Oddball Films presents Antique Animal Antics! , a program of vintage films full of adorable, hilarious and anthropomorphic animals. Decades before youtube, CGI, and the Buddies franchise, these furry film stars were doing tricks, solving crimes, talking, singing and drinking too much! The evening's beastly brigade includes the knee-slapping anti-drug scare film The Cat Who Drank and Used Too Much (1987). Monkey spy, monkey do with Lancelot Link Secret Chimp (1971), the crime-fighting slapstick simian. Jerry Fairbanks brings us singing bears in Your Pet Problem (1944) part of the Speaking of… Read more
Oddball Films presents Celluloid Archaeology, a program of rare and imaginative shorts that we've excavated from the vast depths of our 16mm collection to be saved from obscurity. From international animation to documentary, ethnomusicology to dance; these shorts run the gamut of styles, but all represent the power of film to expand the imagination and dazzle the eye. Most of the films are making their Oddball premiere and most are otherwise unavailable via home video or the internet, so it truly is a one of a kind night! Travel with ethnomusicologist and filmmaker Bess Lomax-Hawes as she… Read more
Oddball Films presents Film Capsule 1965 - Groundbreaking Cinema Half a Century Later with a selection of some of the most fascinating, award-winning, visionary and mind-blowing shorts from 50 years ago. This multi-genred program includes insightful documentaries, innovative animation and transformative avant-garde works, all made in 1965. Polish artist Jan Lenica's hip animated reimagining of Ionesco's Rhinoceros (1965) paints an absurd picture of the dangers of conformity. Buck Dancer (1965) is acclaimed ethnomusicologist Bess Lomax-Hawes' mesmerizing musical artifact featuring Mississippi… Read more
The Archivist's Dilemma: Q&A With Oddball Films' Stephen Parr http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-nirenberg/the-archivists-dilemma-… Michael Nirenberg Become a fan Director, currently working on Subcultural history of Computer Hacking. Founder of Restraining Order Inc. with John Torrani and Flynn Hundhausen While working on my new film in the Bay Area this summer, I had the good fortune of being introduced to Stephen Parr and his massive 6000 sq. ft. archive aptly named Oddball Films . My colleagues and I caught a real psychedelic Will Vinton animation screening and got a tour of… Read more
Oddball Films invites you to Oddball's XXX-mas Spectacular, a program of vintage 16mm weirdness, with a delightful hodge-podge of creepy and kitschy Holiday insanity, seasonal and sexy animation, and bizarro smut all from our massive archive. In Santa's camp, we have the insanely campy Santa and the Fairy Snow Queen (1951) from Sid Davis, the man who brought us such shock classics " The Dangerous Stranger" and " Why Did Sammy Speed?". The National Film Board of Canada brings us two witty animated shorts; the delightfully strange Christmas Cracker (1964) featuring 3 odd Christmas vignettes… Read more
In honor of Hanukkah, Oddball Films and Jewish curator Kat Shuchter bring you Jew Ought to be in Pictures: Choice Comedy Rarities from the Chosen People. This program of comedy masters features rare films with hilarious Jews like Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar, The Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, Mel Blanc, Friz Freleng, Tom Lehrer, Alan Arkin, Eli Wallach and more. All four Marx Brothers bring us ridiculous warfare that includes dozens of costume changes, parliament breaking into song and Harpo Revere in This is War?(1933, excerpts from Duck Soup). From Mel Brooks, we have his… Read more
Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Learn Your Lesson...from the Mormons: An LDS Shockucation, the 22nd in a monthly series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic educational films, mental hygiene primers and TV specials of the collection. This month we are tapping into the ultra-schmaltzy mental-hygiene shorts of Brigham Young University. While rarely using the church as a character or setting, these wholesome shorts sought to instill the church's teachings of family values, abstaining, avoiding peer pressure, and the value of hard work through the… Read more
Oddball Films presents I Want it All! - Consumer Culture on the Skids, a program of vintage films that fall on both sides of the issue of wealth, consumption, and advertising. With long and short-form commercials, cartoons and capitalist-skewering satire, it's an evening that will make you think differently about pulling out your wallet. Pick the color of your refrigerator to Match Your Mood (1960s), a swingin' promotional film from Jam Handy and an Oddball audience favorite. Then, pick the color of your shiny new 1951 Chevy in The Rainbow is Yours (1951). Woody Allen and Joanne Worley try to… Read more
Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 83: Bizarre Cinema Histories, a monthly screening of new finds, old gems and offbeat oddities from Oddball Films’ collection of over 50,000 film prints. Tonight we present another offbeat look at the origins and bizarre expressions of cinema through historical inventions, experimental innovations and hand-made films throughout the ages. We start off with a fascinating documentary The Origins of the Motion Picture (1955) examining cinema history from Leonardo de Vinci to Thomas Edison featuring oddities such as the Thaumatrope, the Phenakistiscope,… Read more
Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you Cartoons in Space: Intergalactic Animation, a program of international Space Age animated shorts about rockets, planets, aliens and more outer space fun. As the 1950s ushered in the Space Age, the international imagination was seized by space-fever as man made his first attempts to blast out of this atmosphere and into the vast universe beyond. The animation world was no exception and began producing some of the most imaginative interpretations of the present and future of interplanetary travel. Daffy Duck and Marvin the Martian square off over… Read more
Oddball Films will be closed this week for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Have a delicious time with your friends and family and come see us next week for more eclectic and entertaining programming.
Oddball Films presents the Cinema Soiree Series, an upcoming monthly soiree featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights. Join us for screenings and eye-opening discussions on a wide-range of celluloid subjects. Jim Morton on East German Cinema - Thursday, September 18th Richie Unterberger on Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Rock - Thursday, October 23rd John Turner on Outsider Artists and Korla Pandit - Thursday, November 20th Laurel Braitman on Animal Madness - Postponed About Jim Morton: Jim Morton is a San Francisco writer whose work has focused… Read more
Oddball Films presents Outsider Artists and a sneak peak at John Turner’s portrait of Korla Pandit, the visionary television organist as part of its the Cinema Soiree Series , a monthly soiree featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights. Join us for screenings and eye-opening discussions on a wide-range of celluloid subjects. Tonight we bring you John Turner, author, producer, director and photographer of folk art and popular culture (see bio) and the director of the upcoming documentary of legendary cult organist Korla Pandit. John will… Read more
Oddball Film s presents Strange Sinema 82 , a monthly screening of new finds, old gems and offbeat oddities from the archive. Drawing on his collection of over 50,000 16mm film prints , Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has compiled his 82nd program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This month we present Strange Sinema 82: The Wild World of Saul Bass. Films include the Oddball audience favorite Bass on Titles (1982) , a documentary showcasing one of the 20th century’s legendary graphic designers, filmmakers and title producers - Saul Bass and featuring some of the designer’s… Read more
Oddball Films has the rare opportunity to present the sixth annual installment in the innovative interview-based series MESS (Media Ecology Soul Salon) featuring writer, editor, podcast host, musician and techno-counterculture iconoclast R.U. Sirius. Los Angeles media artist and curator Gerry Fialka will interview Sirius in person on the Oddball Cine Stage. This event is a MESS (Media Ecology Soul Salon), an engaging interview by Gerry Fialka with modern thinkers who will address the metaphysics of their callings and the nitty-gritty of their crafts. Screening before the interview; two… Read more
Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present The Future is Calling: Stunning Science Shorts from Bell Labs. Bell Laboratories— beyond inventing the transistor, the laser, the electron tube, the first communications satellite and so much more— also created some of the most visually stunning and campy industrial “What’s New” and “How-To” films as well as produced television programs that sought to bring science education to an entertaining and absorbable level by adding excellent animation, humor and story lines. These eye-popping films bring art and science together in beautiful harmony.… Read more
Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Learn Your Lesson from Di$ney: An Animated Shockucation, the 21st in a monthly series of programs highlighting the most ridiculous, insane and camptastic shockucational films and TV specials of the collection. While obviously more well known for their animated features, Di$ney (as Walt Di$ney Educational Media) has been making educational primers since the 1940s with audacious subject matter like menstruation, venereal diseases, child-molestation, drug abuse and more. This program features the high and lowlights of Di$ney's educational side.… Read more
Oddball Films presents Automania 2000: Vintage Cars on Film, a night of awesome automobiles from the 1950s-1980s dug out of the Oddball Archive. This high-octane 16mm program features midget car racing , mid-century automotive animation, kitschy promotional and scare films, vintage car shows and commercials all highlighting that magic machine on four wheels; the automobile. Behold the beauty of the "newest" line of Chevy sedans in the stylish promotional film The Rainbow is Yours (1951) from Jam Handy. Get in on some midget car racing with the "phantom racer" in Bullet on Wheels (1951). Halas… Read more
Oddball Films presents Oddball's Haunted Halloween Hullabaloo, a special Halloween program of haunting ephemeral films with dancing ghosts, satanic stripteases, creepy cartoons, ghostly educational films, murderous musical numbers, terrifying trailers and more spooktacular cinema. Ichabod Crane faces off against a faceless undead monster in the much beloved Di$ney classic The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949). Betty Boop heads down to Hell and melts the king of the underworld with her icy stares in the jazzy Fleischer Brothers' cartoon Red Hot Mamma (1934). Burlesque queen Betty Dolan dances… Read more
Oddball Films presents Trance Cinema: The Power of Possession. Drawing on rare ethnographic, documentary and experimental acquisitions from the archives; this program showcases powerful healing ceremonies, ceremonial dances and ritualized trance states from around the world. Films include Holy Ghost People (1967), San Franciscan Peter Adair’s (“ The Word is Out”) legendary cinema verite documentary about Pentecostal snake handlers in rural West Virginia; Ma’Bugi: Trance of the Toraja (1973) a dazzling supernatural healing rite involving trance states and the ascent of a ladder of knives, shot… Read more
