Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 92, a monthly screening of new finds, old gems and offbeat oddities from Oddball Films’ vast collection of 16mm film prints. Drawing on his archive of over 50,000 films, Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has complied his 92nd program of classic, strange, and unusual films. For Strange Sinema 92: Too Cool, Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has curated a super-cool collection of teenage shorts that scream out COOL. These films, drawn from diverse genres such as mental hygiene, promotional, independent shorts, cartoons and documentaries examine the teenage lifestyle from the 1940s through 1970s touching everything from teen sex to shoplifting. These films are remarkable in their style, scope and cinematography. The program includes George Kaczender’s cool 1966 gem The Game, featuring mod rocking teens fumbling for play, Skater Dater (1965), the cult skateboarding/coming of age film made by Noel Black and featuring music by Davie Allen and the Arrows, United Airlines New York City (1968) a fast-paced NYC promo film featuring garage rockers The Churls, Turned On (1969), turned on kids at the beach with fast cars, heavy surf and a wild “Wipe-out” soundscore, The Day That Sang and Cried (1968), Dale Smallin’s (The Surfaris) groovy look at the inner life of a SoCal teen, Caught in a Rip-Off (1972) one of the best social guidance films ever made and proof that shoplifting will ruin your life!, Dating Do’s and Don’ts (1949), one of the campiest dating films ever (and a Oddball favorite), The Trendsetter (1970), Vera Linnecar's slyly animated commentary on hipness, and for the early birds, famed animator Chuck Jones unleashes his Lothario-skunk, Pepe Le Pew (and Penelope Pussycat), in the Oscar-winning cartoon For Scent-imental Reasons (1949).
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:
The Game (Dir. George Kaczender, B+W, 1966)
This great, lost coming-of-age story filmed in Montreal in 1965 is the very definition of cool- sort of a short , artier Quadrophenia (though no Sting sightings). They're high school punks - they play rock music on the beach and in the garage. They stay up late and have sex in cars. They pick on each other and talk about girls. The super cool garage music written and performed for the film- a must see!! Director Kaczender went on to direct In Praise of Older Women with Tom Berenger and Karen Black (but don’t hold it against him).
The Day That Sang and Cried (1968, Color)
One of the best social guidance films ever made. Ever wonder what happens when you shoplift something and get caught? Trance-like and horrific. Proof that shoplifting will ruin your life! Don’t miss the gripping slow-motion chase in this classroom classic.
The Trendsetter (Color, 1970)
Cool British animation from the great Vera Linnecar portrays a little man who is annoyed with the little trendies who ape and one up his every move. Illustrates how the trendsetters depend on others for their sense of self worth.
Stephen Parr
San Francisco archivist, imagemaker and curator Stephen Parr, founder of Oddball Film+Video has a long history of presenting and archiving the unusual. Since the 1970s Parr has produced and documented live performances of John Cage, Christian Marclay and The Ramones, screened his signature pop culture montages from the Danceteria in New York to the Moscow Cinematheque. He’s created found footage based films such as Historical/Hysterical?, The Subject is Sex and Euphoria! which have screened worldwide in venues such as The Anthology Film Archive, Jaaga in Bangalore, South India and the Leeds International Film Festival. He curates an eclectic weekly film series-Oddball Films at his archive and is a frequent presenter at film and media seminars and symposiums. He is an active member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. He has currently completed Laservision, a program of films exploring the history of lasers and holography inaugurating the Science, Art and Cinema series at Miami’s Frost Museum.
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 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.