Learn Your Lesson...About Sex - Shockucational Contraceptives - Fri. June 14 - 8PM

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Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you Learn Your Lesson...About Sex - Shockucational Contraceptives, the fourth in a series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic shockucational films and TV specials of the collection. This time, it's all about sex and its potentially devastating aftermath.  Teens talk about virginity, sex, and other taboo subjects in Romance, Sex and Marriage: All the Guys ever Want is S.E.X. (1976). Peter Sellers lends his voice to an animated father struggling to educate his child in the Birds, Bees and Storks (1965). Di$ney brings us a very different kind of cartoon, the disturbingly knee-slapping VD: Attack Plan (1972) featuring a syphilitic army sergeant directing his VD troops into battle against stupid humans.  The Canadians bring us a melodramatic account of Teenage Pregnancy (1971).  You better watch out for Herpes: The New Sexual Epidemic (1981) and all the problems that come with it. One girl's got a dirty little secret in the hilarious Innocent Party (1959). And since not all lessons about sex are bad, we'll also be learning How to Undress in Front of Your Husband (1937) with Mrs. John Barrymore. Plus! an excerpt from the twisted doctor’s training film Sex and The Professional, the entirely unsexy intro to a couple's film on better fellatio from The Center for Marital & Sexual Studies #17: Oral Pleasuring, the graphic vintage Army VD training film Sex Hygiene (1941) for the early birds, and even more surprises!

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VD: Attack Plan  (1972, color)
“Yes, it’s true. Walt D*sney Productions has made a significant contribution to the war against VD. “VD Attack Plan” – A fully animated Walt D*sney 16mm motion picture.” states the brochure accompanying this 16mm educational film. VD Attack Plan had some forward thinking and enlightening approaches (not just for D*sney but everyone else producing this type of film in 1973) to the subject of sexually transmitted diseases including promotion of condoms (instead of abstinence) and the fact that VD can be spread through same sex couplings.  This “war against disease “ film doesn’t miss a beat-even showcasing some of the graphic effects of the disease in action.  In brilliant Technicolor, just like you’d want it to be.

Birds, Bees and Storks (1965, color)

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A father sets out to explain the facts of life to his son, but becomes increasingly embarrassed to the point where his explanations are so vague as to be incomprehensible. Inspired by Gerard Hoffnung's 1960 book of the same name, this is a delightful and all too familiar study of the embarrassed middle-aged British male, as a father attempts to explain the facts of life to his son but ends up delivering a monologue so packed with euphemisms about birds, bees and butterflies that it ends up being totally incoherent. Produced by the esteemed Halas & Batchelor Animation Studio, the visual style (inspired directly by Hoffnung's drawings) is simple in the extreme - for much of the film, we just watch the father squirming and blushing in his chair, which focuses our attention both on Peter Sellers' monologue and director John Halas' subtle visual characterization, all nervous tics and fidgeting.

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Herpes: The New Sexual Epidemic (Color, 1981)
“Oh no, Kathy! Did you tell David?” Join three people on their painful, and itchy journeys with the simplex. One is a young woman in the thralls of love, but a prison of shame.  One is an expectant mother, ready to give the gift of life, not herpes. And the last is a sailor, infected from exotic ports of call, but hoping to dock in his beloveds harbor. Feel the pain, then, learn the facts about the “new” epidemic… 

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Teenage Pregnancy (Color, 1971)

No one can bring you the melodrama of teen pregnancy quite like the Canadians. This campy morsel features a lot of worry, disappointment, facts and good old-fashioned overacting. Like a lost Degrassi episode, the touching story of 16 year-old Betty’s life will bring you to tears…of laughter!

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The Innocent Party (Color, 1959)
The guilt-tripped noir-like shocker about a “dirty” girl and her hidden secret- VD! See what happens when she “gifts’ her boyfriend with it!  A cool beatnik-jazz soundtrack highlights highlights this sordid tale produced by the Kansas State Board of Health!

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How to Undress in Front of Your Husband (1937)

Finally!  A valuable lesson you can use tonight!  An exercise in exhibitionism starring Elaine Barrie AKA Mrs. John Barrymore (!) wife of the famed Hollywood legend.  No wonder she was his last wife!

For The Early Birds:

Sex Hygiene (B&W, 1941)
“Most men know less about their own bodies than they do about automobiles” admonishes the doctor that’s about to take one army base of whore-mongering recruits and teach them the disgusting truth of what awaits them after trifling with “contaminated women.”  This classic VD film was produced in WWII by the War Department in collaboration with the Surgeon General and through epic, Star Wars-length written prologues, and graphic footage of chancres and blisters, it sought to keep our troops in fighting shape, with lessons we can still stand to learn today.