Oddball Films presents Scientific Psychedelia, a program of eye-popping short science and nature films from the 1920s-1980s that capture nature's most surreal, kaleidoscopic and magnificent moments. From microscopic creatures and processes to a space landscape in 3D, to the intricacies of animal movement, these films will open your eyes to the natural wonders that lay within and beyond our own eyesight. Join Homer Groening (Matt's father) as he recontextualizes water and creates a Study in Wet (1964). Behold the ghostly landscapes of our closest planet in Mars in 3D: Images from the Viking Mission (1983). Award-wining filmmaker Carroll Ballard’s (The Black Stallion) abstract film Crystallization (1975) explores the intricate and dazzling formation of crystals in liquids all set to an innovative electronic sound score. Tiny alien creatures abound in the microscopic slides of photographer-biologist Roman Vishniac, in The Big Little World of Roman Vishniac (1980's), whose wondrously amorphous images come to resemble avant-garde cinema. Go inside one of the world's most controversial flowers and see the life cycle of the heroin poppy using time-lapse photography in the eerie and breathtaking Dream Flowers (1935). Basic physical principles are the focus of Invisible Forces (1920s), and the visuals of capillary action in sugarcubes will tantalize and mesmerize. Bell Laboratories brings us Laser (1979), another stunner all about harnessing the power of light for medical and scientific purposes. Watch the surreal movements of rays in French medical film Eagle Ray Experiment (1935). Plus, synthed out close-ups of exotic fish in Aquarium (1978) and another trip through space with NASA in Spaceborne (1977) for the early birds. All films screened in 16mm from the archive.
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Featuring:
A short, semi-experimental piece from Matt Groening's father, Homer Groening. As a title card informs us in the beginning, everything in this film is wet; from mesmerizing reflections on the ocean to groovy 60s surfer chicks to the melodic drip drip dripping of the soundtrack (which is a recording of water droplets falling into a bathtub). The trippy visuals will make you think that optical effects were used, but it's simply the magic of science, nature and Groening's eye that bring us such incredible and otherworldly imagery.
Crystallization (Color, 1975)
Dream Flowers (1930s, B+W)
Laser (Color, 1979 Robert Deubel)
A lush and mesmerizing visual depiction of lasers and their various uses from medical to industrial. From gorgeous vintage laboratory interiors to an optical kaleidoscope of the many uses of this magical harnessed light beam, with a great moogy soundtrack.
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Eagle Ray Experiment (B+W, 1935, silent with added sound)
Soaring and diving in hypnotic concentric circles, the eagle rays in this French medical film form almost abstract patterns while swimming in their tanks. Ray flesh seen in extreme close up jitters and recoils across the entire screen, recognizable only as living, resisting tissue. This is definitely the most beautiful medical film in the archive, and as long as you can’t read the French inter titles, you won’t find out why the good docteur is so keen on these poor creatures.
Aquarium (Color, 1978)
A close-up look at colorful and exotic sea creatures set to a synthesizer sound score.
Soaring and diving in hypnotic concentric circles, the eagle rays in this French medical film form almost abstract patterns while swimming in their tanks. Ray flesh seen in extreme close up jitters and recoils across the entire screen, recognizable only as living, resisting tissue. This is definitely the most beautiful medical film in the archive, and as long as you can’t read the French inter titles, you won’t find out why the good docteur is so keen on these poor creatures.
Aquarium (Color, 1978)
For the Early Birds:
About Oddball Films
Oddball 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 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.
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.