Feb 18, 2013

Oscar Obscurities and A Foodie Dance Party this week at Oddball Films

Curators:  


It being Academy Award season, as Hollywood has many of us thinking, below is some counter-curating from the San Francisco mind of Oddball Film + Video's Stephen Parr, the curator-collector-entrepreneur  I mentioned last Tuesday as one of the 4 "Unessential Cinema" (and, I should have added, Orphans) programmers. Parr contributed a screening to the Orphans 8 finale -- Sun Healing the Ultra-Violet Way with Life Lite (1934), an odd advertising film. As he often does, he opted to edit the original film down to a shorter running time for the occasion (the right call, I thought) and he added a recently composed minimalist music track to the silent movie.  Previously he had shown Sun Healing the Ultra-Violet Way at his own screening space as part of a program he entitled "Secret Science and Bizarre Beliefs," without the music or reduced running time. The words bizarre and secret are leitmotifs in the hundreds of Oddball exhibitions and compilations. 

One thing I find remarkable about Stephen Parr's curatorial impact is his success in developing a place for these myriad of unusual films and videos, as well as a business model for exploiting them for (small) profit AND an intellectual model that makes him a guest speaker and exhibitor at universities, conferences, archives, and other institutions that don't ordinarily host such ventures. In particular, Parr has developed a repertoire of programs (films packaged on video, I should add) devoted to sexuality and to the history of computers that have attracted scholars as well as hipsters and cinephiles.

Last summer, the Oddball Films microcinema hosted an evening of films from the DVD Orphans in Space, with some of its own films added  to the mix. 
 That evening was also the first time Regina Longo showed a piece from the Albanian Film Archive, kicking off her fantastically successful Albanian Cinema Project.  (On that subject, we think we have made it possible for you to see in class on Tuesday, March 26, In the Land of the Eagles (2007) in 35mm -- only the second screening ever outside of Tirana. It's a compilation documentary made entirely from footage in the Albanian archive, with English narration by Michael York. For good measure we will have the film's director Fatmir Koçi with us, fresh from Tirana.)   

NB:  It's a small world 1:  Stephen Parr's not-for-profit San Francisco Media Archive is the fiscal sponsor/guardian of funds raised the Albanian Cinema Project. For you see, Parr and Longo both learned about the Albanian Film Archive's peril through fellow Bay Area resident, Albanian American filmmaker Thomas Logoreci -- who will also join us for our ACP events. 

NB:  It's a small world 2: Cinema is just circles, quadrangles, and triangles in motion. 
 Part of the Oddball program says "Mel Brooks heckles experimental animation in the hilarious cartoon The Critic (1963)."   





---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Oddball Films <programming@oddballfilm.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 1:32 PM
Subject: Oscar Obscurities and A Foodie Dance Party this week at Oddball Films 


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Film Lovers:

Thursday, we bring you More Oddball Oscar Obscurities, an eclectic evening of mind-blowing, thought-provoking and hilarious award-winning live-action and animated short films and awards-show highlights. Films include Saul Bass' imaginative and inventive Why Man Creates (1968), Mel Brooks in the hilarious cartoon The Critic (1963) and Isaac Hayes performing the Theme from Shaft at the 1972 Oscars!

On Friday, it's Snack Time! with delicious edible treats, tasty vintage food films and yummy live music from Donghoon Han and Colin Pate. Come dance, snack and feast your eyes on some eye-candy in one scrumptious night! Highlights include drug-laced segments of the Be@tles Magical My$tery Tour (1967) and 1970s Breakfast Commercials.

For more juicy details and fabulous photos, click on the links at the end of the descriptions below.

We look forward to seeing you at the screenings!

Best Regards,
Stephen Parr
Director, Oddball Films

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More Oddball Oscar Obscurities

Thursday, February 21st - 8PM

Oddball Films presents More Oddball Oscar Obscurities, an evening showcasing the finest animated and live action shorts ever to be nominated for an Academy Award. With films from the 1940's through the 1970's, from tender coming of age portraits, to experimental animation to Pepe Le Pew, with a dash of dazzling Awards-show moments, this is one night the winner will be you! Films include (and the Oscar went to...) The Golden Fish (1959) a charming film about a boy, his fish, his bird and a sneaky cat; Skaterdater (1965), the quintessential award-winning young love/sidewalk surfing film, (with a boss soundtrack by Davie Allen and the Arrows); Leisure (1976), Bruce Petty's Oscar-winning animated history of time spent at play; Chuck Jones unleashes his Lothario-skunk, Pepe Le Pew, in For Scent-imental Reasons (1949); Mel Brooks heckles experimental animation in the hilarious cartoon The Critic (1963); a scintillating insect excerpt from the pseudo-documentary The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971); Saul Bass' imaginative treatise on imagination, Why Man Creates (1968); Isaac Hayes performs the Theme From Shaft in an eye-popping, over-the-top display of glitz from the 44th Academy Awards show in 1972; plus one of the great awards-show moments as Jayne Mansfield knocks Mickey Rooney speechless at the 1958 Golden Globes and even more surprise award-winners!

Click here for more information.

SnackTime

Snack Time!

Friday, February 22nd - 8PM

Oddball Films and guest curator Christine Kwon present SNACK TIME!, with a live performance by Korean American musician Donghoon Han and indie stalwart Caleb Pate from Seventeen Evergreen. SNACK TIME! is the free-flowing combination of film, music, dance and, of course, ultimate snacks. Inspired by 50s-70s camp and absurdist media, SNACK TIME! showcases vintage commercials of our favorite childhood junk foods, alien encounters in rare B-movies, and psychedelic LSD-infused segments of the Be@tles Magical My$tery Tour (1967)— all the colors of the rainbow! Other highlights include 1970s Breakfast Commercials, Vintage Cigarette Commercials, and the animated anti-smoking cartoon The Huffless Puffless Dragon (1964). We'll have beer, and a snack time intermission, finishing off with a dance party for everyone!

Click here for more information.

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Venue & Ticket Info

Venue: Oddball Film | 275 Capp Street | San Francisco (map)
Tickets: $10.00 - Limited seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8117
Web: oddballfilms.blogspot.com

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