Past Screenings

• Synthetic Cinema: The Beautiful and the Bizarre
• Louis Malle's "Calcutta" and "Bombay Movies"
• Disappearing Culture
• Calling Betty Page: Surveying Sex in Cinema
• Vampira: The Movie
• Excavating History: Death in San Francisco
• Trance Cinema: The Power of Possession
• Sonic Oddities
• "F@CK MICKEY MOUSE!"
• "Ooh La La" - A History of Lingerie
• Fetish Films #1"Celluloid Scopophilia: Sensual Dimensions of the Human Body"
• "The Birth of Betty Boop" or "My Life As A Dog"
• "Bad Bugs Bunny: The Dark Side Of Warner Brothers"
• Art World Confidential: "Guest of Cindy Sherman"
• Mindbenders: Rare Sights and Sounds of the Psychedelic Sixties
• Myth and Music: "Sita Sings The Blues"
• Night of Hell: An Evening of Apocalyptic Mayhem
• Secret Science and Bizarre Beliefs: Films From The Moody Institute of Science
• Films With Roots In Hell: The Effects of Drugs on American Cinema
• Witchcraft Through The Ages
• San Francisco Home Movie Day
• We're No Monks
• The Subject is Sex
• Jazz Roots Cinema: Rare Jazz+Rock'n Roll Films
• Satyajit Ray's "Devi"
• Oddities Beyond Belief
• Underworld Cinema: The Life and Work of J.X. Williams + Peep Show
• Sex+Drugs Cinema #1: All American Sex and Drug Scare Films
• Am I Gay Yet?": Gay Hollywood, the Kinky Avant Garde+AMG Shorts
• Sonic Oddities
• Historical Hysterical

Synthetic Cinema: The Beautiful and the Bizarre
a screening of rare surrealist and avant garde films by Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Roman Polanski, Claude LeLouch and more.
11.16.2007 @ 8:30 PM

On Friday, November 16th at 8:30PM Oddball films presents "Synthetic Cinema: The Beautiful and the Bizarre", a screening of rare surrealist and avant garde films by Kenneth Anger, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Roman Polanski and more. Chosen for their visual and conceptual beauty these acclaimed films provide a rich panorama of edgy cinema that is both inspiring, obsessive, darkly humorous and sublime.

L'Etoile de mer (a.k.a. The Star of the Sea and The Starfish) (1928)
Watch this rich (and not so famous) couple parade around in their pajamas. Witness wifey as she poses topless in furs, lingerie and swimsuits at the beach and at their lavish home. Shot in eye-popping Kodachrome!

Directed and written by Man Ray.
Based on a poem by Robert Desnos.
Photographed by Man Ray and Jacques-Andre Boiffard.
Cast: Andre de la Riviere, Robert Desnos, Kiki de Montparnasse.

"Some of the most complete and satisfying works of art have been produced when their authors had no idea of creating a work of art, but were concerned with the expression of an idea." - Man Ray.

"In the aftermath of World War I, death and destruction had overrun Europe rendering the pontifications of Western intellectualism absurd at best. The basic human drive toward the union of antipodal extremes is depicted as a quest for reconciliation in the 1928 Surrealist film, L' etoile de Mer (The Star of the Sea). Couched in alchemical and occult symbolism, the theme is revealed within the allegorical narrative as the desire for unity and truth in a world turned upside down by the "war to end all wars""-James Lagrini "Otherzine"

Frank Film (1973)
Directed by Frank and Caroline Mouris.

"Caroline and I did Frank Film just to do that one personal film that you do to get the artistic inclinations out of your system before going commercial...Instead, we became fiercely independent filmmakers."
- Frank Mouris

A stop-motion free-associative collage of 11,592 media images collected from magazines, which shift and mutate across the screen as Mouris reads a list of words starting with the letter "f". The words bounce off the images and trigger memories, which Mouris recounts on a second track, interwoven with the recitation. The result is a collective autobiography that Andrew Sarris called "a nine-minute evocation of America's exhilarating everythingness." Academy Award(R) winner for Best Animated Short Film.

Rendezvous (a.k.a. C'etait un rendezvous) (1976)
Directed by Claude LeLouch.

In 1976, at the end of a film shoot, Claude LeLouch found himself in possession of four things: a camera with ten minutes of film left, a gyroscopically stabilized camera mount, a sports car, and an idea: to film a mad dash through the streets of Paris. Denied the necessary permits, he shot the film guerrilla-style, in one take, with no special effects and no street closures. No one was hurt, his subsequent arrest was brief, and the film has become a legend.

Screentest (1975)
Directed by Frank and Caroline Mouris.

"A brilliant film, almost beyond description...existences led at twice the speed, and images/identities transformed without notice." - Roger Ebert.

A kaleidoscopic documentary of nine queer actors as they give free rein to their fantasies. They dress up, strip down, cross-dress; paint their faces, paint their nails, paint the set and generally camp it up while, on the densely layered soundtrack, they dish each other's performances, the film as a whole, and film documentaries in general.

Two Men and a Wardrobe (a.k.a. Dwaj ludzie z szafa) (1958)
Directed by Roman Polanski.
Music by Krzysztof Komeda.
Cast: Henryk Kluba, Jakub Goldberg, Roman Polanski.

"It was the only film I've made that means something. It was about the intolerance of society towards someone who is different." - Roman Polanski.

Made while Polanski was a student at the Lodz Film School in Poland, it's an absurdist parable in which two men emerge from the sea carrying a large wardrobe and are shunned or abused by everyone they encounter, including Polanski himself as a sawed-off street tough (a role he essentially reprised in Chinatown). This film was the first collaboration between Polanski and Polish jazz musician Krzysztof Komeda, who went on to compose the music for all of Polanski's 1960s films except Repulsion. Winner of the Golden Gate award in San Francisco in 1958.

Invocation of My Demon Brother(1969)
Concept, direction, camera, and editing by Kenneth Anger.
Sound by Mick Jagger (Moog synthesizer).
Filmed in San Francisco.
Cast: Speed Hacker (Wand-bearer), Lenore Kandel (Deaconess), William Beutel (Deacon), Kenneth Anger (Magus), Van Leuven (Acolyte), Harvey Bialy (Brother), Timotha (Sister), Anton Szandor La Vey (Satan), Bobby Beausoleil (Lucifer).

"It is Anger's most metaphysical film: here he eschews literal connections, makes images jar against one another, and does not create a center of gravity through which the collage is to be interpreted... the burden of synthesis falls upon the viewer."- P. Adams Sitney

A concentrated Magickal collage founded on the confrontation of opposites in which Lucifer, the Bringer of Light, is called forth.

"Invocation of My Demon Brother (Arrangement in Black and Gold). The shadowing forth of Our Lord Lucifer, as the Powers of Darkness gather at midnight mass. The dance of the Magus widdershins around the Swirling Spiral Force, the solar swastika, until the Bringer of Light - Lucifer breaks through." -Kenneth Anger

Anemic Cinema (1926, Silent) Directed by Marcel Duchamp
"I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste."
-Marcel Duchamp

The only film to come from the founder of the Dadaism movement (artistic and literary movement from 1916-1923 "Anemic Cinema" is an abstract and annalistic film short containing rotating circles and spirals interlaced with spinning discs of words strung together in elaborate nonsensical French puns.

Calling Betty Page: Surveying Sex in Cinema
With Portland Curator Ian Sundahl in Person!
11.9.2007 @ 8:30 PM

Event: "Calling Betty Page: Surveying Sex in Cinema", featuring a intriguing and offbeat history of sex in cinema from the archives of Portland film collector Ian Sundahl. The program showcases rare films of "Tennessee Tease" Betty Page, San Francisco's infamous stripper and star of the Condor Club Carol Doda as well as Kodachrome amateur erotica, B-Movie screen tests and the San Francisco premiere of Sundahl's own "Bump and Grind", starring girls, snakes and cult director George Kuchar. Plus! Rare B+W "Nudie Cuties", quirky Soundies, erotic stop motion animation and scratch film "Wanking"! Curator Ian Sundahl appears in person.

Also Featuring!

Naughty, Haughty Home Movies (1940's, Color) Watch this rich (and not so famous) couple parade around in their pajamas. Witness wifey as she poses topless in furs, lingerie and swimsuits at the beach and at their lavish home. Shot in eye-popping Kodachrome!

Oh you Beautiful Doll (1960, B+W) A truly bizarre amateur underground erotic film, directed by "unknown." This garage sale find was originally shot and produced on Super 8mm and later blown up to 16mm. "Doll" features complex stop motion animation, gender bending drag queens and a appearance by "paper doll" dictator Adolf Hitler.

The Magician's Assistant (1950's, B+W) What happens when a cute girl gets a magic book in the mail? Find out with this fun early 50's nudie cutie.

The Wank (2005, B+W) Painstakingly created over the course of months, filmmaker Jorge Lorenzo's one-minute-long " Wank" packs a "dildo inspired", scratch animated visual punch.

The Bet (1970's, Color) Big busted Candy Samples stars in this early 70's Grindhouse trailer.

Plus! "How to See a French Doctor", "Captain Mom", "Merry XXXMiss", "Voyeur at the Window" and much, much more!

All films screened in glorious 16mm film!

About Curator Ian Sundahl
Film archivist/artist Ian Sundahl has been collecting and compiling offbeat and bizarre films for over 15 years. A recent SFAI MFA grad, Sundahl acted as archivist for the documentary "American Stag" and has been entertaining audiences with unusual film shows in Portland, Oregon for the past several years.

Disappearing Culture:
"Andy Warhol", "15 Minutes" and "I Can See the Stars""
11.3.2007 @ 8:00 PM

Event: Disappearing Culture: "Andy Warhol" featuring narration by Andy Warhol with contemporaries and critics such as Viva, Bridgit Polk, Emile de Antonio Paul Morrissey, Clement Greenberg and Barbara Rose. With excerpts from his films including "Bike Boy", "Chelsea Girls", "Women in Revolt", "Trash", and more. Plus: "Andy Warhol's "15 Minutes" TV Program starring Debbie Harry and a rare TV News clip "I Can See the Stars" with Gerard Melanga.

When Andy Warhol said "I'm a deeply superficial person" he may have meant it. In "Andy Warhol" (1973) the artist is portrayed as a brilliant manipulator, dedicated voyeur and shrewd businessman. In fact art critic Harold Rosenberg seems to think "The primary creation of Andy Warhol is Andy Warhol himself". Of course Warhol is a much more complex character and this documentary examines in detail major aspects of Warhol's career; his art, his films, his magazine work and his philosophy.

"Andy Warhol" features some astute commentary with interviewees ranging from architect Phillip Johnson to Warhol Factory stars Viva and Bridgit Polk. Directors Paul Morrissey ("Trash", "Women in Revolt") and Emile de Antonio ("Point of Order", "Painters Painting") also offer some keen insights. The free wheeling style of the documentary gives it a loose, edgy feel and showcases Warhol in action craftily playing to the camera. Excerpts from "Bike Boy", "Chelsea Girls", "Women in Revolt", "Trash", "Lonesome Cowboys" and "I, A Man" give us a deeper sense of the range and cinematic style Warhol pioneered. "Andy Warhol" was directed by Lana Jokel whose other works include documentaries of modern art legends Claus Oldenberg and Larry Rivers.

Also screening with be "Andy Warhol's 15 Minutes" (1985) an episode of his TV program starring Blondie singer Debbie Harry, singer Bryan Adams, Cars musician Ric Ocasek, actress Phoebe Cates, Downtown Nightclub Maven Diane Brill, Artist Charlie Clough and Fashion designer Stephen Sprouse.

Plus: "I Can See the Stars" (1967). In 1966 Warhol broadened his career with a traveling multimedia show called "The Exploding Plastic Inevitable", which featured live music by The Velvet Underground and Nico. In this rare and hilarious news clip shot on location at the Rhode Island School of Design Warhol and protege Gerard Melanga are interviewed by a clueless tv news reporter who finally surrenders to Warhol's pranks.

Louis Malle's "Calcutta" and "Bombay Movies"
11.2.2007 @ 8:30 PM

"Calcutta", a visual study of the squalor and beauty of the city, of its social and economic hierarchy, and of the vast intra-social and cultural differences that threaten to engulf it in turmoil. Plus "Bombay Movies", a profile of Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna.

In "Calcutta" (Color, 1969), the great Oscar-winning French filmmaker Louis Malle ("Au Revoir, Les Enfants", "My Dinner With Andre", "Elevator to the Gallows") directs and narrates this documentary film about daily life and living in the city of Calcutta, India. In 1969, Malle said he was "fed up with actors, studios, fiction, and Paris" so he traveled to India with a two-man crew to create his seven-part, 363-minute masterpiece "Phantom India". As a companion piece assembled from his vast amount of Indian footage, Malle made "Calcutta" to focus on that city's own unique history, personality, and people.

Malle's film, entirely improvised is a visual study of the squalor and beauty of the city, of its social and economic hierarchy, and of the vast intra-social and cultural differences of a city and society that, at the time the film was made, already bulged with nearly 8,000,000 souls. For long stretches of the film Malle lets the images and sounds of this incredible place speak for themselves.

Says Malle, "The first few days we were walking around with a camera it took us a while to find-I don't know-the innocence, I suppose; to deal with reality as it was, and not try to distort it or interpret it, but just be there, and film it... We were sort of witnesses, but we never pretended that we were part of it or even understood it".

Uncritically, a truly awesome tapestry emerges as Malle's cameras record scenes of the political turmoil and conflict in India during the late '60s as he reviews social customs and traditions revealing the unique beauty and complexity of India.

"Bollywood Movies" was produced by Film Australia and directed by Robert Kingsbury in 1977. This documentary short profiles rising Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna and the contradictions between his fame, family and spirituality amidst the backdrop of Indian pop culture. 30 years later Khanna, a devotee of Indian guru Rajneesh is still a leading man in Bollywood films. An amazing short with highlights from his films.

About Calcutta
This is the place where the West first truly encountered the East. Founded in the 1690s by East India Company merchants beside the Hugli River, Calcutta grew into India's capital and the second city of the British Empire during the Raj. Named the City of Palaces for its neoclassical mansions, Calcutta was the city of Clive, Hastings, Macaulay, and Curzon. It was also home to extraordinary Bengalis such as writer Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel laureate, and Satyajit Ray, among the geniuses of world cinema.

About Director Louis Malle
"It is only when memory is filtered through imagination that the films we make will have real depth" Louis Malle first gained recognition as a member of his country's New Wave movement of the 1950s. He went on to direct films of great breadth and variety, consciously avoiding the temptation to repeat himself. Over the course of a nearly forty-year career Malle forged a reputation as one of the world's most versatile cinematic storytellers, and on more than one occasion he rejected opportunities to work in Hollywood so as to have more time to lavish greater attention on his individual projects. By the time of his death in 1995, Malle was hailed for his invaluable contributions to world cinema.

Excavating History: Death in San Francisco
"Lost Cemeteries", "Cartography of Ashes" and "Gravediggers"
10.27.2007 @ 8:00 PM

Just as the darkness of Fall approaches Oddball Films presents "Excavating History: Death in San Francisco", an evening of innovative works exploring death and tragedy in San Francisco history. The program includes: "A Second and Final Rest: The History of San Francisco's Lost Cemeteries" by Trina Lopez, "Cartography of Ashes" by Dolissa Medina. and "Gravediggers" by Justin Schein. The screening takes place on Saturday, October 27th at 8:00PM.

Following the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, San Francisco rose from its own ashes to become one of the wildest cities in America. How is it that it also managed to banish nearly all of its dead? "A Second Final Rest: The History of San Francisco's Lost Cemeteries" exhumes the hidden history of how this modern metropolis managed to systematically relocate nearly all of its burial grounds to make room for the living. Through recollections of residents who remember these forgotten graveyards to reflections on present-day conflicts that pit the living against the dead, "A Second Final Rest" reveals an astonishing chapter in the history of the American West in which those who settled the City by the Bay were unceremoniously sent packing long after they had passed from this world to the next. Film will be screened in 16mm. Filmmaker Trina Lopez will appear in person.

"Cartography of Ashes" is a visually compelling documentary from San Francisco filmmaker Dolissa Medina about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Medina's poetic work recontextualizes oral history, folklore, journalism, and experimental storytelling to recount tales from the firestorm that destroyed San Francisco in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake. Significant for its documentation of a historical moment (100 years after the quake in the wake of the New Orleans disaster) "Cartography of Ashes" is also one of the last films to document San Francisco on Kodak Kodachrome Super-8 film. "Cartography of Ashes" features stories from the firestorm narrated by Bay Area firefighters, who reflect on the legacy of the disaster on modern-day San Francisco. The film showcases a new recording by Bay Area vocalist Wendy Allen (Clothesline Revival, Paula Frazer/Tarnation) and her haunting interpretation of the turn-of-the-century ballad "The Burning of Frisco Town."

Completed in April 2006 for the 100th anniversary of the disaster, "Cartography" had its world premiere on April 21, 2006, at an outdoor screening on the wall of a fire station in the Mission District.

Also screening will be "Gravediggers", Justin Schein's 16mm portrait of the men who have devoted their lives to tending the graves at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California's "City of the Dead". Schein, a Brooklyn, NY Filmmaker previously produced "America Rebuilds" , an exclusive documentary about the recovery and cleanup at ground zero for PBS, "True Life: I'm a Gun Owner" for MTV about how guns effect youth and "The Moon and the Sun", a 2006 Academy Award winning animated documentary exploring the emotional terrain of father/son relationships as seen through the filmmaker's own turbulent experiences with his father. Schein's film will be screened in 16mm.

"Vampira: The Movie"
10.26.2007 @ 8:30 PM

Get ready all you gothic horror hounds! On Friday, October 26th Oddball Films Presents Kevin Sean Michael's West Coast premiere of "Vampira: The Movie" a documentary profile of "glamour ghoul" and B-Movie star Maila Nurmi. Also screening will be legendary filmmaker JX Williams's sex cult/horror short "The Virgin Sacrifice"(1965) and "The Haunted Mouth", starring Caesar ("The Joker" on Batman) Romeo. Showtime is 8:30PM, Admission is $10.00. Limited Seating. RSVP Only to: info@oddballfilm.com or call 415.558.8117.

From pin-up to TV star to B-Movie icon, Maila Nurmi has been to hell and back. Kevin Sean Michaels' new documentary documents a classic 15 minutes of fame story as it chronicles the pitfalls of Maila Nurmi living on the edge of show business to her rise to celluloid cultdom 50 years later. Her big break came in 1954 when she played the "glamour ghoul" Vampira, wandering through a hallway of mist and cobwebs to great her weekly viewers on the new medium called television.

Her newfound fame led her to pal around with Hollywood's bad boys including Marlon Brando, James Dean and "Psycho" star Anthony Perkins. After her show was abruptly cancelled she appeared as Vampira again in the 1956 low-budget horror/sci-fi film. "Plan Nine From Outer Space"(dubbed the "Worst film of all time") directed by Ed Wood. But you can't keep a good vampire down and Nurmi's character rose from the dead again in 1993's "Ed Wood", directed by Tim Burton. The movie renewed interest in her and she has achieved a Betty Page-like cult status ever since.

"Vampira: The Movie" features interviews with Maila "Vampira" Nurmi, Sid Haig, cult siren Julie Strain, Kevin Eastman, Forrest ("Famous Monsters of Movieland") Ackerman, Fangoria TV's Debbie Rochon, Zacherley, Troma's Lloyd Kaufman, Bill Moseley, Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, Jerry Only of the punk rock band The Misfits, Count Smokula, horror historian David J. Skal and other horror hosts. The film's score was written and performed by Ari Lehman, the first Jason of "Friday The 13th".

Plus: A rare screening of cult/gore/schlockmeister J.X. Williams feature fragment "The Virgin Sacrifice" (Color, 1969).

"Shit happens. With 'Virgin' you could just feel the vapor of evil clouding the set. It didn't help that our chief investor was a ranking member of the Church of Satan, In the end, we tallied three OD's, a maimed-for-life set designer, bankruptcy, and a car bombing (sort of). Even the film disappeared. Not just the prints. The film lab burnt down and we lost the negative. All I've got is the nine minute opening and the sound-sync is fucked."

-J.X. Williams* (from his forthcoming biography "The Big Footnote")

Also: "The Haunted Mouth", a creepy kids film starring Cesar (The Joker on TV's "Batman") Romeo in which the spirit of plaque warns children against the dangers of not brushing and flossing.

Read the J.X. Williams piece in the New York Times:

Trance Cinema: The Power of Possession

10.06.2007 @ 8:00 PM

On Saturday, October 6th Oddball Films presents "Trance Cinema: The Power of Possession" featuring two rare ethnographic documentaries including "Holy Ghost People"(1967, B+W) and "Ma'Bugi: Trance of the Toraja"(1973, Color). Also screening will be "Primitive Man in a Modern World"(1959) and "Buck Dancer"(1965).

Rightly hailed by Margaret Mead as one of the best ethnographic documentary films ever made, and a staple of every documentary film studies course "Holy Ghost People" by the late San Francisco filmmaker Peter Adair("Stopping History", "Word is Out") examines the Scrabble Creek, West Virginia Pentecostal congregation whose fundamentalist philosophy encourages a literal interpretation of the Bible.

The film reveals the religious fervor, the faith healing, the trances, the glossolalia (speaking in tongues), the anointing, the ingestion of poison(Strychnine) and the use of rattlesnakes in the church's religious services. Shot inside the cramped interior of a poor, rural church Adair allows the raw power and the purity of the congregation's faith speak for itself and documents it unflinchingly.

Says one member:

"I could feel the quickening power of the holy ghost... I would dance under the power, and the quickening power would get on me."

Inside the church people surrender to the spirit, shrieking, flailing, crumpling to the floor, talking in tongues, drinking poison, and handling snakes as the ultimate test of their faith."Holy Ghost People" is visceral and jarring, dizzying and frenetic and captures the deep faith, ecstatic states and lethal consequences of their belief.

On the other side of the world "Ma'Bugi: Trance of the Toraja", depicts an unusual trance ritual that functions to restore the balance of well-being to an afflicted village community. This film clearly portrays the song, dance and pulsating tension that precede dramatic instances of spirit possession in the Toraja highlands of Sulawesi (Celebes) Island, Indonesia.

"Ma'Bugi: Trance of the Toraja", augments the growing body of documentation of ritually sanctioned altered states of consciousness. This remarkable film communicates both the psychological abandon of the trance state and the often neglected motivation underlying such activities as the supernaturally curing of the chronically ill and the ascent of a ladder of knives. The ceremony is narrated by the Tominaa, priest of the ancestral Toraja religion.

"Primitive Man in a Modern World"(1959, Color) by the Moody Institute of Science is a bizarre and baffling (i.e. "What Were they thinking when they made this?") "examination" of primitive peoples in South America from the Mayans to the coca chewing Indians of Peru.

Also screening will be "Buck Dancer"(1965, B+W), a rare portrait of an African American buck dancer and fife player who briefly performs on the steps of his home in rural Mississippi. The film was made by the great American ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax.

Note: This program will be screened in 16mm film

Sonic Oddities

9.15.2007 @ 8:00 PM

On Saturday, September 15th at 8:00PM Oddball Films presents a preview* of "Sonic Oddities", Oddball Films Director Stephen Parr's cinematic and auditory collision of film shorts, clips, fragments and reprocessed sounds.

Drawing on the cinematic stimuli explored in his last major film program "Psychoactive" Parr excavates and synthesizes more way-out-and-wild "sound-cinema" from his archive of over 45,000 film and media elements.

Rare commercials such as "Magic Ride", GM's Daliesque Chevrolet tour with its pre synthesizer blips and bleeps collide with silent scenes of sunken jetliner wrecks, audio test tones and over-the-top Italian TV stars.

Watch beauty queen Anita Bryant sing the praises of the "Florida Sunshine Tree" while "The Media and the Military" showcases jar-headed GIs listening to Shakespeare and San Francisco beatnik poetry in the classroom. Another gem, "Queer Birds", one of the most bizarre and endearing cold-war animated shorts in the Oddball archives screens with Philip Stapp's hallucinatory "First Americans and Their Gods".

Other shorts include "Eucharist", the 60s neo-psychedelic short produced by the Lutheran Church and "Gumby Concerto", showcasing our TV rubberman's improvised sound spree.

Incarnations of "Sonic Oddities" have screened at C-Level in Los Angeles, the Fast Forward Rewind Festival in Miami and the Orphans Film Symposium in Columbia, South Carolina.

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"F@CK MICKEY MOUSE"

6.9.2007 @ 8:00 PM
Portland Curator Dennis Nyback in Person!

Is it True? Did Walt Disney invent animation?
On Saturday, June 9th Oddball Film+Video presents "F@ck Mickey Mouse", Dennis Nyback's film program of rare shorts exploring how the Hollywood studios reacted to the Disney animation juggernaut in the 1930s and 1940s. Showtime is at 8:00PM sharp and admission is $10.00. RSVP is essential as these shows frequently sell out. Oddball Films is located at 275 Capp Street in San Francisco. RSVP email or phone with: Show title and number of people. You will be called ONLY if show is sold out.
Hot on the heels of his recent sell-out screenings at Oddball Films of "Bad Bugs Bunny" and "The Birth of Betty Boop" Portland cinema collector and curator Dennis Nyback will screen and discuss the rare cartoon precursors that beat Disney to the punch, imitators that ripped him off and parodies that made vicious fun of some of Disney's greatest animated shorts. Plus! A screening "Der Fuehrer's Face", Disney's own Academy Award winning cartoon suppressed for over 50 years.

Program highlights include:

“Toyland Adventure“ (1931)
Every animation producer tried to rip off Mickey Mouse in the early thirties. Because they didn't have the clout of Warner Brothers Disney sued the small Van Buren company and won the suit which named this cartoon.

“One More Time“ (1931)
Warner Brothers created their first Mickey Mouse with Bosco in 1929. Not content with their imitation they created Foxy. Here is Foxy, Mickey Mouse with a bushy tail.

“Snow White“ (1933)
Max Fleischer's version was created several years before Disney's. This rare gem featured Betty Boop and the voice of Cab Calloway.

“Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas“ (Color, 1938)
Long before Disney's Pocahontas, the brilliant animator Tex Avery created this comical version.

“Porky In Wackyland“ (1938)
Disney had a flop in 1951 with "Alice In Wonderland". Either way this earlier version by Bob Clampett is far superior.

“You Ought To Be In Pictures“ (1940)
Fritz Freleng combines live action and animation fifty years before Disney's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"

“A Corny Concerto“ (Color, 1943)
Warner Brother's wonderful parody of Fantasia. Written by Frank Tashlin, directed by Bob Clampett.

“Red Hot Riding Hood“ (Color, 1943)
Tex Avery makes fun of Disney's approach to fairy tales with an adult version.

“Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarves“ (Color, 1943)
A vicious parody of Disney's most popular creation "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" directed by Bob Clampett. This short is often cited as one of the best cartoons ever made, in part for its tremendously energetic and infectious African-American-inspired jazz and swing music.

“Der Fuehrer's Face“ (1943)
Disney's own Academy Award winning propaganda short was suppressed for over fifty years after it was made.

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6.9.2007 @ 10:00 PM
Portland Curator Dennis Nyback in Person!

Oddball Films presents Portland film collector and curator Dennis Nyback's film program "Ooh La, La" exploring the history of lingerie in cinema.
This soft core cinema soiree showcases rarities from the globe-trotting curator and cinema historian's huge collection of rare animation, music, erotic and offbeat films. The program starts off with several early "men's films" that would typically be shown at men's clubs and fraternal lodges like the Elks or Eagles-no women allowed. Though these films are teasingly tame by today's standards they were illegal to possess at the time.

Other shorts include "Soundies," early skit-driven "music videos" that played in bars utilizing a nickel-fed machine film jukebox called a Mills Pan-o-ram. In "What the Blushing Bride Wore", a peeping-tom barbershop quartet grows progressively more befuddled as the dancing bride strips off layer after layer of her trousseau. Another campy Soundie "The Man Who Comes Around" is sung by a lollipop-licking boy whose mommy gets some awfully familiar visitors after daddy goes to work. There's the over-the-top 1930s dance number "Dames", which peaks in an actual kaleidoscope of dancing girls and a anti-instructional bit "How to Undress in Front of Your Husband", starring Mrs. John Barrymore(!) wife of the famed Hollywood legend. At the other end of the spectrum is Dixie Evans' knock-out 1950s era strip tease "How to Get to Hollywood", surely one of the most energetic strip shorts of all time.
There are more surprises as curator Dennis Nyback intros the program, answers questions and gives us choice bits of scintillating cinema history.

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4.13.2007 @ 8:30 PM

Oddball Films presents Fetish Films #1: "Celluloid Scopophilia: Sensual Dimensions of the Human Body", the first in a series of film programs examining the fetishization of the human body. The program is curated by Oddball Films Director Stephen Parr and filmmaker/cinema historian Kerry Laitala. All films will be screened in 16mm film.

"Celluloid Scopophilia" is a cinema program inspired by the writings of Wilhelm Stekel, author and contemporary of Sigmund Freud who postulated that all fetishes are a regressive form of Infantilism. In his books "Sadism and Masochism" and "Patterns of Psychosexual Infantilism", Stekel presents many case studies of paraphilias and their causes.

This program investigates this and includes rare medical films such as "Pain and Its Alleviation" (Color, 1961) and Oral Hygiene films such as the Technicolor Danish, English co-production "Es Leight Ans Dir"(1951), later dubbed in German (1951), industrial First aid films such as "Shock" and "Breathing For Others"(1955), and underground foot fetish films. The program will conclude with the viscerally compelling "Hallowed" (2001), a hand-made film by Laitala, a filmmaker and long time collector of obscure and disturbing medical and industrial films comments on "Celluloid Scopophilia": "The program treads the lines between visual pleasure and pain in the context of Scopophila, (the pleasure of looking). Through the camera's gaze, the pleasure imparted by the extraction and isolation of body parts is explored and dwelled upon, sucking the viewer into this seductive, unseemly form of cinema" says Laitala. "We have sequenced the program to make the resonance between the films vibrate with a pervy frequency".

Together with Laitala's films and a treasure trove of unseen and recently unearthed medical films Oddball Films Director Stephen Parr has obtained "Celluloid Scopophilia: Sensual Dimensions of the Human Body" promises to be a disturbing, darkly humorous and ultimately fascinating look at the human body in all its fetishistic glory.

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3.17.2007 @ 8:00 PM
Portland Curator Dennis Nyback in Person!

Oddball Films presents "The Birth of Betty Boop" or "My Life as a Dog", an animation program exploring the creation of Betty Boop from dog to woman. Betty Boop, the silly and scintillating cartoon bombshell was created by the famed Fleisher Brothers animation studios, the surreal competitors to Walt Disney Studios. Cinema curator, collector and historian Dennis Nyback appears in person to give us the lowdown on the "Boop Oop a Doop" girl.
Betty Boop was a huge star in the early thirties with a nationally syndicated comic strip. By 1939, her popularity had waned and the production of her cartoons stopped.
In the 1960's she was rediscovered by a new generation and became more popular than ever. She is one of the most famous and loved characters in American cartoon history and her official website lists over 1000 products licensed in her image. This program features her first cartoon appearances and showcases her cinematic evolution from "dog to woman". Don't miss this hilarious and humorous retrospective of Betty Boop!


Program Highlights Include:

“My Palm Is Red“ (1933)
A purported biography of Betty Boop as a baby.

“Dizzy Dishes“ (1930)
The first appearance of Betty Boop appearing as a singer in a saloon. She has dog ears and no name.

“Mysterious Mose“ (1930)
A nameless Betty Boop appears with Bimbo. She is much slimmer than in "Dizzy Dishes", has a square face, and still has dog ears.

“Any Little Girl That's A Nice Little Girl“ (1930)
Still not knowing what to do with nameless Betty, Fleischer turns her into a cat for this sing a long cartoon.

“The Herring Murder Case“ (1931)
Betty makes a cameo appearance as the voice of a fish.

“Bimbo's Initiation“ (1931)
Still with dog ears, she makes a late but crucial appearance in the story. .

“Mask A Raid“ (1931) With her new name, Betty gets a better part. Here she is the carnal interest of Bimbo the dog and a lecherous king.

“Dizzy Red Riding Hood“ (1931)
Betty gets to play Little Red Riding Hood. Bimbo is hot after her. To get her into bed he kills the wolf and dons his skin. A kinky cartoon.

“Any Rags“ (1931)
For all intents and purposes Betty is now a human being. She no longer has the long ears. Still, she is fooling around with the dog Bimbo. She will not officially be a human being until "Boop Oop a Doop" made a few weeks after this.

Plus! The classic Betty Boop live action/animated short "Minnie the Moocher" starring the "Hi-de-ho" zoot suiter Cab Calloway and his swingin' orchestra!

To read Dennis Nyback's program notes please visit:
http://www.dennisnybackfilms.com

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3.17.2007 @ 10:00 PM
Portland Curator Dennis Nyback in Person!

Oddball Films presents the hilarious program "Bad Bugs Bunny: The Dark Side of Warner Brothers". This 16mm program features rarely seen censored cartoons exploring sexism, racism and violence in animation. Globe trotting curator and collector Dennis Nyback will appear live to put these cartoons into a historical perspective and discuss their hidden history and censorship by Warner Brothers.
These classic and never-to-be-seen by the public shorts span the 1930s and 40s showcasing a simpler time when stereotypes and satire prevailed in American popular culture. Many shorts also include the quirky, jazzy orchestration by the genius of offbeat sound scores, Carl Stalling.

Don't miss Bugs Bunny starring as that obnoxious cartoon rabbit in this always sold-out program of selected shorts from Nyback's amazing collection of rare cinema.

Selected Shorts (subject to curator's choice) include:

“Hare Ribbin“ (1946) Bugs does Dirty Harry!

“Sioux Me“ (1939)Native American stereotypes.

“Let It Be Me“ (1936) Crooner Bing "Bingo" Crosby caricatured as a womanizing cad! He sued Warner's to stop the screening of this cartoon.

“Ali Baba Bound“ (1940) Arab stereotypes including a comic look at a suicide bomber.

“He Was Her Man“ (1937)Women hating cartoon style

“Buddy the Gob“ (1934) American imperialism in China, cartoon style.

“Tokyo Jokio“ (1943) Infamous WW II propaganda film styled like a newsreel.

“Tin Pan Alley Cats“ (1943)
An all black character cartoon starring piano great Fats Waller.

“Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips“ (1944)
More Japanese bashing from WW II

“Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarves“ (1943) This brilliant parody of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" directed by Bob Clampett is often cited as one of the best cartoons ever made, in part for its tremendously energetic and infectious African-American-inspired jazz and swing music.

“Hare Ribbin“ (1946) Bugs commits violent Dirty Harry style murder

Plus! Rare surprise shorts!

To read Dennis Nyback's program notes please visit:
http://www.dennisnybackfilms.com

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12.15.2006 @ 8:00 PM
Special Phone Link Q+A With Director Paul H-O

Oddball Films presents a rare preview test screening of the already controversial film “Guest of Cindy Sherman”, by New York filmmakers Paul H-O and Tom Donahue. For an art world perspective “I Can See the Stars”, a rare interview with Andy Warhol in 1969 will screen.

”Guest of Cindy Sherman” is based on a true incident that ignites the concept for the film, puts the writer of the story into a soul-searching tailspin, and in the process exposes the discreet charms of the New York art world. It’s the love story between low budget independent video producer, Paul H-O and his world famous girlfriend, artist Cindy Sherman. The star-crossed H-O finds that love alone is not quite enough when your lover is Cindy Sherman, but his struggle ends up casting a bright insight on the elusive Sherman and the art world that reveres her.

Cindy Sherman is an internationally recognized artist/photographer whose works are owned by the Museum of Modern Art, and The Guggenheim Museum and is generally recognized as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. In the 1970s Sherman depicted herself dressed in the guises of clichéd B-movie heroines, which became known as the “Film Stills”. Her scope expanded into lurid imagery in the 80s and huge, Hollywood gone bad photographs in the 90s. In 1997 she directed her first feature length film “Office Killer” starring Carol Kane, Molly Ringwald and Jeanne Tripplehorn.

The film stars Paul H-O, and Cindy Sherman with appearances by John Waters, Danny DeVito, Eric Bogosian, Mr. Elton John, Julian Schnabel, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Andres Serrano and dozens more. The film was funded in part by the Sundance Channel and is scheduled for release in 2007.

Paul H-O is a former artist, art and event producer (SF/SF, Survival Research Laboratories) and Manhattan cable TV producer (Gallery Beat, Artlike). Co-director Tom Donahue’s recent producing credits include Ramin Bahrani’s feature, Man Push Cart. In 2003, Donahue produced and edited Alfredo de Villa’s acclaimed debut feature, Washington Heights. The feature documentary, Naked World for HBO’s America Undercover (the sequel to Naked States, also edited by Donahue and one of HBO’s highest-rated docs); Keep the River on Your Right (Winner of the 2001 Gotham Spirit "Truer than Fiction" Award & the IDFA Jury Prize).

For an update about the controversy surrounding the film, read the Anthony Haden-Guest piece in the Financial Times.

To view a trailer of the film visit: http://www.filmlikenyc.com/video/GCS-Public-Reel.mov

For the production website visit: http://www.filmlikenyc.com

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12.16.2006 @ 8:00 PM
Special guest Norman Greenbaum in person!

Oddball Films presents “Mindbenders: Rare Sights and Sounds of the Psychedelic Sixties”, featuring performances by 60s musical pioneers, drug scare films and rare never-before seen gems from the 60s including the Jefferson Airplane in Golden Gate Park, the Fillmore East and rare home movies.

“Mindbenders” features a wide array of musical performances, drug scare films, commercials and rare, never-before-seen home movie and found footage clips from the era all presented in 16mm film.

Musical performances include groups such as the Bay Area’s Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joe Cocker singing “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window”, the over-the-top crooning of Three Dog Night, Melanie (of Woodstock fame) singing “Candles in the Rain”, Norman Greenbaum performing his classic “Spirit in the Sky" with light show backing, Frigid Pink performing “House of the Rising Sun” no hit wonders Mephistopheles, and clips from “Zachariah”, the first Psychedelic Western, starring Country Joe and the Fish, Doug Kershaw, the James Gang (with Joe Walsh) and Elvin Jones(!).

“Zachariah” is a way-out and weird, low budget, high concept Siddartha meets the Wild West gay themed rock Western, featuring then pretty-boy Don Johnson and John Rubenstein, son of famed conductor Arthur Rubenstein. The sixties were rife with experimental and eclectic cinematic styles and documentarian Charles Braverman’s kinetic montage short “Braverman’s Condensed Cream of the Beatles” exemplifies the hyper reality of the era. No psychedelic screening would be complete without a drug scare film and tonight we will, in the spirit of spontaneity screen one of these fine films: “LSD: Trip of Trap”, “LSD-25”, "Danger: LSD”, or “LSD: Insight or Insanity”.

The sixties were a free wheeling time in cinema culture and film debris from that era is all around us, still being tossed into trash cans and dug out of dingy basements by obsessive collectors. Tonight we’ll showcase some of our rarest finds, including a home movie of the Jefferson Airplane in Golden Gate Park, the world’s most psychedelic Levis commercial and B-roll of NYC’s Fillmore East.

PLUS! A special guest appearance by musician and songwriter Norman Greenbaum who wrote and recorded “Sprit in the Sky”, the classic 60s guitar hit produced by Erik Jacobsen (The Lovin’ Spoonful and Chris Issak). CDs and memorabilia will also be available. For further info visit: http://www.spiritinthesky.com/about.html

Also! James Macleod’s doc short “Chet Helms: The Big Brother of the Summer of Love”.

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11.4.2006 @ 8:00 PM

“Sita Sings the Blues” is a unique feature-in-progress combining the ancient Indian epic Ramayana, the 1920's torch vocals of the great Annette Hanshaw and classically informed and inventive animation. With music, humor, and a range of animation techniques, “Sita Sings the Blues” shows how the genius of the Indian Ramayana transcends societies and generations, and is as relevant today as it was 3,000 years ago. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind chance to see this mythic, musical gem plus a stirring selection of her award-winning shorts..

Preceded by these shorts:

Fetch! 2-D digital animation.
A simple game of chase through an Escheresque world of optical illusions.

Pandorama Drawing directly on 15perf/70mm (“IMAX”) film. A new look at mythology's demonized heroines, Pandora and the biblical Eve. With over 2500 images!

Lexi 2-D digital Rotoscope animation and video.
Painterly Rotoscope of the filmmaker's San Francisco cat.

The Fertility Cycle: 3 offbeat films about Population and the Environment --

1. The Stork 2-D digital animation.
Bundle of Joy or Population Bomb? "The Stork" illustrates the equation I=PAT (Impact=Population x Affluence x Technology).

2. The Wit & Wisdom of Cancer
Cancer cells discuss their own environmental issues.

3. Fertco
The industrialization of procreation!

About Nina Paley

Nina Paley's career began in 1988 with her self-syndicated comic strip, Nina's Adventures, which appeared in several alternative newspapers and two paperback collections, Depression is Fun and Nina's Adventures. She created two solo comic books for Dark Horse Comics, and various graphic short stories for Last Gasp Comix, Rip Off Press, Laugh Lines Press, Grateful Dead Comix, Kitchen Sink Press, and the Japanese artist volume Jarebong. Her first mainstream daily comic strip, Fluff, was distributed internationally by Universal Press Syndicate between 1995 and 1998; in 2002 she drew The Hots for King Features Syndicate.

Comics burn-out drove Nina to animation. Her first film, Luv Is...(1998), was clay stop-motion shot with a vintage super-8 camera. She went on to make 3 more films in 1998, each exploring a different medium or technique: Cancer (drawing and scratching on 35mm), I Heart My Cat (16mm stop-motion) and Follow Your Bliss (traditional pencil and ink on paper). In 1999 she made the world's first completely cameraless IMAX film, Pandorama, and received a grant from the Film Arts Foundation to produce Fetch! (2001), a short film incorporating optical illusions. In 2002, she created a controversial series about overpopulation and the environment, including The Stork, which won first prize at the EarthVision Environmental Film Festival and an unsolicited invitation to Sundance (2003).

In 2002 she briefly lived in Trivandrum, India, where she encountered the Ramayana, Indian sexism, and the failure of her marriage. She subsequently embarked on her current project, Sita Sings the Blues, a feature-in-progress combining ancient Indian mythology with 1920's American jazz.

In addition to making independent animated festival films, Nina teaches at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan. She lives in New York with her cat, Bruno.

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10.27.2006 @ 8:00 PM

Oddball Films presents “Night of Hell: A Evening of Apocalyptic Mayhem”, a program of mind-bending and stupefying clips from the archives of San Francisco video editor Casper.

Just when you think the world has gone haywire enough, along comes San Francisco video editor Casper whose life’s ambition seems to be to unearth the creepy, the sick, the awful and the absurd. Imagine someone with a warped mind, no boundaries, boxes full of cult, educational and taped-off-tv cable access programs with no formal film training and a lot of time on their hands. That’s Casper! So put on your fright wig and come on down to Oddball Films to witness this unspeakable (and unviewable) evening of toxic traumas.

“Night of Hell” features these rare, seldom-seen, never released in the US because but not too sick for Europe and Japan shorts that run the entire gamut of cinematic horror. From awful public access excess (idiotic Goth poetry outtakes, a creepy kids show called “Ghoul a Go-Go”) to home made teenage monster movies (shot on Super 8 film!) to heavy metal horror trailers (“Trick or Treat”), to bikini-clad Whiskey-a Go-Go Watusi girls (“The Beach Girls and the Monster”) to the over-the-top drug scare propaganda classic “LSD: A Case Study” (don’t miss the screaming hot dog scene!) “Night of Hell” promises to provide a scintillating shockwave of gruesome and hilarious sinematic schizophrenia!

Plus! Scopitone and music shorts of Joi Lansing doing her classic “Web of Love” and French bad boy Serge Gainsbourg singing “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”!

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9.30.2006 @ 8:00 PM
Curator Jack Stevenson in person!

Oddball Films presents Jack Stevenson’s “Films With Roots in Hell: The Effects of Drugs on American Cinema”, an offbeat program chronicling the history of drug-induced cinema in American culture.

Experience almost 100 hair-raising years of American drug film excess in this entertaining journey through various film genres and styles; from the classic “scare films” of the 30’s to the celebratory psychedelic works of the 60’s and beyond. Hear colors, see sound, get electric! Author ( “Addicted: The Myth and Menace of Drugs in Film”, ”Fleshpot: Cinema’s Mythmakers and Taboo Breakers”), curator and American expatriate Jack Stevenson will be on hand to introduce this once-in-a-blue-moon chance to see shorts, trailers and rare outtakes of drug-laden cinematic curiosities.

Plus! Psychedelic television commercials from the Oddball film archives.

Films include:

THE MYSTERY OF THE LEAPING FISH (1916) starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr., as Detective “Coke Ennyday”, Bessie Love and Alma Reubens (who later went on to become one of Hollywood’s most notorious drug addicts). Written by Tod Browning (director of DRACULA and FREAKS) and supervised by D.W. Griffith. A parody of Sherlock Holmes who was a rumored drug addict.

THAT OLD REEFER MAN (1933) a musical performance excerpt from the 1933 feature film, INTERNATIONAL HOUSE. In this rare outtake we see the famous Jazz singer, Cab Calloway perform REEFER MAN (Reefer of course referring to Marijuana)

SWEET MARIJUANA (1934) a song from the 1934 feature film MURDER AT THE VANITIES. In this extremely strange dance number we see singer Gertrud Michaels sing “Sweet Marijuana” - one of the most bizarre drug-related performances in 30s American cinema.

MARIJUANA: WEED WITH ROOTS IN HELL (1936) A full-length theatrical trailer of Dwain Esper’s legendary exploitation film about the Marijuana menace of same name.

THE PUSHER (1955) by Social Service Pictures, directed by Dwain Esper. A filmed lecture that harps on the evils of drugs and includes all the best scenes from Esper’s own 1936 film MARIJUANA: WEED WITH ROOTS IN HELL.

CURFEW BREAKERS A fast-paced trailer for this 1957 film directed by Alex Wells that deals with the evils of partying and drug-taking among teenagers.

HOOKS (1972) An outtake from a U.S. Army-produced film that visualizes the hallucinatory effects of drugs, narrated by Michael Landon (of “Little House on the Prairie” TV fame) Watch this cascade of psychedelic special effects!

LSD: TRIP TO WHERE (1968) This is the classic opening 10-minute “hallucination scene” of the U.S. Navy-produced film that achieved cult status in American cinema culture circles. In this scene we witness the nightmarish hallucinations that result when three American sailors go to a Hippie’s house and take LSD.

LSD: CASE STUDY (1968) Produced by the Lockheed Aircraft corporation to warn to employees about the dangers of LSD. A small gem of drug cinema - a girl takes LSD and her hot-dog comes to life! Truly hilarious!

ROCKFLOW (1968) Directed by filmmaker and underground 60s actor Bob Cowan ROCKFLOW is a record of the music and dancing that took place at the gala opening of a mod boutique. The film becomes increasingly experimental and psychedelic. Features The Chambers Brothers rock band (“Time Has Come Today”)

THE TRIP (1967) A psychedelic outtake from this Roger Corman masterpiece.

THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR (1970) Directed by David Greene these outtakes show the shocking story of 16-year-old Maxie as she torments her parents with drug-taking and sexual promiscuity shattering the hypocritical complacency of the suburban hell they call home. Maxie makes Linda Blair (of The Exorcist) look well behaved by comparison!

PLUS! Psychedelic commercials from, Madison Avenue!

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9.30.2006 @ 10:00 PM
Curator/Author Jack Stevenson in person!

On Saturday, September 30th at 10:00PM Oddball Films as part of an “Evening of Sex, Drugs and Witchcraft” presents it’s second program “Witchcraft Through the Ages”, directed by obsessive Danish director Benjamen Christensen in 1922 and “recreated” by legendary beatnik Anthony Balch in 1967. This reedited “sound” version features a interpretive narration by William Burroughs and a experimental jazz soundtrack by Jean-Luc Ponty and Daniel Humair. In addition curator Jack Stevenson author of the newly published book “Witchcraft Through the Ages, The Story of Haxan, The World’s Strangest Film And The Man Who Made It” (FAB Press) will be on hand to introduce the film, discuss its strange history and sign books.

The original macabre 1922 masterpiece stands as the most extreme and controversial work of silent cinema - and one of the most visionary. A perennially revived cult favorite it was a work of obsession created in mysterious circumstances by its Danish director Benjamin Christensen. One of the strangest and most bizarre films ever made, it is a supposed documentary on devil worship and superstitions through the ages.

The film includes dramatic re-creations of "real" incidents of witches, satanic worship and rituals and various acts of sacrilege and perversion that shocked 1922 audiences at the time the movie originally appeared.

Ostensibly beginning as a documentary, “Witchcraft Through the Ages” begins with woodcuts and period recreations to depict the rise of witchcraft in medieval times, where demons were said to roam the land and interfere with the lives of peasants. Through a series of vignettes we see the interaction of clergy and witches, with the priests either persecuting their satanic foes, suffering from the onslaught of demonic forces, or even complying with the supernatural agents. Witch hunting is depicted in an unflattering light not unlike Carl Dreyer's later Day of Wrath, and even Satan himself makes a cameo with the director made up in an elaborate, terrifying facsimile of a woodcut monster. Nocturnal witches' sabbaths, meals made of toads and children, and other unsavory elements are depicted for the viewer's edification before a truly bizarre finale which makes analogies between witchcraft and modern day technology.

A difficult film to describe, “Witchcraft Through the Ages” flows along like a waking dream. Alternating between hallucinatory nightmare, black humor, and straight faced documentation, the film is never less than visually stunning and contains more imaginative visuals than any ten Hollywood blockbusters combined. Christensen would later make a brief, unspectacular move to America, where his most famous English speaking work remains the rare, highly sought after “Seven Footprints to Satan”, before returning to Denmark to finish out his career.

With naked witches dancing with devils, a baby that is thrown into a hot pot, women standing in a queue, wanting to kiss the devil's naked ass, flying broomsticks and hysterical nuns this jazzed up cut down version of Christensen’s original is a nightmare to behold indeed.

Plus! Eclectic 70s film short “The Occult: Echo From Darkness”

About JACK STEVENSON:
Jack Stevenson is the author of over a dozen books and articles including “Addicted: The Myth and Menace of Drugs in Film”, ”Fleshpot: Cinema’s Mythmakers and Taboo Breakers”, “Dogme Uncut: Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, and the Gang That Took on Hollywood” The Jukebox That Ate the Cocktail Lounge: The Story of the Scopitone”, “Of Celluloid and Slime”, “The Secret History of Cult Movies” and many, many more. Jack Lives in Copenhagen and tours Europe frequently screening his offbeat film programs.

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3.18.2006 @ 8:00 PM

“Secret Science and Bizarre Beliefs” is a mind-boggling collection of 1950s crackpot science films brought to you by the world’s strangest bible science film producers, The Moody Institute of Science. Evangelist Erwin “The Million Volt Man” Moon stars in many of these eye-popping classroom science films as he inhales helium, runs electricity through his body, makes metal float in space, experiments with electric eels and preaches god’s creationist “intelligent design” ideology.

Moon got his start In 1938 when he began traveling as a full-time as evangelist demonstrating his “Sermons From Science” under the auspices of The Moody Bible Institute. The next year, with the help of businessmen from San Francisco, a SFS pavilion was built at the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair.

For nine months, Moon presented up to eight demonstrations each day, seven days a week. The crowds were so large that demonstrations began hours prior to the scheduled time because early arrivals had filled the auditorium while others waited outside. With more than two tons of equipment, most of it homemade, Moon performed such wonders as frying an egg on a cold stove, lighting a bulb on his bare fingers, and allowing one million volts of electricity to smash through his body. Following the presentation he asked, "Can you believe these miracles are the result of chance or accident? Or are they part of a divine pattern?"

In 1945 The Moody Institute of Science was founded with a two-pronged evangelistic approach incorporating films and live demonstrations. Operating on a shoestring budget, The Moody Institute of Science staff would remodel war surplus material and invent and build the equipment to perform live demonstrations and produce films. More than 6 million people have seen their live demonstrations since 1949 at the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair, the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, the 1967 Montreal World's Fair and many more fairs and expositions. Their classroom science films were marketed to schools and churches across the United States and their biblical subtext hit the viewer over the head with the proverbial hammer of faith, far predating today’s “debate” over “intelligent design”.

Tonight’s program features a sample of some of the quirkiest gems from the Oddball Moody Science collection. Some program highlights include:

“Primitive Man in a Modern World”(1959, Color) Is a bizarre and baffling(i.e. “What the f*ck were they thinking when they made this?”) condescending examination of “primitive” peoples in South America from the ancient Mayans to the coca chewing contemporary Indians of Peru.

“Blind as a Bat” (1956, Color), The Moody Science bat truck goes on location to study the secrets of bat navigation. Their in-house mammal abuse experiments show us the science of bat radar.

“Mystery of Time” (1957, color) Watch Erwin Moon demonstrate the theory of relativity-in 15 minutes!

“The Electric Eel” (1954, color)Irwin Moon shows us the electric eel and demonstrates its amazing abilities to shock fish for food and to use "radar" to find them. Don’t miss the scene where he illuminates a florescent light tube using his eel!

“Facts of Faith”(1956, Color) Mind-blowing science experiments showcase Moon running thousands of volts of god’s creation though his entire body. A stunner!

“Snow”(1956, Color) “Snow, given to us by the hand of god” Brilliant Kodachrome snowflake crystals. God made these!

Plus! Rare clips from the 1950s B+W kinescope of “Science in Action” shot at the California Academy of Sciences including the Animal of the Week! Also! rare silent clip of the quack science “Ultraviolet Healing” film.

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Saturday 8.13, 12-12

Mayor Gavin Newsom is officially proclaiming August 13th San Francisco Home Movie Day!

ABOUT HOME MOVIE DAY

The first annual Home Movie Day, in August 2003 celebrated the celluloid history of families and communities across the United States and around the world. It was a major international success with hundreds of attendees around the world. Home Movie Day events received major press coverage in the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and NPR's All Things Considered radio program. This year promises to be even more widely received.

SAN FRANCISCO HOME MOVIE DAY EVENTS

On Saturday, August 13th, San Francisco Home Movie Day we invite all San Franciscans to bring in their personal, family or home movies for us to clean and screen in our facility. The San Francisco Media Archive will present a host of events from 12:00-12:00. All events are free and held at the archive at 275 Capp St in San Francisco. Please RSVP for the Home Movie Day Reception.

HOME MOVIE FILM CLINIC

12:00-6:00PM the San Francisco Media archive will examine, inspect, repair and clean any films brought in to our facility by the public. We will also screen your films for you. Films donated to the archive will be transferred free of charge and video copies given to donors at a later date. RSVP PLEASE as space is limited.

SAN FRANCISCO STORIES

6:00-8:00PM The San Francisco Media Archive will host San Francisco Stories, a program featuring selections from donor home movies. This event will showcase rare family home movies with a narration and oral history of San Francisco by long time SF and Bay Area residents and home movie donors. Confirmed to speak at press time will be David Fleishhacker, donor and member of the one of San Francisco's pioneering and philanthropic families.

SFMA archivist Lauren Sorensen will also speak about her preservation efforts with The Hick Family Collection, over 100 reels of 16mm film filmed from the 1940s through the 1970s shot in the US and the Philippines which she has been inspecting, repairing and transferring to digital media. This event will examine family life in the Bay Area in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s through the eyes of families who lived and filmed it. If you would like to participate please contact the archive directly at 415.558.8117.

SAN FRANCISCO HOME MOVIE SCREENING

The American Eye: From San Francisco to Samoa 8:00-10:00PM "The American Eye: From San Francisco to Samoa" is a very special screening of archival American home movies shot at home and abroad, from the collection of the San Francisco Media Archive curated by Director Stephen Parr. Watch Sierra snow dogs in California, moving a house in Oakland, a double wedding in Michigan, a swingin' vacation in Matzatlan, hugging the natives in darkest Africa, an idyllic village in Nazi Germany, the red city of Jaipur, snake charmers of India, and a whale vanishing in New Zealand. In addition Bay Area archivists and collectors will be on hand to present and discuss a collection of some of their most rare, unique and entertaining San Francisco home movies from their collections. Featured curators and archivists (to be confirmed) will screen works from their collections. SFMA director Stephen Parr will screen the National Film Preservation Foundation's preserved films "San Francisco in Cinemascope" (Color, 1958) featuring footage of the Fillmore, the Mission district and many other panoramic views of San Francisco. Other films may include home movies of the building of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Jefferson Airplane performing in Golden Gate Park and rare footage of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in San Francisco.

HOME MOVIE DAY RECEPTION

10:00-12:00PM The San Francisco Media Archive will host a Home Movie Day Reception. Meet the staff of SFMA, curators and other film collectors and enjoy the cinematic experience of selected silent home movies playing in our screening room. Please RSVP for the reception.

Why Home Movies?

"Saving our film heritage should not be limited only to commercially produced films. Home movies do not just capture the important private moments of our family's lives, but they are historical and cultural documents as well. Consider Abraham Zapruder's 8mm film that recorded the assassination of President Kennedy or Nickolas Muray's famously vibrant color footage of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera shot with his 16mm camera. Imagine how different our view of history would be without these precious films. Home Movie Day is a celebration of these films and the people who shot them. I urge anyone with an interest in learning more about how to care for and preserve their own personal memories to join in the festivities being offered in their community on August 13th."
Martin Scorsese

Home movies comprise the only moving image documentation of America's rich racial, ethnic, cultural and regional diversity from the perspective of those who lived it. Their naivete, immediacy and reflexivity provide what filmmaker Jonas Mekas described as a "veil of poetry" over ordinary events. Because they are about us and what gives our lives meaning, they are proof positive that every person is a poet in that they live at all.
Karen Ishizuka, Senior Producer, Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Amateur home movies are important. The information contained in these little moving slices of time can inform future generations as to the way people lived, what places long ago looked like, and how we interacted as individuals in society at large. Home Movie Day is a great opportunity to bring together amateur films with the general public, film archivists, and social historians in order to examine our motion picture heritage. Events such as this one help to make people aware that their family home movies can be preserved for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.
Bruce Posner, Curator, Anthology Film Archives

I've always been fascinated by the home movies my father took -- and quickly realized that there were many other amateurs like him, offering images of the world around them. From a historical context, these images are invaluable; they capture moments that go beyond the newsreels and movies of a certain period. On a personal note, I'm also struck by the way the semiotics of home movies immediately unites an audience -- bell bottoms and birthday cakes become visual shorthand.
Karen Shopsowitz, Director, My Father's Camera

People underestimate the value and power of home movies. Most of us appreciate the emotional impact of rediscovered family films, but too often we think they have no audience beyond our own family. In fact, the millions of feet of film shot by mothers and fathers, aunts, uncles and friends throughout the 20th century now make up the best record we have of daily life as it was lived during the past two or three generations. Home Movie Day will help remind people that those moving images captured on celluloid not only have enormous historical value, they need to be actively cared for as well.
Dan Streible, Founder, Orphans Film Symposium, University of South Carolina

Home movies are coming out of the home and into public spaces. It is important that as they are rediscovered that they become part of the nation's moving image heritage. If we could know how many home movies have been lost I am sure the figure would be staggering. It is, therefore, important that as part of the Home Movie Day movement, owners of home movies consider not only donating the physical film but also the memories and identities that give fuller meaning and texture to these personal moving images.
Pamela Wintle, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution

ABOUT THE SAN FRANCISCO MEDIA ARCHIVE

The San Francisco Media Archive is a non profit institution dedicated to the acquisition, preservation and accessibility of culturally significant films and related media. The archive presents public screenings, seminars and has a home movie program offering free film to video transfers. In 2003 the SF Weekly called the San Francisco Media Archive "The Best Film Preserve in the Bay Area". Visit our website at www.sfm.org or email us at archive@sfm.org.

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Sat. 3.26 at 8:00

Saturday evening March 26th the first Indo-Tibetan produced film about exiles "We're No Monks", directed by Pema Dhondup will screen at Oddball Film+Video, 275 Capp Street in San Francisco. Admission is $10.00 (Limited seating, RSVP Preferred). The program begins at 8:30PM. The event is co-sponsored by the San Francisco Media Archive. Tibetan director Pema Shondup will appear in person to answer questions about the film.

"We're No Monks" is a radical Tibetan-English film which is far removed from Hollywood's "Shangri-La" image of Tibetan identity. In "We're No Monks", filmmaker Pema Dhondup tells the story of four friends living in the exile headquarters of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, torn between trying to do something good for their homeland and the urgency of finding their way into the regular world of salaries, careers and the most common of all dreams, emigration to America.

Largely shot in McLeod Ganj, Djaramasala and Tibetan Camp, Dehli, the film by Dhondup, a graduate of UCLA Film School in Los Angeles, portrays both the aspirations and frustrations of Tibetan youth. Dhondup says he shot the film on a "zero budget". "Everything was donated, no one was paid". Much of the funding came from benefactors such as Wilderness Films, a New Delhi production company that makes documentaries for the National Geographic and Discovery Channels. It was shot in what Dhondup calls a " neorealist style" meshing fiction with real life, using real crowds, including a scene which shows the Dalai Lama's convoy moving through the town.

Says Dhondup: "The films made so far on Tibet has been only about either monks and monasteries or earlier years of Tibet. No one has touched the topic of today: Tibetan youth who have been living in exile, about their problems, their thinking and their confusions. That reflects the problem of the entire youth.

While Tibetans of different orientations and origins are bound together in their concern for the Tibetan cause, the film underscores the continuing debate about which methods they should adopt to attain it.

The Tibetan exile government led by the Dalai Lama currently promotes a middle approach between full independence and total Chinese control. But a minority of Tibetans strive for total autonomy and do not believe that China has any right to control Tibet, and they compare themselves to pro-independence activists in Taiwan.

In "We're No Monks", Passang, one newly arrived Tibetan youth and former political prisoner, considers taking the dangerous path of violence in order to draw attention to the plight of Tibetans and their demands for independence or autonomy.

"It's an issue," says director Dhondup. "Will Tibetan youth one day be forced to shun the philosophy of non-violence and take up more extreme measures?"

Other characters in the two hour plus film (short by Indian standards) reflect the complex issues facing Tibetans in India as well as their fascination with America as a way out of their exile life.

While all the Tibetan actors in the movie are amateurs, one well-known Bollywood actor, Gulshan Grover, appears as the ubiquitous policeman trying to maintain order despite the boisterous, nocturnal social life of dancing and drinking that often characterize the life of exile and activism.

DIRECTOR PEMA DHONDUP'S THOUGHTS ON TIBET AND THE WEST:

"During a student party in America, I was having chicken and sipping wine when a friend shrieked: 'Look Pema is having meat! He is a Tibetan!'" he recalls.

"I was shocked. I had to tell her that I do lots of other things too. I think somebody should tell stories about the ordinary Tibetan who is not a monk and has ordinary desires."

Dhondup says young exiles are becoming "confused and disillusioned" with the pace of progress in reclaiming their homeland.

"I have a straightforward view. Nobody will do anything for us unless we do something ourselves," Mr Dhondup told BBC News Online.

"Non violence does not mean non-action. The Tibetan cause is not moving forward and a change in approach may be necessary."

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The Subject is Sex

Email Us for Upcoming screening Times

Every Friday at 8:00 PM Oddball Film+Video presents Stephen Parr's "The Subject is Sex", an extraordinary personal romp through the seamy side of Sex in Cinema.

Drawn from his extensive 16mm film archives, this polymorphous program promises a pulsating panorama of perverse pleasures that includes home movies, hillbilly porn, cartoon smut, commercials, trailers, educationals, hygiene films, burlesque bits, peepshow loops and the infamous "Cheap Smut Give-A-Way".

Showtime is 8:00PM. The address is 275 Capp St. Admission is by rsvp only and is $10.00.

For reservations please email: info@oddballfilm.com or call 415.558.8112.

"The Subject is Sex" is drawn almost entirely from Parr's holdings at Oddball Film + Video. Founded in 1984, Oddball houses an extensive offbeat collection of over 50,000 films. Parr, a imagemaker, curator and archivist has been screening "The Subject is Sex" (and hosting his notorious "Cheap Smut Give-A-Way") throughout the United States and Europe for over 2 years to sellout audiences.

An introductory essay in the dvd, (released by Other Cinema dvd) by Eric Schaefer, film scholar and author of "BOLD! DARING! SHOCKING! TRUE!, A History of Exploitation Film 1919-1959" (Duke University Press), lays the groundwork for this diverse compendium of moving image erotica. Schaefer writes, "The Subject is Sex" is a Rorschach test. Where some will see humor, a few will see outrage. What may be titillation for many will be a turn-off for others. But for everyone, and in every instance of the history of sex in the Twentieth Century."

Program highlights include:

• The "nudie cutie" adventures of "Uncle Si and the Sirens".
• The classic cartoon curio "Buried Treasure" starring Eveready Hardon (with a new music score by Nik Phelps from San Francisco's Sprocket Ensemble).
• "French Tickler", a clever 1920s clip of animated fellatio.
• 50's classic burlesque films (including "Love Moods" with famed femme fatale Lili St. Cyr cavorting in a ornate bathtub).
• Choice 60s and 70s porn trailers (featuring the psychobilly smut "Memories Within Miss Aggie" and the pre-Viagra "Dynamite").
• "970-KATHY" - a kinky, campy late 80's commercial for phone sex.

"The Subject is Sex" also contains soft core selections with hidden or unintended erotic messages. A Jade East cologne commercial featuring sexy Japanese go-go dancers becomes a sexual exhortation for men to take matters into their own hands, a home movie ("Crossing the Equator") becomes a surreal souvenir of cross dressing seafarers, and the US Navy training film "How to Give an Enema" turns into a kinky homo erotic lesson in water sports. By compiling these generous gems in to a full-length collection, "The Subject is Sex" brings together commercial, camp, comedy, and explicit sex all in one gender-bending, genre-bending, lovefest.

Copies of the dvd will be available for purchase at the screening for the reduced price of $20 or online at http://www.othercinemadvd.com/subjectsex.html

Plus! Beefcakes +Cheesecakes and the infamous "Cheap Smut Give-A-Way:"

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Jazz Roots Cinema: Rare Jazz+Rock'n Roll Films

Sat. 8.7

Oddball Film+Video presents two rare documentaries tracing the history of American Music.

"Black Music in America: From Then Till Now"(Color, 1971) is a rare documentary that provides us with an illuminating history of black music from the introduction of slavery in America to the recent past. It introduces renowned black musicians and their contributions to jazz, blues, spirituals, protest songs, swing and rock n' roll music. This film includes priceless performances of Louis Armstrong in Ghana swingin' with the natives, Bessie Smith from the film St. Louis Blues, Bandleader Count Basie, "Lady Day" Billie Holiday, BB King live on stage, song stylist Nina Simone, jazz legend Coleman Hawkins, American jazz genius Duke Ellington, horn legend Canonball Adderly and group and a soul rocking psychedelic Sly and the Family Stone performance!

Our other seldom seen documentary "American Music: From Folk to Jazz and Pop"(B+W, 1963) traces the beginnings of American popular music from African and European roots in New Orleans jazz and Gospel music, in hillbilly folk songs and dances to the Motown Sound, the British Sound and the Nashville Sound. In addition the film charts birth of rock n' roll and the explosion of the recording industry in America. This film features insightful commentary by American Music legends Duke Ellington, composer Richard Rogers and pianist Billy Taylor. Featured performances include country stars Tex Ritter, Earl Scruggs and Grand Ole Opry stars, jazz drummer Gene Krupa and group, The Eureka Brass Band from New Orleans, folk singers Peter, Paul and Mary, Motown heavyweights The Supremes and The Temptations in the studio, British Invasion stars The Dave Clark Five the wild, blue eye soul of The Young Rascals live in concert, Sinatra's favorite crooner Tony Bennett in the recording studio and many more.

Also: Famed ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax's very rare 1965 film "Buck Dancer", a eloquent and stirring musical artifact from Northern Mississippi featuring fife player/buck dancer Ed Young and the Sea Island Singers. Plus! Rare shorts featuring zootsuiter, band leader Cab Calloway, early swing from Louis Prima and much more!

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Satyajit Ray's "Devi"

Sat. 7.31 at 8:30

Note: This program will be screened in 16mm film.

"Not to have seen the cinema of Ray is like existing in this world without having seen the sun and the moon"-Akira Kurosawa

On Saturday July 31st, the San Francisco Media Archive and Oddball Film+Video present a rare screening of the 1961 film "Devi"("The Goddess") by famed Indian director Satyajit Ray. The film screens at 8:30PM and will be preceded by several archival Indian short films including "Kathakali: Dances of India"(B+W, 1948). "Devi" features a soundscore by the great Indian sarod master Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

In the dark and sensuous "Devi", an elderly man has a vision that his young daughter-in-law is an incarnation of the goddess Kali, and she is compelled to bear the burden of divinity; when her husband returns home from a trip, he finds his wife installed as a deity.

Based on a story by Prabhat Mukherjee "Devi" deals with a topic that is universal to the human condition. It describes events that occur in India, as well as in other parts of the world within different faiths. Strong faith, which can be a crutch to the weak, has the danger of being destructive when it eclipses rationality. Human beings, in the grip of devotion, will often see reality as they want to see it. They will interpret coincidences as convenient proofs of their delusional charade. Although they may be well-intentioned, their actions can trigger grave consequences.

Satyajit Ray effectively presents the goddess in her duality. On one hand she is a benevolent mother figure depicted as the smiling, fair-skinned Durga who brings comfort to her followers. On the other, she is a fierce and destructive force, depicted as the pitch black Kali wearing a necklace of skulls, which can destroy those who come too close to her. By mixing the various images of the goddess with the cautionary story, Ray is able to show the thin line between security and obsessiveness that is straddled by faith.

Ray also explores the cultural emergence of the idea of the "modern woman" in the upper class of colonial India, showing with striking sensitivity the pressures this new ideal placed on individual women whose self-identities were also molded by traditional expectations.

"Devi" generated some controversy on its release in India. It was seen as an attack on Hinduism itself by protesters, who tried to prevent the film's international release. However, the film was eventually released and went on to receive the President's Gold Medal Award in New Dehli. The teen-aged Sharmila Tagore gives an outstanding performance in the title role in which she commented about director Ray a few years later, ""Devi" was what a genius got out of me, not something I did myself".

"Ray's Feeling for the intoxicating beauty within the disintegrating way of life of the 19th century landowning class makes this one of the rare, honest films about decadence"- Pauline Kael

About Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray, standing 6'-4" tall, was a towering figure in the world of cinema. He was, as director Elia Kazan said "The filmic voice of India, speaking for the people of all classes of the country." Ray was vastly multi-talented. He was a painter, graphic designer, novelist and composer as well as being a prolific filmmaker. His humanistic blend of intellect and emotion made him one of the greatest directors in world cinema.

"...my main preoccupation as a filmmaker ... has been to find out ways of investing a story with organic cohesion, and filling it with detailed and truthful observation of human behaviour and relationships in a given milieu and a given set of events, avoiding stereotypes and stock situations, and sustaining interest visually, aurally and emotionally by a judicious use of the human and technical resources..." -Satyajit Ray from "The New Cinema And I, Cinema Visions, 1980

In 1992 Ray received the honorary Oscar Award for Lifetime Achievement in recognition of "his rare mastery of the art of motion pictures and for his profound humanitarian outlook, which has had an indelible influence on filmmakers and audiences throughout the world." He was also decorated with Bharta Ratna, the highest civilian Honor of the Republic of India.

To learn more about Satyajit Ray and his films read the brief piece "An Appreciation of the Life and Work of Satyajit Ray by Deepika Singh at: http://www.boloji.com/cinema/satyajitray.htm .

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"Oddities Beyond Belief": Bizarre and Offbeat Films from the Archives of Oddball Film+Video

On Saturday, July 17th at 8:00PM Oddball Film+Video Presents "Oddities Beyond Belief", a screening of bizarre and offbeat films. This one-of-a-kind program, culled from director/curator Stephen Parr's unique collection of over 50,000 16mm films is a rare opportunity to view unbelievable cinematic shorts from the underbelly of his vast archives. In April Parr screened "Oddities Beyond Belief" at the Aurora Picture Show's Media Archeology Festival to a packed and wildly enthusiastic house at Houston's Aurora Picture Show (http://www.aurorapictureshow.org).

Featured on the program tonight are gems such as "Blackie, The Wonder Horse Swims the Golden Gate"(1938) in which a black stallion actually swims the Golden Gate-to settle a bet!, "Something to Take to Heart" a creepy religious "science" film, "Use of Mace"(1967), a Readers Digest(!)law enforcement film demonstrating(with a live human!), the effects of this new law enforcement "tool" on a would be attacker, "Le Monde Du Schizophrene"(The World of the Schizophrenic), an amazing, surreal Daliesque film with a avant garde score from France and distributed by the Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company(Makers of such drugs as LSD), "Starve a Rat" produced by the NYC Department of Public Health in which a cat-sized rat terrorizes urbania, "Black Mama, White Mama", a racial sexploitation trailer starring Pam Grier, "Rabies in a Human Patient", an apocalyptic medical film showcasing the end stages of rabies in Iranian patients after being bitten by wolves, "Living in a Reverse World", a hilarious and eye-opening scientific look at reverse vision, "Blind as a Bat", everything weird you ever wanted to know about bats from the Christian cuckoos at Moody Institute of Science and many other film shorts including "Blasting Caps", "Gumby Concerto", and some way-out-and-wild 60's jukebox Scopitone post show closers including "The Web of Love" with blonde bombshell Joi Lansing, and many more offbeat films too numerous and too shocking to mention here! The show is continually mutating so expect surprises and films you've never see in any theater again! A rare opportunity to peruse the bizarre!

Plus! 1950's allergy test films, 35mm filmstrips, ethnographic shorts, peep show loops, dumpster films and the 16mm Film Give-A-Way!

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On Saturday, July 10th at 8:00PM Oddball Film+Video presents J.X. Williams' Peep Show and a lecture on his work. The screening will take place at Oddball Film+Video, 275 Capp Street in San Francisco. Admission is $10.00. Seating is limited and an RSVP is requested. RSVP to: info@oddballfilm.com or 415.558.8112. We will return your call ONLY if the program is sold out.

About Peep Show

This year's program at the Rotterdam Film Festival presented two major cinematic rediscoveries -- the original version of John Cassavettes' "Shadows" and a lesser known but equally significant film by an obscure director who worked under the pseudonym "J.X. Williams". Produced in Copenhagen in 1965, Peep Show chronicles a secret history of the Kennedy administration, revealing a mafia plot to addict Frank Sinatra to heroin.

Peep Show holds a significant place in cinematic history for a number of reasons. Most notoriously, the film's use of pornographic imagery got it banned from several countries and even resulted in the director's brief incarceration in Rome.

More importantly, however, the film tackled a multitude of subjects that did not come in vogue until the seventies. Nearly a decade before Coppola and Scorsese, Peep Show offered an unrelentingly grim and realistic portrait of organized crime, undoubtedly influenced by Mr. Williams' personal experiences as a onetime "gofer" to Johnny Rosselli and other mobsters in Los Angeles.

Released less than two years after the assassination of JFK, Peep Show was also the first film to explore the dark side of Camelot. Besides tracing the tangled web of theories that may have led to the assassination, Peep Show gives a blistering account of the fixing of the 1960 election and the unholy alliance between Joe Kennedy and La Cosa Nostra. (Not surprisingly, Peep Show was funded entirely from European sources).

In addition to screening Peep Show, film scholar, curator, and archivist Noel Lawrence will give a detailed introduction on the making of the film and the colorful life of its director, including excerpts from Mr. Williams forthcoming memoir "The Big Footnote". We will also present three of his short films from the late 1960's: "Psych-Burn", "Satan Claus", and "The Virgin Sacrifice".

"Creating a unique body of work from a heady ferment of crime, drugs, politics and porn, J.X. Williams was either a mad genius or a mob stooge. Rediscovery of his films will help cinema historians decide. He could very well be the Missing Link in the secret history of mid-20th century America." -- Eddie Muller, Programmer, San Francisco Film Noir Festival

"Peep Show has a dark, sleek, seductive look, like polished obsidian -- a dark magnificence that emerges in its revelation of an unspeakable construct of extortion, drugs, and the leveraging of influence in the highest (and lowest) of places." -- Gregory Avery, Nitrate Online

Click Here for the Quicktime Trailer: http://www.othercinemadvd.com/pstrailersmall5.mov

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"Am I Gay Yet?": Gay Hollywood, the Kinky Avant Garde+AMG Shorts

In celebration of Gay Pride Week, Oddball Film+Video and The San Francisco Media Archive present an evening of films entitled "Am I Gay Yet?: Gay Hollywood, the Kinky Avant Garde and AMG Shorts" this Saturday June 26th at 8:00PM at Oddball Film+Video, 275 Capp Street in San Francisco. Admission is $10.00. Seating is limited and RSVP's are requested. Info and RSVP is at info@oddballfilm.com or 415.558.8112.

"Rock Hudson's Home Movies"(Color, 1993) is an acclaimed, revealing and outrageous look at the star's onscreen and offscreen hints at homosexuality, otherwise well-veiled by Hollywood hype.

The idea for the movie came from the late actor's real-life habit of showing queer clips from his oeuvre at his infamous gay house parties. This movie hijacks Rock Hudson's Hollywood movies, converting choice clips into substitute home movies and forcing modern readings on them that invariably point to clues as to the star's hidden homosexuality.

Often hilarious, highly original and utterly convincing, this revisionist interpretation of Rock Hudson's film career and life seeks to discover the "real" Hudson through his "reel" persona. Was this Hollywood hunk completely out of touch with his secreted sexuality, or did he throughout his career offer subtle- or not so subtle-hints at his homosexuality? Exploring this idea, Rappaport's insightful and unconventional biography cleverly dissects-through freeze-frame, slo-mo and replays-Hudson's films, seeking clues and overtly gay signals. Hudson may have come off as beauty with no brains on the big screen, but it didn't take a genius to see the irony in lines like "My boss wants me to camp" [from Man's Favorite Sport (1964)] or the effete Tony Randall inquiring of Rock, "Need a light, cowboy?" [Pillow Talk, 1959]. Many other clips accentuate this campy yet substantive doc.

Director Jean Genet was one of France's maverick artists, a man who exchanged a life of extreme deprivation and degradation for that of a novelist, playwright and poet and became something of an existentialist hero to the likes of Jean Cocteau and Jean-Paul Sartre. Although greatly influenced by the medium of cinema, "Un Chant D' Amour"("The Song of Love", B+W, 1950) is the only film he both wrote and directed. Long championed as one of the most emblematic films in gay cinema, it has unquestionably influenced generations of filmmakers, from the late Derek Jarman to Todd Haynes (his 1991 film Poison is directly inspired by Genet's work). "Un Chant D'Amour" is a hymn to homosexual desire examining two prisoners in solitary confinement as they communicate their desires to one other, principally through a small hole in the wall that separates their cells. They exorcise their frustration and loneliness under the voyeuristic gaze of the prison guard. The dynamic of warder and prisoner, submission and domination, confinement and freedom is explored through these complex relationships.

As the only fimic example of Genet's transposition of ideas and writing into images, "Un Chant D'Amour" may be categorized as a 'film poem' -- an avant-garde work comparable to the films of Jean Cocteau, Kenneth Anger Maya Deren, and Nagisa Oshima. Its lyrical evocation of homosexual passion and romance is regarded as one of the most intensely physical films made. Historically limited in its availablility due to the social stigma of its sexually explicit material, much silence and confusion surrounded this hidden treasure; thus it has become the most famous gay short film in European history.

Photographer, filmmaker and Athletic Model Guild (AMG) founder Bob Mizer was THE pioneer of modern gay erotica and shot hundred of hours of film and thousands of photographs of "physique" films in the 50s through the 80s. These classic shorts span the entire gamut of masculinity and featured motocyclists, California surfer boys, wrestlers and beefcakes of all types in classical camp poses. We'll be screening a selection of color and black and white films, all in 16mm from the 1950s and 60s as well as some of his later work, shot in the 1980s.

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Sex+Drugs Cinema #1: All American Sex and Drug Scare Films

"Take a trip from Squaresville and blast off to Kicksville"

On Saturday, July 3rd at 8:00PM Oddball Film+Video presents an All American Sex and Drug Scare Film extravaganza featuring a selection of the greatest camp classic sex and drug films from the past 50 years. The screening will take place at Oddball Film+Video, 275 Capp Street in San Francisco. Admission is $10.00. Seating is limited and an RSVP is requested. RSVP to: info@oddballfilm.com or 415.558.8112. We will return your call ONLY if the program is sold out. A pre show program of sex and drug trailers begins at 8:00PM, followed by the main program.

"Dating Do's and Don'ts"(B+W, 1949) is a how-to social guidance film. Watch as happy-go-lucky teen Alan Woodruff("Woody") receives a free ticket for one couple to the upcoming Hi-Teen Carnival. After much hesitation(and a pep talk from his girl savvy older brother), Woody decides to ask Ann Davis to be his date. At crucial moments in the film the narrator stops the action and presents Woody with several possible options for his actions. A moralistic message for all flirty teens!

Another coming of age classic, sponsored by Kotex and produced by the Walt Disney company is "The Story of Menstruation"(Color, 1946). In this beautifully animated Technicolor short, a cartoon blonde with an oversized head gives preteen girls a lesson in anatomy and gentility.

"VD: Attack Plan"(Color, 1967) is a Disney camp cartoon classic. Watch in wide-eye wonder as a veteran vd germ in the "contagion corps" outlines how these insidious creatures spread the dreaded syphilis and gonorrhea germs! Watch, listen and learn! Remember Sonny, the other half of Sonny and Cher? Well hipster Sonny lectures us(with a framed picture of Cher in the background) with some "straight talk" in "Marijuana"(Color, 1967). Dressed in a cheap orange costume-like psychedelic suit Sonny gabs on about the dangers of pot-smoking while police round up stoned teenagers and other kids freak-out and hallucinate after smoking too much Mary Jane. A laugh riot!

The hilarious and surreal "Narcotics: Pit of Despair"(Color, 1967) is probably the stupidest drug film ever produced. An ominous bongo soundtrack underscores our story of John, a high school senior. John's on the track team, drives a sporty car and has a cute girlfriend. His friend Pete is a drug pusher. Pete invites John to a party. Hammond organ music and dizzying camera work prepare us for the high-flying party that follows. John meets femme fatale Helen. With her push-up bra and false eyelashes Helen lures John into the garage to get high. "Take a trip from Squaresville, get with the countdown, shake this square world and blast off to Kicksville", the narrator intones as a joint gets passed around. John soon becomes "psychologically dependent" on pot and starts mainlining heroin, abandoning his girlfriend, his car, and the track team. He begins stealing from his mother(!) to buy drugs and soon sinks into oblivion. But wait! There's help. Well, almost, a happy ending just wouldn't help us see the light here. Don't miss the spitting cobra at the end!

"LSD-25"(Color, 1967) imitates cinema verite and television news techniques to propagandize its moralizing message of misinformation, fear and tragedy. Narrated by an LSD "molecule" "LSD-25" begins with teens gyrating in an underlit nightclub while a fake psychedelic band sings the "LSD-25" theme!

Drown, drown out of your mind
You think you're seeing things
I know your blind
A million bright colors explode in your head
Today you're high, tomorrow your dead.

"Drop a cap of me, man and drop out!", the LSD molecule crows as a teenager in a button down shirt rolls on the floor screaming "Help me! Oh god help me!". A trip to the morgue was never this easy! Plus! Sex and Dope trailers from the archives!

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Sonic Oddities

Friday, July 11, 2003 at 10:00PM
Fast Forward Rewind Film & Video Festival
Ashe Auditorium at the Knight Center
400 SE 2nd Ave., Miami
info: 305.375.1505
Admission $5.00

Past Screenings

Other Cinema
Saturday, May 17, 2003
992 Valencia St.
San Francisco
http://www.othercinema.com

Friday, March 7, 2003
C-Level
Los Angeles
http://www.c-level.cc/

Sonic Oddities is a trek through the auditory oddities of film history. This program of archival and contemporary film shorts includes commercials such as "Magic Ride", GM's surreal Daliesque Chevrolet tour with its pre synthesizer electronic blips and bleeps track, promotional films for new sound inventions including the orchestrally obverblown "The Challenge For Tomorrow", RCA's futurist propagandizing, B+W Soundies with sound pioneers Spike Jones, and Slim Gaillard, color jukebox 60s Scopitones, the rare French sensation that forever campified the music video and other music weirdness from the archives of Oddball Films.

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Wednesday, March 5, 2003 at 8:00PM
Sponto Gallery
7 Dudley Street (one block South of Rose St. half block East of the Boardwalk)
Venice, California
Info: 310.306.7330
Admission Free
seating is limited please arrive early!

Thursday, March 6, 2003 at 8:00PM
Echo Park Film Center
http://www.echoparkfilmcenter.org
1200 N. Alvarado Street
Los Angeles, California
Info: 213.484.8846
Admission $5.00

Friday, March 14 & 21, 2003
( Two Nights!) at 10:00PM
Spanganga
http://www.spanganga.com/
3376 19th Street
San Francisco, California
Info: 415.821-1102
Admission: $7.00

Stephen Parr of Oddball Film+Video presents an extraordinary personal romp through the underbelly of Sex in Cinema - 2+hrs. of erotica, porn, doc, industrial, and unintentional camp. This polymorphous program promises a pulsating panorama of perverse pleasures that include shorts straight and gay, old and new, home-movies, hillbilly porn, cartoon smut, artists' sketches, commercials, trailers, educationals and military instructional films("How to Give an Enema"), hygiene films and a preview of contemporary shot in San Francisco fetish erotica. PLUS! Lilli St. Cyr, burlesque bits, verité footage from porn sets, and oozing oodles more.

DON'T MISS the "Cheap-Smut-Give-Away" during intermission!

"Historical/Hysterical" Film Screening

Cinema Vortex Saturday, August 14th at midnight and Sunday, August 15 at 1pm.

"Historical/Hysterical" film screening curated and compiled by Stephen Parr

"Historical/Hysterical" is the first in a series of historically based film screenings curated by Stephen Parr, director of Oddball Film+Video, a stock film archive based in San Francisco. The series is both a historical and offbeat look at the wide range of specialized films made in the last half century. It is both enlightening and fascinating, hilarious and sublime in it's examination of specialized film making. "Historical/Hysterical" is as Parr calls it "A fractured compendium of global propaganda". Historical/Hysterical examines the global culture of film making and touches on educational, scientific, military, movie trailers, exploitation films, sales films, religious, industrial films and television commercials from the 20s through the 60s to showcase the offbeat and oftentimes bizarre visions of genre films. Surreal exploitation trailers such as "Terror of the Tongs" and "Black Mama, White Mama" are interspersed with commercials showcasing flying cars and female gangsters selling ginger ale in "America's Going Dry". The surreal scientific "Our Ant Gang" examines ornery insects while the do gooder "Boy Scout Jamboree" emphasizes team work and all American discipline. Law enforcement training films such as "The Use of Mace" demonstrate a solution to violent subjugation while immobilizing a hapless volunteer. In "Media and the Military" trainees watch beat poetry and learn about "multimedia" tools in the 50s. Historical/Hysterical is curator Stephen Parr's take on the wild, the way-out and the historically hilarious sublime moments in global filmmaking. Parr is also director of the San Francisco Media Archive, a non profit film archive dedicated to the preservation of film in all genres. The films from this screening are culled from the collection at Oddball as well as the San Francisco Media Archive collection.

See what "The Miami New Times" review ("Not PC Cinema," By Nina Korman) and event description (by Brett Sokol) say about "Historical/Hysterical".

MOVIE PRICES & DIRECTIONS: Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $6 for the general public, $5 for senior citizens , but only $4 for members. Matinees (before 6 PM) $4. Admission to Cinema Vortex shows is $4. The Alliance Cinema is located at 927 Lincoln Road in Suite 119 of the Sterling Building, between Michigan and Jefferson Aves in Miami Beach

Historical/Hysterical Screening
Fractured compendium of global propaganda
Curated by Stephen Parr, Oddball Film+Video

Program One
The First Americans And Their Gods Part One
(Educational, Color, 11 min., 1950, by Philip Stapp)
Drums of Africa(Movie Trailer, 1 min, Color, 1963, MGM)
Kentucky Pioneers(Educational, B+W, 11 min, 1941 ERPI Classroom Films)
Our Ant Gang(Educational, Silent, B+W, 3 min., Silent, 1927, Tolhurst Popular Science Series)
Kathakali(Dances of India) (Promotional, 10 min., B+W, 1940s, Government of India Information Films)
Something to Take to Heart/Coconut Head Making(Religious Information, B+W, 10 min., 1950s, Producer Unknown)
Constant As the Stars(Commercial, B+W, 1 min., Date Unknown, Bulova)
Wild World(Ethnographic clips, 6 min., B+W, 1930's, producers unknown)
Zorro's Fighting Legion(Movie Trailer, B+W, Date Unknown, 2 min., Republic Pictures)
Carry Me Back to the Lone Prairie by Carson Robison and His Buckaroos(Musical Soundie, B+W, 4 min., 1940s, Castle Films)

Program Two
Boy Scout Jamboree(Promotional Film, B+W, 3 min., 1940s, Producer Unknown)
Art/Draw Me(Promotional Film, B+W, 4 min., Date and Producer Unknown)
Media and the Military(Military, B+W, 4 min., Date and Producer Unknown)
White Mamma, Black Mama(Two Movie Trailer, Color, 3 min., Date Unknown, AIP)
Coast Guard Spars(Military Information, B+W, 5 min., Date Unknown, US Coast Guard)
Flying Car(Commercial, B+W, 30 seconds, Date Unknown, American Motors)
The Electric Eel(Educational, Color, 13 min., Date Unknown, Moody Institute of Science)
Use of Mace(Commercial Promotion, Color faded, 3 min., Reader's Digest Films)
The Face of Terror(Movie Trailer, B+W, Date Unknown, Hammer Films)
Terror of the Tongs(Movie Trailer, B+W, Date+Producer Unknown)
Helping Your Child Feel Emotionally Secure(Educational, Color, 11 min., Date Unknown, Seminar Films)
Starve a Rat(Commercial, Color, Date Unknown, NYC Dept of Health)
Violence(Commercial, B+W, Date Unknown, Bond Bread)
Americas Going Dry(Commercial, Color, Date Unknown, Canada Dry)
Krystallos(Educational, Color, 11 min., Date Unknown, Western Electric)

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