From the Beyond - Past Lives, Ghosts, and Telekinesis - Thurs. Oct. 20th - 8PM

Oddball Films Media • Oct 12, 2016


Oddball Films continues the spooky month of October with From the Beyond: Past Lives, Ghosts, and Telekinesis, an unsettling program of spooky phenomenons on 16mm film unearthed from the archive. Go under hypnosis and seek out your past lives with The Bloxham Tapes (1978). These actual recordings (and the re-imagined reenactments) of the hypnosis sessions of Arnall Bloxham reveal the kind of uncanny details that lend to the belief in reincarnation, or are they merely implanted memories in suggestive people. 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 of shadows and spirits. One child conjures demonic forces in an attempt to fix his parents' money problems in Peter Medak's chilling adaptation of The Rocking Horse Winner (1977). Attend the annual seance on the anniversary of Houdini's death in an attempt to summon the spirit of the world's greatest escape artist in an excerpt of Houdini Never Died (1978), narrated by Burgess Meredith. And discover the "poltergeist boy" through tales of his telekinetic automatic writing of various little-known British historical figures in Matthew Manning: Study of a Psychic (1974). Plus, the Chiquita Banana turns fortune teller and divines truths out of a crystal ball and more unearthly delights.




Date: Thursday, October 20th, 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


Featuring:

The Monkey's Paw (Color, 1978)
A classic tale of horror originally scribed by W.W. Jacobs and adapted by Martha Moran. An old man is given a mysterious monkey's paw as a gift and told it will grant him three wishes, but each will come with a price. When the man's son is killed as a result of one of his wishes, he asks to have his son returned from the grave, but that will have its own horrific consequences.


The Bloxham Tapes (Color, 1978, excerpt)
A fascinating British documentary focusing on the tape recordings of eminent hypnotherapist Arnall Bloxham who, over the course of more than 20 years, has hypnotized 400 people, recording what appear to be uncannily detailed descriptions of previous lives. The film considers the question of whether or not the Bloxham tapes can be taken as proof of reincarnation or the possibility of the hoax of implanted memories.  The film features real participants and re-imagined reenactments of the detailed stories that come out of their sessions.


Nightangel (Color, 1986)
A seamless blend of puppet animation and the pinscreen technique is used in this evocative, romantic story by Břetislav Pojar of a man's obsession with a mysterious and benign spirit. When tragedy befalls him, he finds refuge in the love this nightangel has shown him. Winner of the L.A. Film Critics Award.

Houdini Never Died (B+W/Color, 1978, excerpt)

Harry Houdini is perhaps the best-known magician and escape artist in American popular memory. In addition to his death-defying feats, he was also committed to debunking spiritualism and otherworldly claims. His magic was grounded in the physicality of his acts; they were simply fantastic escapes and illusions, rather than something supernatural. Both sides of Houdini are on display in this fascinating documentary, which contains rarely-seen archival footage of Houdini, narrated by Burgess Meredith.


Matthew Manning: Study of the Psychic (1974, Color, excerpt)
Alleged British psychic and healer, Matthew Manning was born in 1955, and, according to his autobiography found himself at the centre of inexplicable events from an early age. This doc describes his ability to telekinetically move objects, his “automatic writing” directed by spirits of the dead and his metal-bending displays. Fact or fraud? You decide!

For the Early Birds:




The Rocking Horse Winner (Color, 1977)

Adapted from the chilling D.H. Lawrence story, The Rocking Horse Winner features a youngster in a strained familial situation, who eavesdrops on his parents’ raucous quarrels over money.  Desperate to cheer up his depressive mother, who can no longer afford to pay the bills of their grand family estate and who grieves that her “luck has run out,” and spurred on by whispers he hears from the house that “there must be more money,” young Paul begins secretly placing bets on horses through his sympathetic uncle (played by Kenneth More) to raise money for his mom.  Little does his uncle know, however, that Paul’s miraculous winning streak has been ill-achieved, through semi-satanic means.  This film features black magic, a trippy soundtrack, and a blood curdling climax. Directed by Peter Medak (The Changeling) for the Canadian literary horror show Classics Dark and Dangerous.




Curator’s Biography



  
      
  

    
              
  



          


  




Kat Shuchter is a graduate of UC Berkeley in Film Studies. She is a filmmaker, artist and esoteric film hoarder. She has helped program shows at the PFA, The Nuart and Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater and was crowned “Found Footage Queen” of Los Angeles, 2009. She has programmed over 200 shows at Oddball on everything from puberty primers to experimental animation.


About Oddball FilmsOddball films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world. Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.