Trance Cinema: The Power of Possession - Thurs. Oct. 30 - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Trance Cinema: The Power of Possession. Drawing on rare ethnographic, documentary and experimental acquisitions from the archives; this program showcases powerful healing ceremonies, ceremonial dances and ritualized trance states from around the world. Films include Holy Ghost People (1967), San Franciscan Peter Adair’s (“The Word is Out”) legendary cinema verite documentary about Pentecostal snake handlers in rural West Virginia; Ma’Bugi: Trance of the Toraja (1973) a dazzling supernatural healing rite involving trance states and the ascent of a ladder of knives, shot in Indonesia; The Plains Indians: Sundance Ceremony (1947), documenting a powerful American Indian tribal ceremony and Buck Dancer (1965), a rare, mesmerizing musical short shot in rural Mississippi by famed ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. Transport yourself into ecstatic and altered states of being all while sitting down.

Date: Thursday, October 30th, 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 81: Time, Space and Movement - Fri. Oct. 24 - 8 PM

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 81: Time, Space and Movement, 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 81st program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This eye-popping program explores the themes of Time, Space and Movement (the representational essence of film). By slowing and accelerating time, compressing and distorting space (and distance), arresting and suggesting movement, these filmmakers explode the boundaries of conventional film, inducing a meditative, trance-inducing and in some cases a near-epileptic response in the viewer.  Films include: Spacy (1981), a stunning, hypnotic experimental short by Japanese avant garde maestro Takashi Ito; USA Film (1977) a single framed drive across the USA in 17 minutes; Allegro Ma Troppo (1963), the astonishingly beautiful ode to Paris; The Story of Time (1949), a beautiful and surreal stop-motion film about time sponsored by Rolex; Passion (1961) A hip, stylish and stunning puppet animation about a dare-devil boy who speeds his bicycle past the girls, eventually graduating to hot rods and motorcycles getting into more and more dangerous situations; Cosmic Zoom (1968), this short animation that transports us from the farthest conceivable point of the universe to the tiniest particle of existence; Rendezvous(1976), Claude Lelouche’s brilliant, high-speed drive across Paris via sports car (an oddball favorite!); Fantasy (1975), a hallucinatory handmade animated film from San Francisco animation legend Vince Collins evokes his mind-blowing brand of surrealist psychedelia; and The Wizard of Speed and Time (1979), a hilarious/ridiculous short by Mike Jitlov (the original short, later turned into a feature film) and more strange surprises!

Date: Friday, October 24th, 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 with Richie Unterberger on Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Rock - Thurs. Oct. 23 - 8PM

Oddball Films welcomes Author and Musicologist Richie Unterberger for our Cinema Soiree Series, a monthly soiree featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights. To mark the publication of the expanded ebook version of his book Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators & Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Rock, Unterberger will present clips of a dozen or so of the artists featured in the book.

Over the course of several years in the mid-to-late 1960s, rock music changed more quickly and unpredictably than it did in any other time in history. With so many artists competing for attention, it was inevitable that many innovators got lost in the shuffle or at least did not get the recognition they deserved, especially those who were boldy and experimentally fusing rock, blues, psychedelia, classical music, comedy, the theater, and more. Lost British Invaders, psychedelic pioneers, rock funnymen, blue-eyed soulsters, overlooked folk-rockers, behind-the-scenes producers -- all find a home as part of Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers, for which Unterberger drew on first-hand interview material with the artists and their associates. He'll talk about both the artists and the footage he presents between the clips.

The event will include footage of "the god of hell-fire," Arthur Brown; the Pretty Things, the best British Invasion band never to invade the United States; UK comedy rockers the Bonzo Dog Band; psych-garage oddballs the Electric Prunes; San Francisco's own Beau Brummels, the first American band to successfully answer the British Invasion; Bobby Fuller, who successfully channeled the best of Buddy Holly before meeting his own premature end; Thee Midniters, the best Latino rock band of the '60s; and pioneering folk-rockers Tim Buckley and Richard & Mimi Fariña. Signed copies of Unterberger's books will be available for purchase at a discount.

Date: Thursday, October 23rd, 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

Home Movie Day - Sat. Oct. 18

The San Francisco Media Archive and Oddball Films would like to welcome you to Home Movie Day in conjunction with the 12th Annual Worldwide Home Movie Day.  Members of the public are invited to submit their home movies. Bring your films: 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, and even Beta and VHS home movies to SFMA where they will be inspected and viewed by HMD projectionists.  Following the clinic, we'll be having a free screening of Vintage  Home Movies. Films include Welcome San Francisco Movie Makers (1960); Italian-American Families in San Francisco (from Cresci-Tarantino collection); Blackie the Wonder Horse Swims the Golden Gate (1938); Chinese-American Communities in San Francisco; San Francisco in Cinemascope (1961); the amateur films of Lloyd Sullivan: From Here to Profanity and Flight to Fantasy (1960); Chinese-American Communities in San Francisco (1941); The Jung Family Home Movies (1950s); and Tani Family Wedding Highlights (1959). So bring your own family treasures for a celebration of amateur filmmaking and home movie preservation. 

"There's no such thing as a bad home movie. These mini-underground opuses are revealing, scary, joyous, always flawed, filled with accidental art and shout out from attics and closets all over the world to be seen again. Home Movie Day is an orgy of self-discovery, a chance for family memories to suddenly become show business. If you've got one, whip it out and show it now."

-- John Waters

Date: Saturday, October 18th, 2014 Screening at 8:00PM, Home Movie Clinic 6-8 or by appointment.

Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco 94110

Submissions: Submissions are being accepted until October 17^th at SFMA from 10-5PM . No submissions necessary to attend.

For More Info: 415-558-8117 or info@oddballfilm.com
Web: http://www.centerforhomemovies.org/hmd/ 

Home Movie Day Promo 2014 from Center for Home Movies on Vimeo.

Mixers, Moogs, and Modulars: a Night of Electronic Music - Fri. Oct. 17 - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Christina Yglesias present Mixers, Moogs, and Modulars: a Night of Electronic Music. This synth-y show features live electronic music performance, educational films about now-vintage technologies, amazing synthy scores, and some weird animation.  Things will start off with a live set by local electronic musicians, Dan Steffy and Nick Wang, that use both old and new technology. Come early for extra listening! Next, we turn to the film Discovering Electronic Music (1983) for an awesome eighties education in all things synth and otherwise. With its quirky mix of animation and vintage gear demos, The Pretty Lady and the Electronic Musicians (1972), will show us how to win any heart using a Theramin. Next, Gallery (1971) will give us an 8 minute super-speed Western Art History class. The montage is beautifully edited to an electronic music score by Wendy Carlos, who composed the score for Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. Then, in Music Machines (1980s),  two babely hosts guide us through each step in the process of the recording and mixing of a singular piece of music in a 1980's 'state of the art' music studio. Spacey (1981), a mind-bending stop-motion by Takasi Ito will close out the night. Get ready for this crazy time/space exploration with, of course, an electronic score. 

Date: Friday, October 17th, 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

Animation's Early Days - Thur. Oct. 16 - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you Animation's Early Days, an evening of animation from the 1910s through the early 1930s hand-picked from the collection, including several super-rarities you won't see anywhere else.  From the kooky to the spooky, silly to the sexy with a little Rudolf Ising, Friz Freleng, Paul Terry, the Fleischer Brothers, Lotte Reiniger, Ladislas Starevich, Walt Di$ney and imitators, just to name a few.  Our earliest film; Ladislas Starevich's Cameraman's Revenge (1912) was one of the very first puppet films and features a delightful insect story of love, sex and betrayal. We have 3 silent Felix the Cat cartoons; the first merchandised cartoon character: All Puzzled (1924), Felix Goes A Hunting (1923) and Felix Hyps the Hippo (1924).  Many early cartoons were animated versions of comic strips, like the many faces of Krazy Kat, from one of his earliest cartoons Mouse-Trapped (1916) to a more Mickeyesque persona in Krazy Spooks (1934) We have a double shot of Paul Terry's Aesop's Fables (before his Terrytoon period: the charming silent fable Venus and the Cat (1921) and the super rare mechanized mousy mayhem of Radio-Controlled (1926).  Walt Di$ney and Ub Iwerks' Steambo@t Willie (1928) is considered the first sync-sound cartoon (thought the Fleischers had introduced a less-precise method years earlier) and features Mick*y Mouse and all his lovable cheerfulness. After the wild success of Steambo@t Willie, the animation world was abuzz with Mickey imitations, like the train conducting fox of Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising's eternally peppy Smile, Darn Ya Smile (1931). Also from Ising and Harman, there's the Bosko cartoon The Tree's Knees (1931) and a castle full of bouncing jesters and guards in The Queen was in the Parlor (1932).  The Fleischer brothers bring us a triple shot of the Queen of cartoons, Betty Boop: The Dancing Fool (1932), The Old Man and the Mountain (1931) and Minnie the Moocher (1931) co-starring Cab Calloway as a dancing walrus. From the exquisite Lotte Reiniger; one of her breathtaking silhouette puppet films Galathea: Das Lebende Marmorbild (1935). And just when you thought it was safe to bring the kids, we just uncovered a "new" complete print of the very first pornographic cartoon Buried Treasure (1928) starring the overly-endowed Eveready Harton. Come a little early for an overview of animation before the days of film with Animated Cartoons: The Toy That Grew Up (1947). Plus, a silent cartoon giveaway! All films will be screened from 16mm prints from the archive.

Date: Thursday October 16th, 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

Learn Your Lesson All-Stars: A Celebrity Shockucation - Fri. Oct. 10th - 8PM

Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Learn Your Lesson All-Stars: A Celebrity Shockucation, the 20th 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're featuring a Who's Who of celebrities from the 1970s and 1980s with educational cameos from OJ Simpson, Richard Dreyfuss, Bill Cosby, Ally Sheedy, Michael Jackson, Roberta Flack, Sonny Bono, Peter Fonda,Kareem Abdul Jabar, Zach Galligan, Michael Keaton, Billy Jean King, Beau Bridges, Ken Howard, Marlo Thomas, Paul Newman, Evel Knievel, Cynthia Nixon, Kristy McNichol, Scott Baio and more!  We have so many celebrities in fact, we're doing things a little differently; we're going to only be playing 2-10 minute segments of each, in order to get a taste of each shockulebrity and the very special message they were trying to impart to the youth of yesteryear and still pack in as many lessons as possible. The infamous OJ Simpson talks to kids about Dropping Out (1982); Gremlins star Zach Galligan tackles the topic of Teen Suicide; Richard Dreyfus warns business men of the 1980s about Cocaine Abuse: the End of the Line (1985); Sonny Bono, in gold lamé pajamas, tells you about the "unpleasant bummer" of Marijuana (1968); Ally Sheedy and Di$ney discuss AIDS; MASH actress Sally Kellerman wants to help those girls who are Sweet Sixteen and Pregnant; Kareem Abdul Jabar gives a motivational speech to an illiterate basketball star in the Afterschool Special The Hero Who Couldn't Read (1984); Evel Knievel and Peter Fonda want you to know that motorcycle safety is Not So Easy (1973); Roberta Flack and Michael Jackson sing about their physical shortcomings in the musical number When I Grow Up from Free to Be...You and Me (1974); Bill Cosby takes a comedic look at racism in Bill Cosby on Prejudice (1971); White Shadow Ken Howard takes 3 boys to the woods to talk about puberty in The Facts for Boys (1980), while That Girl's Marlo Thomas has a slumber party with a bunch of girls in The Facts for Girls (1981).  Plus! Afterschool Special snippets from a cavalcade of young stars, tennis tips from Billy Jean King, an All-Star musical spectacular pre-show and more celebrity surprises!  They may not all be A-listers (or even alive) anymore, but their shockucational messages live on!

Date: Friday, October 10th, 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

Ladyfest Bay Area presents Sisters are Doin' It for Themselves - Thurs. Oct. 9th - 8PM

Oddball Films welcomes Ladyfest Bay Area for a filmic celebration of strong powerful women throughout history in the program Sisters are Doin' It for Themselves. From lady wrestlers to big band leaders, musical numbers and animated inspirations, this multi-faceted program of vintage 16mm films documents the shifting role of women over the last 70 years and those pioneers that paved the way for women's equality. Films include Faith Hubley's Women of the World (1975), a beautiful animation about the many shifts of women's importance through history; Lipstick and Dynamite (1949) with two furious femmes brawling for the wrestling championship; all-girl big band Rita Rio and her Rhythm Girls tear up the stage in the sensational soundie Feed the Kitty (1942).  Katherine Hepburn heralds the rise of women in the workplace during WWII in the Eleanor Roosevelt penned Women in Defense (1941). Marlo Thomas and Harry Belafonte wants kids to know that gender-based roles are a thing of the past and mothers can be construction workers too in the musical excerpt Parents Are People from Free to be...You and Me (1974). Then, step into the shoes of real female construction workers, architects and coast guards in Attention: Women at Work (1984). A suburban grandmother remakes herself into a New York City art star in an inspiring segment of Woo Hoo: May Wilson. Plus, an entertaining look at history and changing social mores from a woman who lived through it all in an excerpt from Martha Coolidge's (Valley Girl, Real Genius) portrait of her Yankee Grandmother, Old-Fashioned Woman (1974).

Date: Thursday, October 9th, 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
http://bayarealadyfest.wordpress.com/