Classic Cartoon Cavalcade - Fri. Aug. 28th - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you Classic Cartoon Cavalcade, an evening of some of our very favorite classic cartoons hand-picked from the San Francisco Media Archive's massive collection. From the 1930s-1950s, from the silly to the sexy with a little Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies (including works by Robert Clampett, Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones), UPA, Fleischer Brothers, Walt Di$ney and imitators, just to name a few with tons of new discoveries and Oddball Premieres.  We've got a triple dose of that darn fool duck Daffy as he dreams of being "Duck Twacy, Famous Detective" and faces off against a hilarious den of supervillains in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946).  He's scatting and zoot-suiting away with a living library (and a cameo by the sickly Frank Sinatra) in Book Revue (1946), and he teams up with Bugs to fend off a giant Elmer Fudd in Chuck Jones' Beanstalk Bunny (1955).  UPA brings us three delightful shorts in their groundbreaking limited animation style: A dance class gone awry in Ballet Oop! (1954), toddler on father violence in Family Circus (1951) and everybody's favorite nearsighted curmudgeon Mr. Magoo goes looking for a dog but ends up collaring a thief in Magoo's Canine Mutiny (1956).  Mi©key Mouse dreams of a life married to Minnie, and the dozens of baby mice that make his life hell in early Di$ney short Mi©key's Nightmare (1932). Betty Boop sings her way into the heart of her Prince Charming (with the help of a risque makeover from her fairy godmother) in Poor Cinderella (1934).  Heckle and Jeckle must fight off some canine robbers at their diner "The Indigestion Inn" in Blue Plate Symphony (1954).  W.C. Squeals is on skates to get some booze in Cracked Ice (1937).  Wile E. Coyote dresses like Batman, jets off on a rocket pack and paints a fake road, but never does catch his dinner in Gee Whiz-z-z-z (1955).  It's the day for the flower parade and one lowly cactus wants to win the day in Flowers for Madame (1935). Come early for more cartoon madness including the Goofy Gophers in Ham in a Role (1949), Foghorn Leghorn in Feather Dusted (1954) and a caricatured Hollywood shindig at Jack Benny's house Malibu Beach Party (1940).

Date: Friday, August 28th, 2015 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

Altered Realities - Inside the Mind's Eye - Thur. Aug 27th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Altered Realities - Inside the Mind's Eye, a night of 16mm films from a variety of genres including animation, documentary and scare films that document and induce alternate states of consciousness.  From past life hypnotherapy to a 60s LSD trip to the melting mind of a schizophrenic; this is one night that will have you out of your mind. Go under hypnosis and seek out your past lives with The Bloxham Tapes (1978).  These actual recordings (and the re-imagined reenactments) of the hypnosis sessions of Arnall Bloxham reveal the kind of uncanny details that lend to the belief in reincarnation, or are they merely implanted memories in suggestive people.  Delve into Le Monde Du Schizophrene (The World of the Schizophrenic, 1969) a super-surreal, Salvador Dali-like film produced by the Sandoz Pharmaceuticals (Makers of drugs as LSD).  Head on the trip of your life in the Sid Davis drug scare film LSD:Trip or Trap? (1967) featuring a wild LSD party with disastrous results. See the fervor of faith that leads one Pentecostal congregation to speak in tongues and handle snakes in an excerpt of Peter Adair's Holy Ghost People (1967). Plus, two very different surreal and psychedelic animated shorts to hypnotize and draw you into your own trance state: Norman McLaren's lush and breathtaking A Phantasy (1952) and Vince Collins' insane kaleidoscope of mind-blowing imagery Fantasy (1967). Early birds can find out if they have ESP (or if that's even a thing at all) in the campy mini doc Psi: Boundaries of the Mind (1976).

Date: Thursday, August 27th, 2015 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 91: Oddball's Strangest Hits! - Fri. Aug. 21st - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 91, a monthly screening of new finds, old gems and offbeat oddities from Oddball Films’ vast collection of 16mm film prints. Drawing on his archive of over 50,000 films, Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has complied his 91st program of classic, strange, and unusual films. For Strange Sinema 91: Oddball’s Strangest Hits!, a surreal and sometimes stupefying selection of some of the strangest films in the Strange Sinema series. Drawn from a wealth of genres - including educational, mental hygiene, pop psychology, quack science and even smut - this program highlights the deep diversity and madcap mayhem that make this series so utterly strange. Featured films include The Cat Who Drank and Used Too Much (1988) a wacky anti-drug howler about an alcohol and drug addicted cat, Frank Film (1973), Frank Mouris’s classic of independent cinema presents 11,592 separate shots of common objects forming complex, rapidly moving patterns that Andrew Sarris called "a nine-minute evocation of America's exhilarating everythingness”, Toothache of the Clown (1972), a clown goes to the dentist in this bizarre and nightmarish kids educational film, Blind as a Bat (1956), the crackpot Christian Moody Science “Bat Truck” goes on location to study the secrets of bat navigation, Rendezvous (1976), director Claude LeLouche’s infamous, one-take high speed drive through the streets of Paris, Help! My Snowman’s Burning Down (1964) Carson Davidson’s award-winning beatnik dada rhapsody with jazz score by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, You Asked For It! (1957) - watch Dr. Cole in this television kinescope demonstrate the science behind putting a red-hot metal poker on your tongue-painlessly!, The Great Saw Came Nearer and Nearer (1944), a sexist and comedic juke box Soundie featuring Cindy Walker getting terrorized by a beau who will saw her in half unless she marries him!, Ersatz (1961), one of the oddest animated films ever - one man inflates everything he needs for the perfect day at the beach, including a girlfriend (!) in this mid-century Oscar-winning gem, it’s monkey time starring Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp (1971) as a detective from APE (Agency to Prevent Evil) as he battles a dentist who implants radio transmitter into teeth!, Deciso 3003 (1982), the world’s first alien teen sex ed puppet film  where even puppets (designed by legendary Julie Taymor) feel ashamed and Sun Healing: The Ultra Violet Way With Life Lite (1940s), cinematic curio promoting a quack medical device as a cure for skin disease. Plus! Allergy test films, men in diapers and home movie hijinks!

Date: Friday, August 21st, 2015 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 - Meet Mr. Product - Thur. Aug. 20th - 8PM

from Meet Mr. Product © Warren Dotz 2015

Oddball Films welcomes authors, historians and collectors Warren Dotz and Masud Husain and to our Cinema Soiree Series, a monthly event featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights and films. Dotz and Husain will be in person discussing their two recent collaborations: Meet Mr. Product and Mr Product: The Graphic Art of Advertising’s Magnificent Mascots 1960-1985, a set of books that illustrate the story of the advertising mascot in America. This vibrant, colorful tribute to pop culture, treats readers to icons such as Cap’n Crunch, Goofy Grape, and Chokey the Smog Dog, as well as hundreds of rare and little-known characters that will surprise even the most avid fans and collectors of advertising ephemera. Husain will be discussing his collection and the genesis of the how the books came to be. Dotz will be available for informal questions after the screenings. Warren Dotz recently had a six month long exhibition at SFO, A World of Characters: Advertising icons from the Warren Dotz Collection; one of the most popular exhibitions at the airport ever. We'll be screening filmmaker Jan Stürmann's short documentary highlighting the expansive and colorful exhibit.  Jan will be present to introduce the video along with his perspectives. Oddball will be also screening dozens of Vintage Commercials from the archive, illustrating some of the characters that entice us to purchase cereal, gasoline, oats and more! Commercial cameos include (but not limited to) The Chiquita Banana, Twinkie the Kid, Count Chocula, The Campbell's Soup Kids and the Esso Tiger.  Plus, more advertising and branding films and clips from the archive: The 30-Second Dream (1977), Soopergoop (1976) and an excerpt from The Colonel Comes to Japan (1984).

from Meet Mr. Product © Warren Dotz 2015

Date: Thursday, August 20th, 2015 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

The Untrained Eye - Primitive, Folk and Outsider Artists - Thur. Aug. 13th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents The Untrained Eye: Primitive, Folk and Outsider Artists. This unique program of 16mm documentaries from the 1950s-1980s features untrained artists who simply create out of a love for creating, and who, without formal schooling, possess an innocence and unique perspective not found in trained artists.  Visit the Mojave Desert and the "Bird Cage Theater" of life-sized dolls made by Calvin Black in Possum Trot (1977).  At 80 years old, Harry Lieberman found his true calling - painting - and at 102, with several one man gallery shows behind him, he credits art with saving his life in 102 Mature: The Art of Harry Lieberman (1980).  And head down to the farm with America's most famous folk artist, Grandma Moses (1950) to see a Technicolor "portrait of the artist as an old lady". Plus, a fascinating excerpt of grandma-turned-Warhol Superstar Woo Hoo May Wilson (1970), and A Boy Creates (1971), a non-narrative film that 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, August 13th, 2015 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 

Learn your Lesson from Herk Harvey - 1950s Mental Hygiene Master - Fri. August 14th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Learn your Lesson from Herk Harvey - 1950s Mental Hygiene Master, the 29th in a monthly series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic educational films, mental hygiene primers and TV specials of the collection. This month, we salute Harold "Herk" Harvey (1924-1996), a director of over 400 mental hygiene and educational films and one feature; the cult horror film Carnival of Souls. This program will delve into his early work of 1950s social guidance films on sex, drinking and driving, snobbery, griping, prejudice, good manners and more! These films, mostly produced as part of the Young America series - and all by Centron Films in Kansas - represent some of the favorites of the collection as well as a few brand new finds we've never screened.  Watch mice get drunk and drunks flip cars in the teen drunk-driving scare film None for the Road (1957). In Oddball sex ed favorite The Innocent Party (1959), watch out for loose girls; they probably all have syphilis that they're anxious to spread to you and your unsuspecting girlfriend. In What About Prejudice? (1959) everybody in class has it out for the faceless minority student for a variety of terrible reasons, until he steps up and saves a classmate's life and ends up in the hospital.  Several of the mental hygiene films feature misunderstood outcasts that dare to be different, and end up alone or giving in to the pressure to be friendly, cheerful, and in line with gender norms. George Foster's got a chip on his shoulder, a negative opinion about everything, and a superimposed "conscience" that is tired of trying to keep in-line The Griper (1954). In The Snob (1958), Sarah thinks she's better than all the popular kids and would rather study than party; but that doesn't mean she doesn't have feelings. Barbara is pushy, rude, and loud - and she wonders why she doesn't have any friends - hopefully the library has a book to teach her all about Manners in Public (1958). Plus, a trip to the farm and the slaughterhouse with a later nutritional primer Pork: a Meal with a Squeal (1963), pre-show surprises and we'll be raffling off a DVD of Harvey's feature film Carnival of Souls.

Date: Friday, August 14th, 2015 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

Antique Animal Antics! - Fri. Aug. 7th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Antique Animal Antics!, a program of vintage films full of adorable, hilarious and anthropomorphic animals from the 1930s-1970s. Decades before youtube, CGI, and the Buddies franchise, these furry film stars were doing tricks, solving crimes, talking, singing and drinking at the local pub! A crime-solving, canoeing pooch tracks down a thief in the Yukon in highlights from The Test (1935) starring wondermutt Rin Tin Tin Jr. Fall in love with Squeak the Squirrel (1957), a little ground squirrel in search of a nut and willing to perform any number of tricks for those sweet nutty treats. Then, the Kodachrome tale of a rescued woodchuck who is forced to wear doll clothes for her dinner in Chucky Lou: Story of a Woodchuck (1948). Head out for a beer, with a bull in the hilarious and horrifying documentary Manimals (1978), about people who keep exotic pets in their New York City apartments from Oscar-winner Robin Lehman. Hammy the Hamster is back in a new adventure; when a boot makes its way down the river, Hammy and his friends turn it into a tiny house for the fluffy talking rodent in The Boot House (1961).  One randy pooch dreams of a lovely harem of singing bitches in the Jerry Fairbanks Speaking of Animals short In a Harem (1951). Hollywood primate Zippy the Chimp almost has his birthday party ruined by a bully, until quits monkeying around and gets revenge in Zippy's Birthday Party (1940s). From Oscar-winning Dutch director Bert Haanstra comes the docu-comedy Zoo (1962) that examines the unique behaviors of exotic wildlife (human visitors included) in a zoo.  With even more surprises in store and everything screened on 16mm film from the archive!

Date: Friday, August 7th, 2015 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: www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com

London Calling: A Vintage Cinetour - Thur. Aug 6th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents London Calling: A Vintage Cinetour, a program of 16mm films shot in mid-century London. From wartime propaganda, to art, documentary, music, ephemera and more, this is a one of a kind trip to another time and place. See the determination of Londoners in the face of the destruction of their historic city during the Blitzkrieg in London Can Take It! (1940) the propaganda short that helped change American sentiment towards entering WWII. Get a look at the art scene with A Lichtenstein in London (1968), a tour de force on site doc of the American pop artist’s famous Tate Modern show produced by Bruce Beresford featuring commentary by Lichtenstein, gallery views and shots of some of his most well known paintings and sculptures. The audacious Ken Russell (Tommy, Altered States) shows us his softer side with one of his very first short films, Amelia and the Angel (1957) about a little girl's quest for redemption through the streets of Post-War London. Black Cap Drag (1969) takes an in-depth look at two British drag performers in 1960s Camden as they discuss their lives and careers and sing a few Barbra and Marlene numbers in the historic gay bar that recently closed its doors. Zip around with Twiggy and other mod models in excerpts of Opus (1967) a fascinating tour-de-force montage of British art, architecture, theater and swingin’ fashions-all that was shocking in 1967; directed by experimental cinema legend Don Levy. And for a Technicolor taste of the British Invasion coming home, visit Tottenham and hear a few groovy tunes from The Dave Clark Five (1965). Plus, get a glimpse of the city pre-war in Castle Films newsreel London (1938) and early birds can tour the city with Vintage Travelogues. 

Date: Thursday, August 6h, 2015 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: www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com