Video of the Memorial Service for Stephen Parr

Thank you to everyone who attended the memorial for Stephen Parr. 

We appreciate the support. 

The memorial can be viewed in full at this link. 
The video tribute that was made for the memorial can be viewed here as well.

Thank you.

1/7/2018: Memorial Service for Stephen Parr

The Memorial for Founder and Director of Oddball Films and the San Francisco Media Archive, Stephen Parr is scheduled for January 7th, 2018 at the Roxie Theater (3117 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103) from 12:30pm - 3:00pm to be followed by a reception. The program details and location of the reception will follow. 

There will be film, there will be performances, there will be remembrances, there will be friends and colleagues. 

We are still accepting input about the program and are interested in presenting a program Stephen would enjoy. 

For those of you who are connected to Stephen from Syracuse, or who are nearby to Syracuse, there are services for Stephen planned in Syracuse with a wake at Farone's on Sunday December 10th,  3:00-5:00. Farone's is located at: 

1500 Park Street, Syracuse , NY , 13208

Telephone: (315) 422-1911

The burial will be the following day at 11 am Greenlawn Cemetery in Warners, NY and the family will be leaving from the funeral home. 

We would also like to share this video Stephen made for the Friends of Helen Hill program as part of the 2017 Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Conference that took place this past week. We thought Stephen's humor and keen use of archival footage would be appreciated during this time.

More details about the memorial will follow and we thank you for your support. 

In Remembrance

Sadly, founder and Director of Oddball Films and the San Francisco Media Archive, Stephen Parr, passed away suddenly on October 24, 2017 after a struggle with declining health. His family and Oddball staff have come together and are carefully working on ensuring a productive future for both entities while preserving the proud tradition of providing the most eclectic footage to our customers. Oddball continues to fill your orders for the most unusual and hard to find material for your projects. 

Concurrently, we are accessing the arts community of the most creative city in the world to help reshape Oddball Films. Exciting and challenging, we are confident that we will be able to maintain the high quality of our product and services.

A Memorial Service for Stephen Parr is being planned for early 2018. Details to follow.

Cinema Soiree - The Making of Maupin: Tales of the Archive, 10/26 (EVENT POSTPONED)

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the Oddball Cinema Soiree with Jennifer Kroot scheduled for October 26th is being postponed. At this time, the new date of the event has yet to be confirmed. Thank you for your interest, and stay tuned to oddballfilms.blogspot.com for updates. 

We are are pleased to announce that local documentarian and director of The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin Jennifer Kroot and her co-director/editor Bill Weber will be joining us at the archive for the next iteration of our Cinema Soiree series, and are thrilled to have provided over five minutes of rare archival material for the film.

The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin examines the life and work of one of the world’s most beloved storytellers, following his evolution from a conservative son of the Old South into a gay rights pioneer whose novels have inspired millions to claim their own truth. Jennifer Kroot’s documentary about the creator of Tales of the City moves nimbly between playful and poignant and laugh-out-loud funny. With help from his friends (including Neil Gaiman, Laura Linney, Olympia Dukakis, Sir Ian McKellen and Amy Tan), Maupin offers a disarmingly frank look at the journey that took him from the jungles of Vietnam to the bathhouses of 70’s San Francisco to the front line of the American culture war.

On Thursday, October 26th at 8:00 PM, Kroot and Weber will be in attendance at Oddball to present our next Cinema Soiree, The Making of Maupin: Tales of the Archive, an in-depth examination of their archival process, with exclusive commentary, deleted scenes, and plenty of LGBT footage from our collection to provide insight into the writer's cultural context and historical moment.

Plus! The film will be screening for one week only beginning this Friday, September 22nd at the Roxie Theater. Jennifer Kroot will attend for opening night, and will be joined by Maupin himself on Sunday, September 24th at 3:15 PM and 6:00 PM. See the film first, and then join us for a behind-the-scenes look at how it got made!

The Making of Maupin

Tales of the Archive

Thursday, October 26, 8:00 PM

POSTPONED

This event has been postponed. Stay tuned for an announcement about new date. Next month, Jennifer Kroot and her editor/co-director Bill Weber will be stopping by Oddball Films to present a behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin. Comparing scenes from the finished film with the Oddball sources it draws from, Kroot and Weber will talk about the process of turning archival research into a coherent vision, and how they sought to convey Maupin's unique milieu in their film. ALSO! Deleted scenes and film excerpts from San Francisco's gay underground (including A Marriage Manual for Male Homosexuals and much more!) provide context for Armistead's work and world. Stay tuned for a complete description of the program.

Seating is extremely limited for this event and it will sell out. RSVP now!

Venue & Ticket Info

Venue: Oddball Films
275 Capp Street, San Francisco (map)
Tickets: $12.00, seating limited
RSVP to rsvp@oddballfilms.com or 415-558-8112 POSTPONED
Web: oddballfilms.blogspot.com

About Jennifer Kroot

Jennifer Kroot is a seasoned documentary filmmaker. Kroot brings a background in underground filmmaking to her documentaries, and uses that sensibility to create surprises within her stories. Her tales incorporate shifts in pace and tone that allow a fluid and engaging structure. Kroot focuses on the humanity of her subjects, keeping their stories accessible and unpretentious. Her most recent feature length documentary, To Be Takei, a portrait of actor/activist George Takei, premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically by Starz Digital in August 2014 to critical acclaim. Her feature documentary It Came From Kuchar, following cult filmmaking duo George and Mike Kuchar and also featuring footage from Oddball Films, premiered at the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival. A Bay Area native, Kroot studied film at the San Francisco Art Institute, where she has also taught. She has been a guest lecturer at Stanford and University of Denver.

7/26 - The Holy Haight - screening at the Roxie!

Due to popular demand, Oddball Films is teaming up with author and historian Erik Davis to present a second screening of The Holy Haight: How the 60s Counterculture Changed American Religion Forever at the Roxie Theater on July 26th at 7:00 PM. If you missed it at Oddball in May, come out for a second chance to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love with us!

Davis will draw on a kaleidoscopic array of clips from our vast archive of 60s and 70s era stock footage, amateur films, home movies, documentaries and experimental films. James Whitney's celebrated visionary short Lapis will get us in the mood for a spiritual carnival ranging from Dionysian Acid Tests to Alan Watts' Zen, Jesus Freaks to Satanic Masses, rock star gurus to Pentagon marches, Sufi Dances to Jewish Renewal hoedowns. From celebrity yoga to corporate mindfulness to today's psychedelic Renaissance, we continue to live in the shadow of the hippie mystics. Come catch some of the old sunshine! 

Venue & Ticket Info Venue: Roxie Theater 3117 16th Street, San Francisco (map) Tickets: $12.00 Buy Tickets

6/13 - Sonic Oddities at SF Doc Fest!

SF Doc Fest is fully underway, and Oddball Films is making its mark! We provided footage to two opening night films, Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk and Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton, and our director Stephen Parr heads to the Roxie Theater next Wednesday, June 13th at 7:15 PM for another iteration of Sonic Oddities, a live cinema-sound collaboration featuring local musician bran(...)pos. Sonic Oddities Live Tuesday, June 13th 7:15 PM Sonic Oddities is Stephen Parr’s cinematic and auditory collision of film shorts, clips, fragments and reprocessed sounds. Drawn from his company Oddball Films' 50,000-film archive, this cinematic trek through the auditory oddities of film history features bizarre commercials, Religious propaganda films, campy movie trailers and Italian Spy films colliding with scenes of sunken jetliners, audio test tones and European animation. With a live musical score and mix by bran(...)pos and Stephen Parr  Click here for more information about this event.

Venue & Ticket Info Venue: Roxie Theater 3117 16th Street, San Francisco (map) Tickets: $12.00 Buy Tickets

Cinema Soiree - The Holy Haight: How the 60s Counterculture Changed American Religion Forever with Erik Davis, 5/25

The 60s counterculture overturned American politics, but it also radically transformed the practice of religion in America. On Thursday, May 25th, at 8:00 PM, local author, cultural historian, and PhD Erik Davis will be showing choice selections from Oddball Films' vast archive of 60s and 70s era stock footage, amateur films, home movies, pro documentaries, and experimental films in order to explore the many facets of hippie religion. James Whitney's celebrated visionary short "Lapis" will get us in the mood for a spiritual carnival ranging from Dionysian Acid Tests to Alan Watts' Zen, Jesus Freaks to Satanic Masses, rock star gurus to Pentagon marches, Sufi Dances to Jewish Renewal hoedowns. From celebrity yoga to corporate mindfulness to today's psychedelic Renaissance, we continue to live in the shadow of the hippie mystics. Come catch some of the old sunshine! 

The event will take place May 25th at 8:00 PM at Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street in San Francisco. Admission is $12.00 (cash only). Event is SOLD OUT -- stay tuned for our next event!

Cinema Soiree: Pop Music Explosion with Richie Unterberger, 3/16

Next Thursday, March 16th, at 8:00 PM, Oddball Films invites you to an intimate evening with author and musicologist Richie Unterberger, inaugurating our new Cinema Soiree Series featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights, with a Q+A to follow. Unterberger will be here to present Pop Music Explosion: Film Footage Fantasia, featuring a plethora of footage and rock music film clips curated exclusively from the Oddball Films archives. Oddball Films, the largest archive in Northern California, is a major source of offbeat historical and contemporary footage for feature films, television, documentaries, and media productions worldwide. Unterberger will introduce and provide historical and cultural commentary on the films, honed from his many years as a researcher and writer. The event will take place March 16th at 8:00 PM at Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street in San Francisco. Admission is $10.00 (cash only). RSVP to: programming@oddballfilms.com or 415-558-8117.

TONIGHT: Rare Alan Lomax films at Swedish American Hall

Our 2017 events series begins tonight at 8:00 PM at the Swedish American Hall, where we will be co-presenting WHEN I LAY MY BURDEN DOWN with the Noise Pop Film Series. Join us for an evening of music films shot over six decades by the famed collector and researcher of folk music Alan Lomax. And speaking of music, we will once again be opening our doors for 2017's premiere Cinema Soiree next month. On March 16th, author and musicologist Richie Unterberger will join us in person at Oddball for Pop Music Explosion: Film Footage Fantasia. Expect more information from us about this program next month. As always, if you’re a filmmaker and use stock footage in your projects, search our site or contact us directly. You can also take a look at us on IMDB to see how we provided important footage to producers like Martin Scorsese and TV programming like The Americans, and how Oddball Films is continuing to work in 2017 as an exceptional resource for filmmakers everywhere. We look forward to seeing you tonight!

When I Lay My Burden Down Rare Footage from the Alan Lomax Archive, 1937-1983 Monday, February 20th 8:00 PM Together with the Noise Pop Film Series, Oddball Films and the San Francisco Media Archive are thrilled to present WHEN I LAY MY BURDEN DOWN, an evening of films by legendary ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. One of America's most significant and indomitable archivists, Lomax exhaustively documented traditional musical performances for seven decades, and the vast collection he left behind has defined our understanding of folk traditions across America and the world. Lomax shot the films in this program between 1937 and 1983, in locales ranging from Haiti to Kentucky, the Mississippi Delta to the Newport Folk Festival. Nathan Salzburg, curator of the Alan Lomax Archive, will be on hand to give a presentation and Q&A session after the screening. Click here for more information about this event.

Venue & Ticket Info Venue: Swedish American Hall 2174 Market Street, San Francisco (map) Tickets: $12.00 Buy Tickets

Stay tuned for more details about our premiere Cinema Soiree for 2017-- Pop Music Explosion: Film Footage Fantasia on March 16, 2017, with Richie Unterberger, author and musicologist in person!

Looking Into 2017: Our New Event Series

We’d like to thank everyone for attending our screenings, soirees, and seminars. Our weekly film series has come to a close. In 2017 we will be presenting select events: We will be continuing our seasonal seminars and cinema soirees featuring writers, directors, and curators. Our premiere event, Pop Music Explosion: Film Footage Fantasia on March 16, 2017, is a cinema soiree with Richie Unterberger, author and musicologist. Going forward, these newsletters will be sent out monthly to give you the latest on upcoming events.

In presenting a new special events series, we are building on an important legacy. What began as an occasional screening from our stock footage archive grew into an award-winning weekly film series. Oddball Films showcased our rare and obscure films and featured international filmmakers and curators, with over 1,000 unique programs, all presented in their original format - 16mm film. We couldn’t be prouder!

A huge thank you goes out to our chief programmer, Kat Shuchter. She presented truly one-of-a-kind programming at Oddball Films over many successful seasons. Her creative spark and deep digging in our archives invigorated our series with over 200 eclectic and inventive thematic screenings, like Stop Motion Explosion!, Learn Your Lesson, Avant Garde Rarities, and many, many more.

Along the way we've worked with underground artists and directors like Paul H-O who appeared here at a soiree to discuss his controversial film Guest of Cindy Sherman. We provided famed filmmaker, Carroll Ballard with an original print of his 1975 abstract film Crystallization, and independent director. Nikolai Ursin also received an original print from us of his 1966 meditation on gender Behind Every Good Man for the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s restoration project. As we discovered forgotten or neglected prints for our screenings, we archived these films and programs into our database for future programmers, researchers, and scholars, and ultimately of course, for film audiences everywhere to enjoy them. We’ve enjoyed presenting weekly screenings as an important part of our stock footage business. We are still dedicated to entertaining our screenings audience and we will be presenting exciting events throughout 2017.

If you’re a filmmaker and use stock footage in your projects, search our site or contact us directly. See how we provided important footage to producers like Martin Scorsese and TV programming like The Americans, and how Oddball Films is moving into 2017 as an exceptional resource for filmmakers everywhere. We’re providing the same type of inventive footage we’ve been known to present in our screenings!

Watch this site and expect to hear from us in future newsletters.

Have a happy and fun-filled 2017!

We're Taking the Rest of the Month Off for the Holidays

Oddball Films is taking a little break and will not be having any screenings for the remainder of 2016, so you will have to wait until next year to get your fix of obscure and eclectic cinephemera.  Here's hoping your holidays are painless and your feastings are plentiful!

News from the Archive - Recent Projects

Oddball Films is letting you in on some of our most recent stock footage projects in film, television, commercials and more.  Recent highlights include providing offbeat footage for the credits for the Emmy nominated series Transparent, The New York Times, Ray Donovan as well as the documentary series OJ: Made in America and We've Been Around about transgender trailblazers. We also did research for Jim Jarmusch’s Iggy Pop documentary Gimme Danger, retro-tech for Danny Boyle’s Academy Award nominated Steve Jobs. And wouldn’t you know it?  They came to us when they wanted some 70s smut for The Nice Guys, Ryan Gosling’s latest movie! 

Oddball in the Press

People love to talk about us! From the Huffington Post to the SF Weekly, our massive collection and unique screenings have impressed, baffled, and inspired folks all over the world. Read what they're saying about the country's strangest film archive. 

Boozers, Users, and Losers - Vintage Drug and Alcohol Scare Films - Fri. Dec. 9th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Boozers, Users, and Losers - Vintage Drug and Alcohol 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. Watch mice get drunk and drunks flip cars in the teen drunk-driving scare film None for the Road (1957). Real teens talk about their dalliances with substance abuse in the classroom primer aimed at preteens, Drugs: First Decision (1978). Melanie and Kathleen are desperate to experiment with drugs in excerpts from Degrassi Jr. High - The Experiment (1987). As seen on TV, filthy hippies druggies get what's coming to them in Dragnet: Little Pusher (1969). It may be in Spanish, but you won't miss the message behind the bizarro cartoon Sex, Booze, Blues and Those Pills You Use (1982). And because it never gets old, the Oddball favorite The Cat Who Drank... And Used Too Much (1987) will be drunk driving by. Plus! Vintage Drug and Alcohol PSAs, Beer Commercials, LSD freakouts, the angel dust documentary PCP: You Never Know (1979) for the early birds and more tripped out cinema - all on 16mm film from our massive stock footage archive!

Date: Friday, December 9th, 2016 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilms.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com 

Surrealism in Animation - Thur. Dec. 8th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Surrealism in Animation, a night of 16mm animated shorts from the 1940s-1980s that delve into the non-narrative world of surrealism and dream logic. Realism is overrated and this program explores the magnitude of creative expression when freed from the constraints of rational and linear structures. Get looney with the Salvador Dali-inspired cartoon Dough For the Do-Do (1949), a tribute to surrealism starring Porky Pig. Porky also visits a house haunted with leprechauns and is transported to another Dali-esque landscape in Chuck Jones' The Wearing of the Grin (1951). Brilliant animator Philip Stapp brings us A Picture in Your Mind (1948), a poignant short influenced by surrealist Yves Tanguy and the war torn landscapes of Europe. NFB director and oscar winning animator Norman McLaren gives us a breathtaking serene and ever-changing and morphing landscape of his own in A Phantasy (1952). James Gore's Sixshortfilms (1973) is a stream of consciousness animation of faces warping into demons and birds transforming into telephones to strange and surreal effect. Oddball's all-time favorite cartoon Ego (1970) is a nightmarescape of sexuality, fascism, consumerism, a naked Mona Lisa and a host of other explosive imagery. Psychedelic animator Vince Collins loses his mind in the eye-popping Fantasy (1973). The visionary artist Jan Lenica, (among Roman Polanski's biggest influences) gives us a hip animated version of Ionesco's Rhinoceros (1965) utilizing collage and cut-outs. One naked little boy floats away from his bed and ends up baked in a pie in an adaptation of Maurice Sendak's censored, but much-loved In the Night Kitchen (1975). Eliot Noyes Jr. creates dreamy animation out of sand in Sandman (1970). Plus more surprises for the early birds and everything screened on 16mm film from our massive stock footage archive. Let reason go and travel to a world of unbridled imagination.

Date: Thursday, December 8th, 2016 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilms.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com 

The Spectre of Fascism - Echoes from Totalitarianism - Fri. Dec. 2nd - 8PM

Oddball Films presents The Spectre of Fascism - Echoes from Totalitarianism, a program of international 16mm short films, documentaries and animation reflecting on the 20th century's history of fascism and it's repercussions both artistic and humanitarian. With subversive stop-motion animation from Poland and the former Czechoslovakia, dark allegories of political conformity and rebellion, Alain Resnais' definitive Holocaust documentary short, and even Don@ld Duck as a Nazi, it is a powerful night giving testament to the power of the indomitable human spirit in the face of fascism. Alain Resnais’ masterful Night and Fog (1955) is both horrifying and necessary, combining archival material with meditative footage shot at Auschwitz and Majdanek ten years after the end of World War II. In the process, Resnais reveals the yawning gap between what’s left and what was, challenging the commonplace assumption that we can ever really understand the magnitude of history and its many traumas. From former Nazi-occupied Poland comes Tad Makarczynski's The Magician (1962), a pied-piperesque allegory of several young boys recruited to be soldiers by a nefarious magician, as well as the dark stop-motion animation rebellion Bags AKA Worek (1967) directed by Tadeusz Wilcosz. From the former Czechoslovakia we bring you another stop-motion marvel, Jiří Trnka's exquisite parable of totalitarianism and named one of the top five animated films of all-time: The Hand (1965), banned in its country of origin for decades. In De Overkant (1966), Belgian filmmaker Herman Wuyts brings us a bleak interpretation of a totalitarian society in which independence equates to death. The dark animated adaptation of Maurice Ogden's The Hangman (1967) is a chilling vision of the dangers of conformity and a grim metaphor for the horrors of scapegoating and witch-hunts. For a little comic relief (and we'll need it), we bring you Di$ney's Oscar-winning propaganda cartoon Der Fuehrer's Face (1943) featuring Don@ld Duck in a musical Nazi nightmare. Revisit the dark history of fascist oppression so we shall not be doomed to repeat it in the coming years. Everything screened on 16mm film from our massive stock footage archive.

Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilms.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com 

Cinema Soiree: “Celluloid Scopophilia: The Sensual Dimensions of the Human Body” with Kerry Laitala and Live Music by Wobbly - Thur. Dec. 1st - 8PM

Oddball Films welcomes moving image artist Kerry Laitala to our Cinema Soiree Series, a monthly event featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights and films. Laitala will be returning to the cinestage to present Celluloid Scopophilia: The Sensual Dimensions of the Human Body, a film program that examines the fetishization of the human body through rare medical and first aid films as well as vintage fetish shorts, Laitala's own handmade films, and live musical accompaniment from Wobbly. Celluloid Scopophilia is a program that treads the line between visual pleasure and pain in the context of Scopophilia, (the pleasure of looking). Through the camera's gaze, the pleasure imparted by the extraction and isolation of body parts is explored and dwelled upon, sucking the viewer into this seductive, unseemly form of compelling cinema sequencing the program to make the resonance between the films vibrate with a very pervy frequency. This program investigates these abnormalities showcasing rare medical films such as Pain and Its Alleviation (1961) and Oral Hygiene films such as the Technicolor Danish, English co-production Es Leight Ans Dir (1951), later dubbed in German, industrial First Aid films such as Shock and Breathing For Others (1955), outtakes from Obsession, an adult film shot in San Francisco in the 1980s starring Jamie Gillis, and underground foot fetish films. The program will conclude with the viscerally compelling counterpoint Secure the Shadow…’Ere the Substance Fade, a hand-made film by Laitala, a filmmaker and long-time collector of obscure and disturbing medical and industrial films. Additionally the program with incorporate live cinema film loops, triple projections and Laitala wielding her infamous “film flogger”, a celluloid “whip” created to scatter multiple images throughout the screening room. Laitala’s frequent musical collaborator Wobbly will be on hand to create some new sonic interminglings. The program is curated by Oddball Films Director Stephen Parr and filmmaker/cinema historian Kerry Laitala and all films will be screened in 16mm film. Celluloid Scopophilia: The Sensual Dimensions of the Human Body promises to be a disturbing, darkly humorous and ultimately fascinating look at our perceptions of the human body in all its fetishistic forms.

Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 8:00pm

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco

Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilms.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com