Date: Thursday, June 4th, 2015 at 8:00pm SOLD OUT!
NEW SHOW ADDED: Friday, June 5th at 10:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San FranciscoNEW SHOW ADDED: Friday, June 5th at 10:00pm
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Featuring:
Scorpio Rising (Color, 1964, Kenneth Anger)
One of the most important films in Kenneth Anger’s body of work, Scorpio Rising employs the sounds of teen pop and the iconography of 50s and 60s motorcycle culture to create a shrine to teenage rebellion. It is part pop promo, part homo-erotic home movie and is packed with ironic symbolism and style – from his references to the occult to the partially naked, leather-clad bikers riding their bikes recklessly until they crash. Considered by many as the precursor of the pop promos of today - with its angular shots and contemporary soundtrack - the force and poetry of Anger's work has greatly influenced generations of filmmakers, designers and fashion photographers. Anger pioneered the use of the pop music in narrative film by filling the soundtrack entirely with Elvis, girl groups, and top 50 chart hits.
One of the most important films in Kenneth Anger’s body of work, Scorpio Rising employs the sounds of teen pop and the iconography of 50s and 60s motorcycle culture to create a shrine to teenage rebellion. It is part pop promo, part homo-erotic home movie and is packed with ironic symbolism and style – from his references to the occult to the partially naked, leather-clad bikers riding their bikes recklessly until they crash. Considered by many as the precursor of the pop promos of today - with its angular shots and contemporary soundtrack - the force and poetry of Anger's work has greatly influenced generations of filmmakers, designers and fashion photographers. Anger pioneered the use of the pop music in narrative film by filling the soundtrack entirely with Elvis, girl groups, and top 50 chart hits.
Screentest (Color, 1975, Frank and Caroline Mouris)
"A brilliant film, almost beyond description...existences led at twice the speed, and images/identities transformed without notice." - Roger Ebert.
A kaleidoscopic documentary of nine queer actors as they give free rein to their fantasies. They dress up, strip down, cross-dress; paint their faces, paint their nails, paint the set and generally camp it up while, on the densely layered soundtrack, they dish each other’s performances, the film as a whole, and film documentaries in general. Print courtesy of the Jenni Olson Queer Archive.
A kaleidoscopic documentary of nine queer actors as they give free rein to their fantasies. They dress up, strip down, cross-dress; paint their faces, paint their nails, paint the set and generally camp it up while, on the densely layered soundtrack, they dish each other’s performances, the film as a whole, and film documentaries in general. Print courtesy of the Jenni Olson Queer Archive.
Sinderella (B+W & Color, 1962)
This amateur film produced by "Lorelei" is a faithful reenactment of the Brother's Grimm Cinderella... except with a handful of lovely drag queens playing all the parts. A rare document of the San Francisco drag scene in the early 60s, this gem is like a long-lost step sister to Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures. Don't miss the amazingly cheezy production values, awesome wigs, and high-handed bitch slapping that blows Di$ney right out of the water. Poor Sinderella's hair gets a fabulous makeover when she's transformed! In B+W and color.
Andy Warhol (1973, Color, excerpt)
Andy Warhol (1973, Color, excerpt)
This seldom-seen film features astute commentary by Warhol Factory superstars Viva and Bridgit Polk. Directors Paul Morrissey (“Trash”, “Women in Revolt”) and Emile de Antonio (“Point of Order”, “Painters Painting”) offer some keen insights into the man behind the factory, and the effect of popularizing homosexual and transgendered stars.
The free wheeling style of the documentary gives it a loose, edgy feel and showcases Warhol in action craftily playing to the camera. Excerpts from Bike Boy, Chelsea Girls, Women in Revolt, Trash, Lonesome Cowboys and I, A Man give us a deeper sense of the range and raw cinematic and self-absorbed style Warhol pioneered.
Behind Every Good Man… (B+W, 1966)
Behind Every Good Man… (B+W, 1966)
Decades before Laverne Cox became a household name and before the Stonewall riots that launched the gay rights movement, this documentary short features an African American transgender woman pushing the envelope in a society barely out of the repressive 1950s. This very rare film directed by Nikolai Ursin, then a film student at UCLA records our subject’s meditations on love, gay life in the early 1960s, and gender transgression. The film and its subject avoid period cliches about homosexuality and gender and point to hopeful possibilities. “I’d like to live a happy life, that’s for sure,” she says, and one not only wants her to, but believes that it really could happen.
Lumber Jerks (Color, 1955)
Featuring the “Goofy Gophers”, who have been called the first openly gay gophers in Hollywood. Aside from the intimation of behind-closed-doors cross-dressing, a scene where gas is siphoned from a truck was censored in later versions of this cartoon. The Gophers are voiced by Mel Blanc and the recently departed Stan Freberg.
Plus! A number from legendary San Francisco drag queen Charles Pierce from The Charles Pierce Review (1969).
About Oddball Films
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.
Oddball films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.