Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you Stop-Motion Explosion!, a program of mind-blowing stop-motion animation from the 1930s to the 1980’s. 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, George Pal, Art Clokey, Norman McLaren, Ivo Caprino and Will Vinton with new finds and a few all-time favorites. Everybody's favorite green clay-boy gets into trouble while baking in In the Dough (1957) and into a musical frenzy in Gumby's Concerto (1957). Go for the gold with two Lego sports shorts from Hungary, Gymnastics (1986) and Figure Skating (1986) both quirky and hilarious re-imaginings of Olympic sports that include robot and penguin intrusion. Brilliant Canadian innovator Norman McLaren animates people though the magic of pixilation stop-motion in Two Bagatelles (1953). Another Canadian, Co Hoedeman animates Russian dolls dancing in Matrioska (1970). Fall in love when your toys come to life in Ivo Caprino's enchanting Steadfast Tin Soldier (1955) in gorgeous Technicolor. Practical-special effects legend Ray Harryhausen gives us a sweet puppet version of Hansel and Gretel (1951). Will "California Raisins" Vinton turns Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle (1978) into a psychedelic claymation freak out! And see if you can identify if The Shivering King is in fact a Jiri Trnka Czech puppet film or not! With more surprises in store! And it wouldn't be a stop-motion explosion without the hand-carved art deco bandstand of George Pal's Puppetoon: Cavalcade of Music (1934). Come early to catch The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1986), an ABC weekend special with the mousy voice talents of Zelda Rubinstein and Billy Barty. It's a night one million minute movements in the making!
Date: Thursday, March 12th, 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
Date: Friday, March 27th, 2015 at 8:00pm 
Oddball Films presents Monumental Artscapes, a program of 16mm short documentaries celebrating those artists that dared to redefine artwork in the modern world by thinking and working on a grander scale. This imaginative evening includes the planning, construction and philosophy behind iconic earthworks, monumental sculpture and murals by Christo, Robert Smithson, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Claes Oldenburg and G. Augustine Lynas. In a mini-tribute to the recently departed Albert Maysles, we will be screening the Maysles brothers first collaboration with Hungarian-born pop-artist Christo as he constructs his first large-scale public work in Colorado in the compelling (and Oscar-nominated) Christo's Valley Curtain (1974). Robert Smithson documents his own massive construction of a 1,500 foot coil in the Great Salt Lake in Spiral Jetty (1970). Watch as one of Mexico's most legendary muralists plans and paints the largest mural in the world (in stunning color) in the kaleidoscopic Siqueiros, El Maestro: The March of Humanity in North America (1969). Claes Oldenburg speaks on the importance of his outrageous soft sculptures in an excerpt from Art of the Sixties (1967). And behold as ephemeral sculptor G. Augustine Lynas turns a frisbee, shells and sand into a Mayan temple on a Fire Island beach in Sandsong (1987). It's a one of a kind look behind the creativity and construction of some of the most impressively huge artwork ever to grace the valleys, lakes and beaches of the earth. 
Date: Thursday, March 26th, 2015 at 8:00pm 
Date: Friday, March 20th at 8:00PM
Date: Friday, March 13th, 2015 at 8:00pm 
Date: Friday, March 6th, 2014 at 8:00pm 
