I, Asimov - Science Fact and Fiction - Thur. Feb 4th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents I, Asimov, a program of 16mm short documentaries, television episodes and short film adaptations from the great mind of Isaac Asimov. Asimov (1920-1992) began his writing career at the ripe age of 11 and went on to publish hundreds of short science fiction stories and books and dozens of non-fiction books and articles as well as coining the term "robotics", researching technology for the Department of Defense, and teaching bio-chemistry as a professor for Boston University for decades. Explore an Unseen World (1970) in the science film written by Asimov (his first foray into TV writing). From microscopes to slow-motion cameras, the film explores the question: what secrets lay beyond our present view of the unseen world? Ugly Little Boy (1977), an Asimov adaptation, brings us a surprisingly heart-wrenching story of the connection formed between a neanderthal baby brought from the past through time travel and the nurse tasked with caring for him. Another adaptation: All The Troubles of the World (1978) ponders the emotional wear on sentient technology in a world run by the omnipotent Multivac. The Weird World of Robots (1968), a segment of the CBS short-lived series The 21st Century, hosted by Walter Cronkite, examines the strange and surreal world of robots in the 1960s. This episode features Asimov advocating worker robots to replace blue collar workers, robotic dogs, human amplifiers and more. Plus, an excerpt of Population Time Bomb (1976), where he theorizes on several nightmare scenarios on the effect of overpopulation from Philippe Cousteau's Oasis in Space.

Date: Thursday, February 4th, 2016 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 the 1940s - An Antique Shockucation - Fri. Jan. 29th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Learn your Lesson from the 1940s: An Antique Shockucation, the 34th in a monthly series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic educational scare films, mental hygiene primers and TV specials of the collection. This month, we're taking the way back machine to 70ish years ago to learn about hygiene from naked sailors, menstruation from Di$ney, making new friends with Dick York, not being a slut, and even giving an enema! We're declassifying two homoerotic rarities from the US Navy: dozens of naked sailors go full frontal for their medical exam and a hands on posture lesson in Bluejackets Personal Hygiene (1943) and get down and dirty in the infirmary with an uncomfortable excerpt of Giving an Enema (1944). Watch out for hucksters slinging their nose shapers, spine straighteners, eye mallets, and pendiculators in the bizarre consumer scare film Fraud By Mail (1944). Are You Popular? (1947) one of the best examples of post-World War II moral hygiene films, features examples of "good" and "bad" girls, proper and improper dating etiquette and courtesy to parents. The animated brushes with sad faces want you to learn proper Care of Art Materials (1948). Dick York takes dad's advice on how to go from geek to BMOC in the classic social engineering short Shy Guy (1947). Plus, Oddball's favorite puberty cartoon: Di$ney's The Story of Menstruation (1945), war bond guilt trip Who Died?, excerpts of Men in Danger (1941), and more surprises! Everything screened on 16mm film from the archive.

Date: Friday, January 29th, 2016 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 

Dream Theater - Surrealist Cinema - Thur. Jan. 28th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Dream Theater: Surrealist Cinema, a night of 16mm short films and animation that delve into the non-narrative world of dreams and dream logic with works by Man Ray, Roman Polanski, Georges Melies, Maurice Sendak, Istvan Szabo, Busby Berkeley and more. Realism is overrated and this program explores the magnitude of creative expression when freed from the constraints of rational and linear structures. Man Ray's surrealist classic L'Etoile de Mer (1928) captures the furtive, flirting moments of sexual desire, ever so dreamily obscured. Two men emerge from the sea and search for meaning in a meaningless world in Roman Polanski's early short Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958). István Szabó's A Dream About a House (1972) wryly demonstrates the absurdities of war when contrasted with the consistencies of the familial unit.  Georges Melies employs his magic bag of cinematic tricks to bring to life the story of the infamous hallucinating nobleman in excerpts from Baron Munchausen's Dream (1911). Busby Berkeley choreographs a dreamy musical sequence featuring hundreds of bathing beauties in By a Waterfall from Footlight Parade (1933). Slip off into a dream world of cannibal cooks, naked babies and delicious pastry with the beloved banned children's classic In the Night Kitchen (1975) and join cartoon heroine Little Lulu as she hits her head and ends up in a bizarro nightmare of celebrity babies and bartending storks in The Babysitter (1947). So, leave logic at the door and treat yourself to a beautiful night of nonsense!

Date: Thursday, January 28th 2016 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 96: Visionary Music and Beyond - Fri. Jan. 22nd - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 96, a monthly evening of newly discovered films, rarities and choice selects from the stacks of the archive. Drawing on his collection of over 50,000 16mm film prints, Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has compiled this 96th program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This installment, Strange Sinema 96: Visionary Music and Beyond features films that expand the boundaries of cinema and music. The program presents rare music documentaries, experimental animation and genuinely forward-thinking films that meld together music and moving images. From the 20^th century’s most revolutionary avant garde genius Harry Partch to Bruno Bozzetto’s brilliant cameraless collaboration with swingin soundtrack maestro Franco Godi this program is an eye-popping and ear-opening excursion into the beyond. Selected films include The Dreamer That Remains (1973) featuring a rare profile of legendary composer, musical inventor and hobo Harry Partch; Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom (1953), Ward Kimball’s brilliant Technicolor, mid-century cartoon that explores the development of Western musical instruments from caveman to present day; Glass (1958), the beautiful, masterful, Oscar-winning short film about glass-blowing featuring  the occasionally eerie mixture of jazz, bebop, and the metallic punctuations of industry at work performed by the Pim Jacobs Quintet; Ego (1970) Italy’s Bruno Bozzetto optical printing and pop art imagery bond with master Franco Godi’s wildly ultra-lounge soundtrack; Begone Dull Care (1949) a cameraless, abstract, constantly morphing film by internationally renowned National Film Board of Canada animator Norman McLaren, cut to a upbeat jazz score by Oscar Peterson and winner of six international prizes; Allegro Ma Troppo (1963) French director Paul De Roubaix’s award-winning, hyperkinetic vision of Parisian nightlife between 6PM and 6AM, shot at two frames per second utilizing automatic cameras and montage sound; Jammin’ The Blues (1944), the most famous jazz film ever made- produced by jazz impresario Norman Granz, directed by Gjon Mili with noir like cinematography and featuring incredible performances by jazz legends; Free Fall (1964) famed Canadian filmmaker Arthur Lipsett’s synesthetic experience created through the intensification of image and sound utilizing single-frame editing and tribal music; A Balinese Gong Orchestra (1974), features the Tunjuk Orchestra. Each instrument is explained and demonstrated, then the orchestra plays a hypnotic and mesmerizing piece from the Ramayana Ballet Suite. Plus, for your preshow pleasure Discovering Electronic Music (1983), veteran director Bernard Wilets’ introduction to music synthesizers and computers used to create electronic music. 

Date: Friday, January 22nd, 2016 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 with Experimental Animator Ben Ridgway - Thur. Jan. 21st - 8PM

Oddball Films welcomes experimental animator, artist and professor Ben Ridgway to our Cinema Soiree Series, a monthly event featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights and films. Ridgway's mind-blowing abstract animations feature hypnotic and futuristic geometric forms that bring to mind the interior of an alien spaceship or the otherworldly beauty of an Ernst Haeckl engraving. Ridgway has been working on his sublime and hallucinatory experimental films since 1992 and his work has been featured in film festivals around the world. His “abstract animations investigate the metaphysical features of reality. They are designed to stimulate archetypal associations and invite the viewer to make personal connections to the visual and auditory experience without any reliance on narrative or spoken language. The focus is using newly available software applications in unconventional ways to generate innovative approaches to creating avant-garde films." Ridgway will be discussing his innovative approach to computer imagery as well as some of his influences in experimental animation and screening a selection of his metamorphic metaphysical work including Cosmic Flower Unfolding (2013), Inner Space Artifacts (2014), Tribocycle (2013), and Cellular Circuitry (2011) To foreground his work, the archive will be screening transcendent experimental works on 16mm film including John Whitney's Arabesque (1975), James Whitney's Lapis (1966), Norman McLaren's A Phantasy (1952) and Blinkity Blank (1955) and Ishu Patel's Perspectrum (1974).

Date: Thursday, January 21st, 2016 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 

Technicolor Dreams and Kodachrome Fantasies - The Mid-Century in Full Color - Thur. Jan. 14th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Technicolor Dreams and Kodachrome Fantasies: The Mid-Century in Full Color, a gorgeous time capsule of 16mm ephemeral films showcasing the long-lasting beauty of two obsolete film stocks that allow us a full color glimpse into the world of yesteryear.  With Hawaiian Tiki vacations, campy promotional films, beauty pageants, fashion shows, Chevy cars, and even a bird circus - all from the late 1940s-1950s in unblemished color - it's a vibrant cinematic trip back in time.  A soldier stalks his lady love across the country and breaks out in song in the camptastic Greyhound promotional film The Shortest Way Home (1948).  Set out for exotic ports of call in the vintage cheeky travelogue Polynesian Holiday (1955). Behold the marvelous spectacle of parakeets riding bicycles and tightrope walking in the jaw-dropping Bird Circus (1950s). Tony Curtis hosts a poolside party for the winners of Miss Universe 1955.  See one girl's dream fashion classes and an incredible array of mid-century casual fashions in Jantzen: Completely You (1954). Behold the beauty of the "newest" line of Chevy sedans in the stylish promotional film The Rainbow is Yours (1951) from Jam Handy.  Plus, snippets of Kodachrome Smut, Home Movies, and more!

Date: Thursday, January 14th, 2016 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 

Stop-Motion Explosion! - Fri. Jan. 15th - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you Stop-Motion Explosion!, a program of mind-blowing stop-motion animation from the 1950s to the 1980s. In a world saturated with CGI, Oddball Films opens the vaults to celebrate when historical, fantastical and anthropomorphic creatures were hand-sculpted and manipulated into “life.”  This program features stop-motion heavy-hitters Ray Harryhausen, Art Clokey, Co Hoedeman, Bretislav Pojar, Jane Aaron, and Istvan Imre with tons of new finds and a few all-time favorites. Gumby and the gang make a spectacle of a pair of glasses in Art Clokey's Dopey Nopey (1956).  Then Gumby must retrieve a coin from a psychedelic world of fun-house mirrors in Mirrorland (1957). Practical-special effects legend Ray Harryhausen gives us a sweet puppet version of The Story of Rapunzel (1951). Bretislav Pojar's Nightangel (1986), made for the National Film Board of Canada combines stop-motion with breathtaking pinscreen animation to create an ethereal dream world. Another NFB treasure, Co Hoedeman's Oscar-winner The Sand Castle (1977) takes a trip to the beach and creates a magical land of ridiculous sand creatures. Jane Aaron's breathtaking short short Traveling Light (1985) utilizes tiny scraps of paper to simulate sunlight pouring in through a window. In the rarest film of the night, Bill Has A Hundred Faces (1967) Hungarian animator Istvan Imre brings us a delightful romance between two billiard balls. The beloved children's book Corduroy (1984) comes to life in mixed-animation with a living stuffed bear. A hammer, nails and wrenches have a dance party in the George Pal-produced Toolbox Ballet (1971).  One caveman evolves with the help of some dino pals in Stanley and the Dinosaurs (1989).  Plus more surprises for the early birds!  It's a night one million minute movements in the making!

Date: Friday, January 15th, 2016 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 Erotica - Fri. Jan. 8th - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Antique Erotica with the best of the oldest smut, burlesque and erotica of the collection.  From the 1910s-1950s, this program of 16mm sinful celluloid includes insane pornographic cartoons, marionette strippers, early stag films, bizarre burlesque, nudie cuties and more! In the early stag film, Getting his Goat (1923), a man is in for a surprise when he propositions sex through a hole in a gate.  Eveready Hardon heads to the beach in the outrageous pornographic cartoon Buried Treasure (1928).  Nudism: A Way of Life (c. 1950) sheds light on the rise of nudist culture in Mid-Century America. A drunk old farmer tries to tune in to naked ladies on his new TV set in the bizarre and notorious nudie cutie Uncle Si and the Sirens (1938). Hop on board for what some say is America's first hardcore porn, the notorious silent stag film A Free Ride AKA Grass Sandwich (1915). Mrs. John Barrymore does the least enticing striptease you've ever seen in the entirely unsexy How to Undress for your Husband (1937). Plus more bizarre burlesque, The Fabulous Cat Girl struts her stuff, the marionette striptease The Doll Dance with Rene and Arlene, Busman's Holiday, a film for serious artists only, and the double vision of Stereoscopic Smut! 

Date: Friday, January 8th, 2016 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

Film Under the Influence - Vintage Drug and Alcohol Scare Films - Thur. Jan. 7th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Film Under the Influence - Vintage Drug Scare Films, a program of mind-expanding, terror-intending and hilarity-inducing short 16mm educational films about the dangers of drugs. These classroom classics from the 1950s through the 1980s were meant to scare the pants off the junior-high set but probably encouraged as many to experiment with drugs and alcohol as it discouraged. Strap in for Subject: Narcotics (1951), a very early drug education film produced for police orientation and training presenting dramatized sequences of addicts in shooting galleries with excellent footage of pre-renewal downtown Los Angeles (a neighborhood now lost). McGruff the Crime Dog is back (as a man in a clumsy dog suit and trademark trenchcoat) and he's got a lesson for the kiddies on how to narc on your druggy friends in McGruff's Drug Alert (1987). Tragic figure Sal Mineo knows the pressures on teens to fit in, but warns that taking acid is nothing more than a "kick in the head" in the appropriately psychedelic trip LSD: Insight or Insanity (1967). Tony's a junior high student and already a raging alcoholic in the very special classroom film The Glug (1981). Kindergarteners hand-draw the story of John and his search for an escape from his pain through drugs and alcohol in A Story About Feelings (1981). Scaremeister Sid Davis takes us into the world of pills and three boys' needs to feel good in The Pill Poppers (1970). Get drunk and animated with A Snort History (1971), a cartoon depiction of drunk drivers throughout history.  Early birds can learn all about Gina's Story: From Cocaine to Crack (1984), plus the trailer for the 1935 exploitation film Marijuana: Assassin of Youth and more surprises.

Date: Thursday, January 7th, 2016 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