Oddball Films and guest curator Lynn Cursaro present Pop! Goes the Classroom: School Films in the Age of Groovy. Many 1960’s sensibilities trickled down to the educational films of the 1970s - with wild and beautiful results. Facts and dates gave way to concepts, color and action. Narration-free documentary shorts, such as Night People’s Day (1971) and Pier “73” (1970s), provided more than just information about hidden workplaces, they gave students room to observe. Music was a natural subject here: Crash, Bang, Boom (1970), an early seventies oddity, proved that “school” plus “band” could… Read more
Oddball Films is proud to co-present, along with our friend from San Francisco Cinematheque, CROSSROADS 2012. Curated by SF Cinematheque Artistic Director Steve Polta, this is the festival’s third manifestation. Running May 18–20 , CROSSROADS will present a total of 52 films, videos and performance works by 47 filmmakers from around the world screened over 8 feature-length programs. Highlights of this festival include a tribute to Cinematheque founder and experimental-film matriarch Chick Strand (1931–2009); an in-person presentation of the “complete works” of Basque filmmaker Laida Lertxundi… Read more
Guest Curator Soumyaa Kapil Behrens and Oddball Films brings you a collection of films dug up from the archive about things which clog up our earth and those we seek to extract from her. It will be a night full of inciting issues and wondrous adventure. Jacques Cousteau and his team go on the hunt for Spanish Gold in Sunken Treasure (1970) and Emmy award winning documentary filmmaker, Joan Konner asks tough questions in an excerpt of Danger: Radioactive Waste (1977). The historical footage of Open Pit Nickel Mining (1944) shows how violent and methodical mineral recovery is and the memorable… Read more
Oddball Films and guest curator Antonella Bonfanti present Sports! Learn the text-book plays, the tricks of the trade and the showboating moves in this program filled with the campiest, most unusual and gut-splitting films about all manner of sports. See backwards cow riding and other tomfoolery with bovines in Calgary Cowboy Stampede (1951); marvel at Hockey: Symphony on Ice (1960s); and learn to save aquatic athletes' in Non- Swimming Rescues (1975). Ever wonder How Do They Make Tennis Balls? (1970), let Woody Allen tell you in this NBC educational; Paramount Pictures technicolor short… Read more
Oddball Films presents Colonial Follies. It was not so long ago when it was completely acceptable to portray indigenous cultures as primitive or barbaric. The representation of "others," fueled by colonialist and superior attitudes, made for films that showed sophisticated and ancient peoples as mere curiosities. However, t here were also filmmakers intent on respectfully depicting lives and rituals of cultures and in doing so created works of cinematic interest and beauty. This program plays these two methods of representation against each other, including films from the 1930s to 1950s… Read more
Oddball Films and guest curator Hila Avraham present A Touch of Touching . An evening of touching, brushing, fondling, caressing, and rubbing these films shows that cinema can be as much about grazing as it is about gazing. From sensual coition, to playing in the sand, to discovering textures with your bear toes, this program’s highlights include: Scott Bartlett’s famed and highly-tactile Lovemaking (1970); Fur Coat Club (1973), a cheerful tale of two girls playing a touch-the-fur-coat game; Sandman (1970), a curiously palpable sand animation; the instructional Communicating With Deaf and… Read more
Christine Lucy Latimer: The Virtues of Fusion Oddball Films proudly presents PAST FUTURE NOW! Films from the PAST have been selected by curator/artist Ashley Lauren Saks, that are about the FUTURE, which is NOW. Beginning with these 1970s and 80s film clips selected from the Oddball Film Archive (San Francisco) selected artists created video reactions/responses to them. This delicately curated program is meant to take the viewer through a journey from the Past to the Present to the Future and back again. The program includes commissioned videos by artists: Daniela Anastassiou & Miles… Read more
My Favorite Martian episode presented courtesy of Jack Chertok Television in association with Free Comic Book Day Oddball Films presents Treasures From TV Land. Whether it was a commercial or a sitcom, commercials or a variety show, most television production prior to the late 1970s was made on 16mm. This program features r are, weird and wonderful vintage TV screened from 16mm film prints. Highlights include excerpts from The Debbie Reynolds Show featuring the multi-talented leading lady in the skit A Date With Debbie (1960); Season 3 episode 31 of My Favorite Martian titled My Nut Cup… Read more
Oddball Films presents the 51st monthly screening of Strange Sinema, featuring new finds, buried junk and avant-garde gems from the archive. Films include the Ingmar Bergman spoof The Dove (1968); Claude ( A Man and a Woman) LeLouch's remarkable stream of consciousness Shah's eye views of Iran (1971) complete with 70s wah-wah guitar infused euro-pop soundscore; Chemical Booby Traps (1960s) GE's explosive how-not-to industrial short; what Rick the slob spread the soap around in Personal Health for Boys (1971); the famed erotic short Lovemaking (1970) by film-pioneer Scott Bratlett, Elda… Read more
Monkey Time! Apes, Chimps and Gorillas, a program featuring, pseudo human activities, animal antics and anthropological histories. Shorts include a rare episode of the TV series Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp , Chimp the Cowboy, Zippy the Chimp, Planet of the Apes movie trailers, Snow Monkeys of Japan, Chimps in Training and Show Business (!) and Monkeys, Apes and Man: The Chasm, with Dian Fossey and mountain gorillas, Jane Goodall with chimpanzees, and Wisconsin scientists studying rhesus monkeys. Plus! King Kong, Chimps in Space and more! Date: Friday, April 27th at 8:00PM Venue: Oddball Films… Read more
Oddball Films and guest curator Hannah Airriess present Road Trip USA. Just as everyone is gearing up for summer, this program showcases road trips of all kinds, from turn of the century trolley rides to space-age amusement parks. In the promotional film America for Me (1952), we see America from the vantage point of a cross-country Greyhound bus ride, filmed in beautiful Technicolor. The educational shorts Highway Mania (1942) and Not So Easy (1973) warn the viewer against the dangers of the open road; in Highway Mania we are warned against crazed, murderous drivers, and in Not So Easy,… Read more
Oddball Films presents Body Shop , featuring a myriad of films exploring the human body in all its forms from biology, physical hygiene, venereal disease to erotica. A beautiful and bizarre look at the human body in all its forms this program includes, Soapy the Germ Fighter (1951) which will teach you that being clean doesn't make you a sissy; a wonderful U.S. Navy training film, Swim and Live! (1943), stars many shirtless men, helping other shirtless men who will swim their way to winning the war; a young overweight and lazy boy "cleans up his act" and his nether regions in Personal Hygiene… Read more
Oddball Films presents Surfin' Tiki Luau . An evening of surf, tiki and Polynesian serenades offers an array of breathtaking, mesmerizing and rare films about an idyllic Hawaii. Highlights include psychedelic short Hang Ten (1970) by the surf film masters Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman; pre-jet travel footage of Waikiki beach and music by Sol Hoppii in Hawaiian Rhythm: Hawaiian Nights (1939); and Tiki featurette Isle of Tabu (1945). Extremely rare and in stunning Kodachrome, Polynesian Holiday (1955) stars bandleader Harry Owens and features his Academy Award winning Sweet Lailani; and a… Read more
Oddball Films presents Pick Your Poison: Medicine and Madness. This truly bizarre program of medical, psychoactive and mental hygiene films features the campiest, most eye-poppingly lurid, informational and coldly clinical gems in the Archive that are sure to give us thanks for our own "sanity." Highlights include, Pain and Its Alleviation (1961) a drama-laden, horror inspired mental hygiene film produced for the UCLA Nursing School; w atch a tweaked out Ohio teen talk about Quaaludes and other relaxants in Addictive Sopers (1978); learn about the effects of sedative hypnotics, opiates and… Read more
Oddball Films presents Crazy Cats! This evening of films about wacky cats, cat fights, and people dressed as cats! The program's centerpiece is the extremely rare feature film Eye of the Cat (1969). Penned by Psycho writer Joseph Steffano and directed by David Lowell Rich, this offbeat mod thriller was shot on location in San Francisco and tells the tale of an eccentric old lady who plans to bequeath her fortune to her colony of cats. Her nephew gets wind of this and plies to re-instate himself as the sole heir, despite his severe ailurophobia (fear of cats) and his conspiring brother and… Read more
Oddball Films and guest curator Jeremy Menzies present Weird Science , a compendium of eccentric, unknown science films from 70 years of scientific discovery. These films cover a range of disciplines and topics, from the biological impulses and social situations of rats to men handling raw electricity. Films in this sampling include; Carrol Ballard's Crystallization (1975) , An Experimentally Produced ‘Social Problem’ in Rats (1948) , Snails: Backyard Science (1962) , Facts of Faith, Invisible Forces: Everyday Science Experiments, Magnetism, Arcs and Sparks, M oody Institute of Science's… Read more
Oddball Films presents Scared Straight: Vintage Drug-Scare Films an evening of drug-scare films from the 1960’s through the 1980’s. Aimed at school-age kids, these films were produced to be shown in schools or on TV- whether they kept anyone away from drugs is debatable; that they are hilarious today is not. Featuring: the all time classic and howler Narcotics: Pit of Despair (1967), Beau Bridges hosted educational film on the history of drug use The Perfect Drug Film (1971), and Scott Baio stars in ABC After School Special Stoned (1980). Plus! As seen on TV, filthy hippies druggies get what'… Read more
Guest Curator Soumyaa Kapil Behrens and Oddball Films present Life On Earth - an evening of strange and wonderful films depicting the ethereal condition of our home planet. Includes haunting, and stylized animations -- with Beyond the Stars: A Space Story (1981) by Karla Kuskin, Irra and Don Duga. Works from the ground up like Ethiopia (1986) show an astounding natural world by award winning director, Robin Lehman and Two Grasslands: Texas and Iran (1970) keenly compares cultural and economic lives of people living off similar lands but very different cultures. Chasing the Tornado (1987)… Read more
Oddball Films and guest curator Lynn Cursaro present, Sugar Shock: Sweet Visions of Candy, Culture and Industry. This taffy pull of gooey ephemera is sure to please both sweet tooths and film fans. From the rustic, snow-covered tapping camps of the 1920’s Maple Syrup and Sugar to the modern Hershey bar conveyer belts of the The Great American Chocolate Factory it’s a big job satisfying the yen for ambrosial treats. The perfectly piped icing of a highfalutin royal wedding cake is only one mind-blowing work of Artistry in Sugar, he can even make edible dishes. Kids get into the act in At Your… Read more
Oddball Films and guest curator Christine Kwon present Urban Dictionary: That Black and Yellow Ish. Some call it soul, others swagger—whatever it was, urban life of the 60s and 70s produced some of the most iconic images, trends, and leaders of that generation. Urban Dictionary kicks off with trailers ranging from Diana Ross’s electrifying Mahogany to Sidney Poitier’s Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner , then into the rare short film Bessie Smith: St Louis Blues with the iconic Blues singer fighting for her good-for-nothing man. A travelogue segment on San Francisco’s Chinatown in Routes of… Read more
