An American in Madras - Bombay Filmmaker Karan Bali in Person - Fri. October 23rd - 8PM

Oddball Films welcomes filmmaker Karan Bali for a screening of his recent documentary An American in Madras. This compelling documentary primarily traces the American-born filmmaker Ellis R. Dungan’s years in India. Born in 1909 and hailing from Barton, Ohio, Dungan studied cinematography at USC before departing for the shores of India on February 25th, 1935 intending to stay for 6 months but ending up staying for 15 years. Without speaking a word of the language, Dungan brought many technical innovations to the developing Tamil Film Industry of the 1930s and ‘40s, and infused a sense of professionalism into its filmmaking. Dungan directed the great Tamil superstar MGR's first film, Sathi Leelavathi, as well as famed Carnatic vocalist MS Subbulakshmi's most famous films, Sakuntalai and Meera. The documentary traces Dungan's Indian connection right up to 1994, when on a trip to India, the Tamil Film Industry felicitated him in Chennai for his contribution to its development, a good 43 years after he had left India. The winner of 3 Indian Documentary Producers' Association (IDPA) Awards, this film will be presented by the filmmaker Karan Bali in person, all the way from India!  Early arrivals can delve into the exciting world of Bombay Movies (1977), an inside look at the wild and extravagant world of Bollywood films in the 1970s. 

Date: Friday, October 23rd, 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

For a Clip of Meera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksqMGF5bX0w

Cursed Kids - The Horror of Childhood - Thur. Oct. 22 - 8PM

Oddball Films continues its creepy month of October with Cursed Kids - The Horror of Childhood, with a triple feature of short horror films for and about children mixed with a smattering of educational scare films, animation and musical shorts, all on 16mm from the archive. Peter Medak directs The Rocking Horse Winner (1977), a demonic adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s chilling story about a boy who rocks himself into clairvoyant trances in order to predict horse racing winners and help his mother get out of debt. Di$ney gets into the horror game with Bette Davis and an alternate dimension of terror in the unforgettable Watcher in the Woods (1980, condensed version).  The ABC Weekend Special gets spooky in The Red Room Riddle (1983), a tale of a haunted house full of ghost servants and dogs that traumatized a generation of kids. Sid Davis, master of the scare film, brings us the scenarios of four "real-life" nightmares from the seemingly ever-present threat of child-molesters and murderers in Boys Aware (1973).  Are you scared of the dark?  Never fear, Spooky Boos and Room Noodles (1970s) - an animated anti-scare film for the tiny tots - will have you too baffled to be frightened.  And come sing along with the "feelings" gang and sing your fears away with the ridiculous educational primer I'm Feeling Scared (1974).  Early birds can relive the Mercer Mayer classic There's a Nightmare in My Closet (1987), plus trailers for The Exorcist and The Omen and even more surprises!

Date: Thursday, October 22nd 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

Home Movie Day 2015 - Free Workshop and Screening of Bizarro Home Movies - Sat. Oct. 17th

The San Francisco Media Archive and Oddball Films would like to welcome you to Home Movie Day in conjunction with the 13th Annual Worldwide Home Movie Day with a free home movie workshop and inspection and a free screening of offbeat and bizarre home movies. So, bring us your films: 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, and even 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 Bizarro Home Movies from the 1950s-1970s that everyone is welcome to attend. The home-made hijinks may include (lineup subject to change) Welcome San Francisco Movie Makers; From Here to Profanity a local amateur film with children acting out adult rolls; way-out contests including Wrist Wresting, Angels Camp Frog Jumping Contest, the ludicrous hi-jinks of ”Front Yard Bob” juggling flaming torches in front of his house, homegrown hippies in Banana Skin Freaks, elderly Tiki girls getting the burlesque urge, Crossing the Equator drag and hazing rituals, whale rendering and other very bizarre and xxx rated “blue” home movies too nerdy and naughty to mention!  So bring your own family treasures or just marvel at some one else's 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 17th, 2015 Screening at 8:00PM, Home Movie Clinic 6-8 or by appointment.

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

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

Learn your Lesson on the School Bus: An Accidental Shockucation - Fri. October 16th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Learn your Lesson on the School Bus: An Accidental Shockucation, the 31st 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, in honor of Halloween, we're bringing you the gruesome, horrifying and deadly history of the school bus safety film with everything from hand puppets, felt punching bags with faces, ghost romances and little goody-goodies to round out the utter carnage!  From Gene Starbecker - the "father of the school bus safety film" - come two of the bloodiest scare films of all time: And Then It Happened (1972) and Death Zones (1975). These over-the-top nightmares feature the rowdiest kids you've ever seen - wielding knives, smoking, popping pills - the most patient of bus drivers and bodies galore! Busses end up in lakes and upside-down, they run over countless children, and leave a body count higher than most horror films! On the lighter side of bus safety, audience favorite Bobbie the plucky Bus Nut (1980) is back spreading her good bus vibes in her favorite yellow "bus nut" T-shirt!  Watch out for the schmoadles, punching bag shaped blobs that terrorize the bus driver with their terrible hallucinatory behavior in School Bus Safety: A Schmoadle Nightmare (1975). Get ghostly with bus safety when a new boy befriends a girl on the bus only to realize his new crush is a Ghost Rider (1982).  With bonus bus safety cartoons, hand puppets and more surprises in store, it's a great night to buckle up and learn your lesson!

Date: Friday, October 16th, 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

Southern Gothic - The Haunting Tales of Ambrose Bierce - Thur. Oct. 15th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Southern Gothic - The Haunting Tales of Ambrose Bierce, a chilling night of deadly delights from the master of the twist ending.  Ambrose Bierce, whose Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Kurt Vonnegut called the greatest of American short stories, was a master of psychological terror. His short, unpretentious stories - largely set during the civil war - often featured abrupt twist endings and their simplicity leant themselves perfectly to filmic interpretation.  From Robert Enrico comes the brilliant (as well as Cannes and Oscar-winning) adaptation of Ambrose Bierce's haunting tale about the final romantic thoughts of a condemned man, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1962).  Also from Robert Enrico's Civil War Trilogy: the mind-bending Chickamauga (1962), a dark and surreal story of a deaf-mute boy's eerily playful interpretation of one of the bloodiest battles in the American Civil War.  Step into a haunted house in the well-crafted and devastating ghost story The Return (1973) an unsung short Horror classic begging to be rediscovered.  Early birds will be treated to The Boarded Window (1973), a tragic tale of isolation and mistaken identity. Everything screened on 16mm prints from the archive.

Date: Thursday, October 15th, 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 with Bill Daniel: Who is Bozo Texino? and Tri-X Noise - Fri. Oct. 9th - 8PM

Oddball Films welcomes photographer and filmmaker Bill Daniel to our Cinema Soiree Series, a monthly event featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights and films. Daniel will be here in person, screening his documentary Who is Bozo Texino? chronicling the secret world of hobo graffiti artists, as well as presenting his pop-up punk photo show Tri-X Noise featuring 30 years of underground photography. Ride the cinematic rails with Daniel's film Who is Bozo Texino? a 16-year chronicle of the search for the source of a ubiquitous and mythic rail graffiti— a simple sketch of a character with an infinity-shaped hat and the scrawled moniker, “Bozo Texino”— a drawing seen on railcars for over 80 years. Daniel’s gritty black and white film uncovers a secret society and it’s underground universe of hobo and railworker graffiti, and includes interviews with legendary boxcar artists Colossus of Roads, Coaltrain, Herby, and The Rambler.  Before the screening, tour Daniel's Tri-X Noise, a pop-up photo show comprised of 30 years of 35mm photographs beginning with the early 80s punk scene in Texas, featuring all of your favorite old school punk bands. This exhibit, all non-digital darkroom prints, charts a path starting with punk shows in Texas, and crawls through various subcultures from the 90s graffiti scene in San Francisco, freight hopping scenarios, art openings in Los Angeles, house shows in Louisiana, generator shows on the Monongahela River, etc... all seen through Daniel's unique, spelunker flash-lit vision. These shows are all one-night pop-up site-specific events, with a free-standing “gallery” -- a free-standing wall that stands in the middle of a space, with photos on both sides. Plus! Between the photo show and the film, Daniel will be speaking about his creative and migratory practices and we'll be screening the 16mm traveling carny documentary Circus Nomads (1975) from the archive.

Date: Friday, October 9th, 2015 

7:00pm: Reception and Photo Show  8:00pm: Screening
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 for photo show and screening. Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117

Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com 

Strange Sinema 93: Trance Cinema - Thur. Oct. 8th - 8PM

Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 93, a monthly screening of new finds, old gems and offbeat oddities from Oddball Films’ vast collection of 16mm film prints. Drawing on his collection of over 50,000 16mm film prints, Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has compiled his 93rd program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This installment, Strange Sinema 93: Trance Cinema is an exploration into the cinematic documentation of ritual, trance and altered states. Drawing on rare ethnographic and historic acquisitions from the archives, this program showcases ritualized trance states, powerful healing ceremonies and ceremonial dances from around the world. Films include Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson’s legendary ethnographic study Trance and Dance in Bali (1937-39), Anastenaria (1970), a rare documentation of surviving Dionastic worship in Greece featuring ritualized slaughter and a breathtaking fire walking ritual, Ma’Bugi: Trance of the Toraja (1973) the powerful physicality of spirit-possession rituals of the Indonesian highlands, where men climb a ladder of knives, Pomo Shaman (1964), a rare record of a female Pomo Indian doctor who enters a trance and cures a patient with the aid of a spiritual instrument, Walbiri Fire Ceremony (1977) showcases a spectacular three-day Australian Aboriginal communal ritual of penance, Himalayan Shaman of Northern Nepal (1966) John and Patricia Hitchcock’s examination of shamanism in the Himalayas including possession and purification, and Tanka (1976) David Lebrun’s remarkable and fierce animated vision of ancient gods and demons in the Tibetan Book of the Dead.  Also, pre-show highlights from Land-Divers of Melanesia (1972), Kal Muller and famed ethnographic filmmaker Robert Gardner’s profile of Melanesian men as they attach vines to their ankles, diving headlong from a 100 ft wooden tower in the Naghol land-diving ritual.

Date: Thursday, October 8th, 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 Erté Era - Deco, Design and Dance from the 20s and 30s - Thur. Oct. 1st - 8PM

Oddball Films presents The Erté Era - Deco, Design and Dance from the 20s and 30s, a night of films and clips that highlight Art Deco design.  From musical delights to animation, with experimental, documentary, comedy and ephemeral gems, it's going to be a gorgeous and entertaining evening. In Erté (1979), style icon Diana Vreeland narrates a portrait of the man that coined the phrase and single-handedly started the Art Deco movement through his art, advertisement, and costume design. See the construction of some of the Big Apple's deco architecture in Twenty Four Dollar Island (1927), Robert Flaherty’s portrait of New York City in the 1920s. Learn the secrets behind your makeup with the rare and exotic promotional short Accent on Beauty (1930s). George Pal's puppetoons take to the bandstand in the stunning stop-motion short Philips Broadcast of 1938 (1937).  The silent experimental piece The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1928) features an imaginative mix of miniatures and live-action to tell a bleak but beautiful tale of broken dreams. Betty Boop is a bit of a flapper as she teaches a dance class in the pre-code cartoon The Dancing Fool (1932). For a stint of comic relief, go decor shopping with George Burns and Gracie Allen in The Antique Shop (1931), a ridiculous and hilarious early short from the famous comedy duo.  Plus, a ton of jaw-dropping 1930s musical magic including Fred Astaire and a gaggle full of high-flying chorus girls in an eye-popping musical number from Flying Down to Rio (1933), the disembodied head and army of sparkling tap dancers in The Lullaby of Broadway (1935) from Busby Berkeley's Gold Diggers of 1935, and go "Slummin' on Park Avenue" with Alice Faye and the Ritz Brothers in a gender-bending clip from On the Avenue (1937). Early birds will be serenaded by Buster Keaton and his juggling radio act in Grand Slam Opera (1936).

Date: Thursday, October 1st, 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