Oddball Films presents Political Party Animals: Bizarro Politics and Propaganda, a night of the most strangest electoral eccentricities of the archive. On the week of the most controversial presidential election of the century, we're tapping into the historical and hysterical vaults of the collection with tons of politically themed cartoons, commercials, spoofs, propaganda and musical numbers from the 1930s-1980s. All- American cheesemaster Jerry Fairbanks brings us patriotic talking animals with Speaking of Animals - In Current Events (1940s). Tiny Shirley Temple tarts it up and tries to… Read more
Oddball Films invites you to a unique evening with author and musicologist Richie Unterberger for our Cinema Soiree Series, a monthly soiree featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights. Unterberger is back – after two jam-packed previous shows – to present rare film clips of rock performers from around the world - and mostly from non-English speaking countries - from the 1960s through the 1980s including musical rarities from Brigitte Bardot, Nina Hagen, Nico, Kleenex and Shonen Knife. Rock music has long been dominated by performers from North… Read more
Oddball Films presents Vintage Halloween Cinema Spooktacular, a program of vintage 16mm films to get us in the mood for All Hallows' Eve with cartoons, ridiculous educational films, giant genitalia costumes, Satanic smut, witches, ghouls and made-for-tv terrors. Halloween Safety (1985) gives us valuable lessons about awesome robot costumes, horrible face makeup and of course, tainted candy. One man heads out to the Halloween parade in Greenwich Village dressed like a real dick in the mini-doc Halloweenie (1986, print courtesy of the Jenni Olson Queer Archive). Comic strip Krazy Kat comes back… Read more
Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema, a monthly evening of old finds, rare gems and newly discovered films from the stacks of the archive. Drawing on his collection of over 50,000 16mm film prints- the largest archive in Northern California - Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has compiled his 105th program of offbeat, quirky, experimental outtakes and unusual films. Strange Sinema 105: World’s Strangest Films is a tribute to the weird, the wacky and just plain stupid films in our archive. Films range from educationals, amateur and home movies, odd featurettes, news outtakes, screen tests,… Read more
Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you Stop-Motion Explosion!, a program of mind-blowing 16mm stop-motion animation from the 1930s to the 1990s. In a world saturated with CGI, Oddball Films opens the vaults to celebrate when historical, fantastical and anthropomorphic creatures were hand-sculpted and manipulated into “life.” This program features stop-motion heavy-hitters Ray Harryhausen, George Pal, Rankin/Bass, Art Clokey, Will Vinton, Jiri Trnka, Hermann and Ferdinand Diehl, and Eliot Noyes Jr., with tons of new finds and a few all-time favorites. Blast off with everybody's… Read more
Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present Cults, Sects and Mind-Control, a program of vintage films, trailers, original news footage and TV specials about the extremities of beliefs that can lead to brainwashing, violence and even murder. It's October, and that means it's time to examine the darker reaches of our souls, beginning with the tenuous grasp we each have on our own self-will. This program will investigate many of the most famous, most destructive cults of the 20th century, many of whom had their roots in San Francisco. We will begin with two outrageous long-form trailers, one… Read more
Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter bring you The Dark Artists - Witches, Warlocks, and Satanists, a program of vintage 16mm netherworld delights with saucy cartoons, lost TV episodes, experimental marvels, satanic smut and more! Ida Lupino directs a witchy episode of Boris Karloff's Thriller - La Strega (1962), starring a then-unknown Ursula Andress who must shake her witchy past to fall in love with a handsome stranger. This tragic romance features palpable chemistry between Andress and Alejandro Rey, Jeanette Nolan's scene-stealing performance as one of the most authentically creepy… Read more
The San Francisco Media Archive and Oddball Films present Bay Area Bizarre - SF's Strangest Amateurs, Indies, Smut, and Home Movies in conjunction with the 14th Annual Worldwide Home Movie Day. This night of 16mm cinema from the 1930s-1970s includes swimming horses, drag fairy tales, children acting as adults, homegrown erotica, psychedelic animation and rare films by hometown heroes George Kuchar, Chick Strand, and Vince Collins. We begin with Welcome San Francisco Movie Makers (1960) a rare introductory film for the San Francisco Amateur Filmmakers Club. Local legend George Kuchar's Lady… Read more
Oddball Films continues the spooky month of October with From the Beyond: Past Lives, Ghosts, and Telekinesis, an unsettling program of spooky phenomenons on 16mm film unearthed from the archive. Go under hypnosis and seek out your past lives with The Bloxham Tapes (1978). These actual recordings (and the re-imagined reenactments) of the hypnosis sessions of Arnall Bloxham reveal the kind of uncanny details that lend to the belief in reincarnation, or are they merely implanted memories in suggestive people. Bretislav Pojar's Nightangel (1986), made for the National Film Board of Canada… Read more
Oddball Films presents Killer Science: Nature's Horror Show, an evening of vintage 16mm science and nature films from the 1930s-1970s highlighting the dark, grisly, and deadly aspects of Mother Nature's wrath. From man-eating sharks to killer hurricanes to hungry bugs and battling squids, it's one night of nature's fury you won't want to miss. Leonard Nimoy explores the mysteries of the earth's deadliest storms when he goes In Search of Hurricanes (1978). Marvel at the ferocity of tiny adversaries when termites square off against hungry ants in The Battle of the Centuries (1932). Then, go… Read more
Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears 1944 Chuck Jones Pixie & Dixie Mighty Mite Pixie and Dixie Kit Kat Kit Pixie and Dixie Rapid Robot Sleep Happy is the 33rd animated cartoon short subject in the Woody Woodpecker series. Released theatrically on March 26, 1951, the film was produced by Walter Lantz Productions and distributed by Universal International. As an exhausted Woody trudges through the streets trying to find a room for the night, he comes across a vacancy in Wally Walrus' house. Woody instantly falls asleep in Wally's bed and begins to snore in a variety of bizarre ways that drive… Read more
Oddball Films is kicking off the haunted month of October with Nevermore: The Horrific Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, a ghastly evening of rare 16mm short films and animation based on the Gothic novels and short stories of the grandfather of modern horror: the inimitable Edgar Allan Poe. We begin the night with trailers for two classic Hollywood adaptations: Roger Corman's House of Usher (1960) starring Vincent Price, and Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954) with Karl Malden. Veteran actor Monty Woolley brings to life the claustrophobic Cask of Amontillado (1954) in a short but chilling rendition. Ray… Read more
Oddball Films welcomes documentary producer/director Mary Kerr for our Cinema Soiree Series, a monthly soiree featuring visiting authors, filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights. Kerr will be presenting her documentary San Francisco's Wild History Groove - a look into the untold stories of the Bay Area's Beat scene and unsung artists. The film is a “wild” history of the 50s underground art and poetry scene in California. These individuals produced unusual art as well as spirited poetry, unique to the West Coast. Their mantra was "don't sell out"--no compromising for… Read more
Oddball Films would like to invite you to our new Seasonal Seminar Series. We'll be opening the vaults of our incredibly unique stock footage company and film archive and inviting intriguing professional personalities to share their unique insights in various realms of cinema for filmmakers, post-production professionals and students inside San Francisco’s strangest film archive and microcinema. Our first guest, Marc Huestis is a cultural institution and a living local legend. An award-winning filmmaker, festival organizer, and presenter, Huestis is a larger than life camp icon. He will be on… Read more
Oddball Films presents Schoolhouse Schlock!, a ridiculous night of campy, trashy, antiquated, bizarre, and hilarious 16mm educational films from the archive. From the 1940s-1980s, with creepy puppets, evangelical batmobiles, children dancing like toasters, outdated science, and musical numbers galore, it's the best (and worst) educational film has to offer! School kids are forced to act out household appliances in a sad attempt at physical education in Perc! Pop! Sprinkle! (1969). Encyclopedia Britannica teaches you to wash your hair once a week and give yourself a good rubdown with a towel… Read more
Oddball Films presents The 1940s and the Rise of the American Woman, a riveting night of 16mm films from the 1940s featuring the flood of women out of the home and into the workplace, the cockpit, the wrestling ring, leading the band, getting behind the camera, and into the modern era. The collection kicks off with Woman Speaks (1940s), a rare and fascinating series profiling pioneering ladies of the 1940s. Katherine Hepburn heralds the rise of women in the workplace during WWII in the Eleanor Roosevelt penned Women in Defense (1941). Meet the women who worked in the wartime defense factories… Read more
Oddball Films presents The Menstrual Show: A Puberty Pajama Party. It's a night of hilarious and uncomfortable 16mm menstrucational short films from the buttoned-up 1940s through the frank and awkward 1980s - handpicked from our massive stock footage archive. Linda's Film on Menstruation (1974) features two clueless teens trying to figure out about the monthly cycle through cartoons, sports announcers, and game shows. Stay out of the water, choose your packet of sanitary napkins, and rub yourself with cold cream in the very British puberty primer Growing Girls (1951). Dance along with a large… Read more
Oddball Films presents Car-Toons: High-Octane Animation, an evening of 16mm animated shorts from the 50s and 60s - the golden age of car culture - with the need for speed. From road rage explosions to educational treasures, mid-century predictions for the future of cars, and stylish children's shorts, it's a night of animation in the fast lane. The little mole has the need for speed and soups up a toy convertible in the stunning Czech animation The Mole and the Car (1963). The National Film Board of Canada and Kaj Pindal bring us What on Earth? (1966) a martian's point of view of our auto-… Read more
Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema , a monthly evening of old finds, rare gems and newly discovered films from the stacks of the archive. Drawing on his collection of over 50,000 16mm film prints-the largest archive in Northern California, Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has compiled his 104th program of offbeat, ethnographic, experimental, and unusual films. Strange Sinema 104: Alternative Artscapes is a compendium of films surveying sculptural landscapes from such artists like Robert Smithson’s own massive construction of a 1,500 foot coil in the Great Salt Lake Spiral Jetty (1970)… Read more
Overeaters Anonymous - It Works! 1985 Dramatizes some of the pressures a woman faces because of her failure to control her eating, and her first attendance at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. Perc! Pop! Sprinkle! (Color, 1969) When pint-sized dancers are encouraged to observe and mimic the actions of household appliances, the results are more than any of us could have hoped for. We can never know how many youngsters took the inspiration of this film into intimate performances spaces in the 1980's and 90's. Creative Body Movement: Transportation ( 1969, color, 11 min . ) The kids from Perc,… Read more
