Oddball Films and curators Lynn Cursaro and Kat Shuchter present Condensed Cream of Chuck Braverman, a program celebrating the work of groundbreaking and Oscar-nominated documentarian Charles Braverman, from back in his heyday of the 1960s and 1970s. Braverman pioneered a kinestatic style that merged documentary with experimental film, creating a unique and dazzling montage of still imagery, animation and short snippets of live-action film. With this revolutionary and oversensory style of hyperkinetic rapid-fire montage he tackled both the socio-political climate of the age but also the entertainment and pop culture icons of the day, often juxtaposing them in fascinating and thought provoking ways. His artistic musings include the likes of the Be@tles, Television, Nixon, American History and his favorite preoccupation, the Sixties. Braverman hit the public consciousness on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1968 with American Time Capsule, a 3 minute montage of the entirety of American History through 1300 still images. He spends 5 minutes to sum up one of the most volatile years in America with The World of '68 (1968). He takes on the fab four in the ultra-rare Braverman's Condensed Cream of the Be@tles (1974). In Television Land (1971), he breaks up the film into three sections on which to muse in his own unique way: entertainment, news and commercials. He roasts Tricky Dick in the unflattering portrait Nixon: Checkers to Watergate (1976). Though not as frenetic as some of his earlier work, Trader Vic's Used Cars (1975) tells the compelling and extremely entertaining story of a Southern California used car dealer.
Date: Friday, May 2nd, 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
Featuring:
Braverman’s Condensed Cream of the Be@tles (Color, 1974)
A decade-long pop-culture revolution distilled into 15 minutes of cinematic bliss. Rapid-fire montage of song snippets, iconic clips, apocryphal stills, and animation: a prototype of the modern documentary, only without the talking heads and fourfold as fab! This non-narrative film showcases the flip, exuberant 60s to the end of the sober, socially conscious decade as we watch airport mob scenes, madcap press conferences, records, concerts, books, posters and movies, all tumble past in a dizzy spasm of bliss.
Trader Vic’s Used Cars (Color, 1975)
For used car dealer Victor Snyder, “customer relations are everything.” On his modest Southern California lot, his mostly working class clientele can count on more than just a fair shake. Vic’s folksy sales techniques may seem quaint, but Braverman’s portrait is a refreshing look at a dying breed of small businessman with a deep understanding of the art and psychology of the deal.
Television Land (Color/B+W, 1971)
Brilliant, impressionistic, narration-free history of Television utilizing original clips, similar to the Oddball Films favorite “The Car of Your Dreams”. Directed by Charles Braverman, this snappy montage is divided into three sections: entertainment, news and commercials.
Nixon: Checkers to Watergate (Color, 1976)
Our embattled and embittered 37th president is hoisted on his own petard, or at least some or his own more notorious moments before the press! Braverman's playful way with two decades of sound bites captures his awkward ways and simmering resentments. Gathered together in a spry, narration-free short, they form a fascinatingly frank portrait of RMN. We still have Nixon to kick around and as Frost/Nixon and the quirky Our Nixon prove, some of us never tire of it.
World of ’68 (Color, 1968)
In classic Braverman style; a hand-tinted pulsating montage highlighting during the turbulent days of 1968 (the Beatles, MLK, RFK, Chicago riots, assassinations, civil rights, protests) set to music by the psychedelic drum sounds of Iron Butterfly.
American Time Capsule (Color/B+W, 1968)
Chuck Braverman presents the history of the United States up to 1968 in 3 minutes, utilizing a montage of 1300 images set to the music of Sandy Nelson’s Beat That Drum. Originally aired on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
The Sixties (Color, 1970)
Another Charles Braverman production that utilizes the kinestatic technique to profile the decade that produced the Beatles and the British Invasion (and some less savory things like the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon). Made in 1970 without the benefit of decades of hindsight, but also without much revisionism.
About Oddball Films
Oddball films is the film component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our films 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.
