Oddball Films Media
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Sep 1, 2012
Oddball Films and guest curator Emily Schleiner present I Want You To Bite Me!, an evening that examines and celebrates those glorious shape-shifting bloodsuckers, Vampires; both the lore and the fearful psychological fascination. Vampire lore, in one form or another, has existed in different cultures throughout the ages. From the Mesopotamian and Hebrew traditions, and even on to the monsters from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Laugh at and shiver from tales of vampires and their precursors! Sink your fangs into delicious excerpts from the famous Dracula (1931), starring Bela Lugosi, a confection that introduced the legendary Count Dracula and his spider eating minion Renfield to the silver screen. Delve into a psychadelic mishmash of otherwordly Tibetan demons from ancient scroll paintings in Tanka (1976), by David Lebrun. Hide your femoral artery for Doom of Dracula, excerpted from House of Frankenstein (1927), a short film about a conscienceless professor-impersonator who brings Dracula to life! On the lighter side, see hilariously spooky bits from Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), directed by Charles Barton, where the wacky duo encounter Dracula! A 1970s anti-smoking commercial takes the form of a melodramatic vampire scene called Ashes of Doom! The rarely screened Teeth Are for Chewing (1971) gives incisive information about your incisors. Catch the 1970’s documentary about animal hunters, their canine teeth, and their killer instincts in Predators of North America (1981) as well as excerpts from the documentary Freud: The Hidden Nature of Man (1970) where you will learn about our human impulses that lie just beneath the surface! And watch Felix the Cat hypnotize a hippo! Whether you enjoy a good startle or some hilariously dated antagonists, there is something here for everyone, humans and bloodsuckers alike!
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Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to: programming@oddballfilm.com or 415.558.8117.
Featuring:
Dracula (B+W, 1931)
In this epic film directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi, a solicitor visits a sinister castle despite warnings from the locals! Renfield (the solicitor) becomes Dracula’s minion who brings him to London, where he wreaks havoc attacking lovely ladies, and turning them into vampires. Will Dracula continue his swath of destruction? Or will a couple of protective gentlemen stop him?!
Tanka means, literally, a thing rolled up. It is a cyclical vision of ancient gods and demons, an animated journey through the image world of the Tibetan Book of the Dead! Filmmaker David Lebrun has filmed a series of Tibetan paintings from Tibetan scrolls, of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, that he then inputted into an optical printer to create the illusion of animation. The original score is by Ashish Khan (sarod), Buddy Arnold (saxophone, clarinet, flute), Pranesh Khan (tablas) and Francisco Lupica (percussion). The dazzling, vibrantly colored result is a series of dancing gods, wild revels, raging fires and sea battles between monsters!
Doom of Dracula excerpted from House of Frankenstein (B+W, 1944)
Directed by Erle C. Kenton, this film is a portion of the mad-dash combination of horror heros crammed into House of Frankenstein. In this excerpt, two men, having murdered a professor and taken over his traveling show "The Chamber of Horrors!" find the skeletal remains of Dracula himself. They attempt to revive the dark price so that he will follow their commands!
In this film (excerpted), directed by Charles Barton, see two hapless freight handlers who find themselves encountering Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man! The film opens with Dracula and a lovely fur-coated woman discussing what they should do with Frankenstein’s body! Abbott and Costello and the lovely dame convene at a party with Dracula. Is she under his thrall? A stranger recognized Dracula and starts yelling about how Dracula is the “real” Count Dracula. But everyone dismisses him and the woman takes Lou Costello into the forest for a lover’s walk! What will happen next?!
Ashes of Doom (Color, 1970s)
In this campy and dramatic short, a woman, wracked with nerves, calms herself by chain smoking. Finally, the moment she has been dreading arrives! It’s Dracula and he’s ready to embrace her and suck her blood! He goes in for the bite and comes back up with a surprised look on his face! What is the problem Dracula?!
This film features cool shots of people and animals chewing! Get a good look at canines, incisors, and molars and take a few tips on dental hygiene in this bizarre combo!
Predators of North America (Color, 1981)
In this documentary on preditors in North America, take a close look at a variety of animals that must kill to survive! Faced with the necessity of finding, catching, and killing animals capable of fight or flight, predators have developed into some of the most intelligent, skillful, and resourceful members of the animal kingdom. Learn about the characteristics all predators share and about the tremendous diversity among predators ranging in size from the tiny shrew to the giant bear and including members of the feline and canine families!
Freud: The Hidden Nature of Man (Color, 1970)
In this gritty seventies documentary about Freud, directed by George Kaczender, Freud says "we live in a world of illusion acting out our roles in a world of shadow-play." From this film you can get a personal take on Freud's ideas from his own dream analysis. Learn about the Oedipus complex, the rigid superego, look at some Edward Munch paintings, and so much more!
In this rare and unique animated silent film from the 1920s, Felix the cat tries to teach a man to hunt rabbit in order to please his wife. She complains to her husband, “All the neighbors have fur coats but me!” (And she says this via an animated thought bubble!) Felix offers to shoot him some rabbits. Felix chases a rabbit into a tree and then dukes it out with the rabbit inside the tree, finally getting dumped out of the tree along with a black bear! What will happen next?! In the next Felix cartoon, he chases and bats a mouse around who eventually hypnotizes him. Felix doesn’t know what happened and is confused. From the book “How to be a Hypnotist” can he learn to hypnotize as well?!
Patterns of Pain (Color, 1977)
In this creepy keeper, a professor of psychology, a zoologist, and a doctor discuss the perception of pain in the nervous system. They circle around topics such as the absence of pain perception by the wounded in battle, pain control through hypnosis, acupuncture and yoga, thresholds of pain, the body’s ability to produce its own analgesic, and surgical techniques for implanting electrodes in the brain to block the perception of pain! What next??
Curator's Biography:
Emily Schleiner is a Brooklyn and Davis CA-based new media artist and thinker. She has been writing since 2009 and has shown internationally. She has been published in the Trondheim's TEKS's 'Making Reality Real' Journal and has presented at the 2nd Inter-Disciplinary.net Global Conference in Budapest. She received her Masters from Performance and Interactive Media Arts department at Brooklyn College, NY in 2010. To learn more about Emily go to www.cordial-emily.com.