). Plus more surprises and 1960s auto-show footage for the early birds to enjoy, put the pedal to the metal and speed on down to Oddball!
Date: Thursday, November 6th, 2014 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Oddball's Haunted Halloween Hullabaloo- Fri. Oct. 31 - 8PM
Oddball Films presents Oddball's Haunted Halloween Hullabaloo, a special Halloween program of haunting ephemeral films with dancing ghosts, satanic stripteases, creepy cartoons, ghostly educational films, murderous musical numbers, terrifying trailers and more spooktacular cinema. Ichabod Crane faces off against a faceless undead monster in the much beloved Di$ney classic The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949). Betty Boop heads down to Hell and melts the king of the underworld with her icy stares in the jazzy Fleischer Brothers' cartoon Red Hot Mamma (1934). Burlesque queen Betty Dolan dances with the Devil in the sizzling Satantease (1950s). Spencer Tracy imagines an afterlife of tormented but beautiful writhing hordes in an infernal excerpt of Dante's Inferno (1935). Gracie Barrie sings about justifiable homicide in the killer soundie Stone Cold Dead in the Market (1946). One young boy speaks to a restless teen spirit and learns valuable lessons in bus safety in the educational shock film Ghost Rider (1982). Joseph Cotton narrates a loving overview of how to kill some of the silver screen's most horrific creatures in an excerpt of Monsters We Have Known and Loved (1964). With a rockin' musical break, featuring some interpretive-dancing spectres in an Old-West ghost town from John Byner's Something Else (1970). Plus a cemetery-full of Horror Trailers, campy educational primer Halloween Safety (1985) for the early ghouls, sweet treats and more satanic surprises, haunt on down to Oddball and get your Halloween started right!
Date: Friday, October 31st, 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: