Events

Screenings Every Friday and Saturday Evening
For Current Screening Schedule Email us at info@oddballfilm.com

All screenings occur at Oddball Film+Video which is located at 275 Capp Street in San Francisco.

Check screening times under program.

Admission is $10.00. Seating is limited. RSVP is Requested. For Reservations and Info, please call 415.558.8117 or email info@oddballfilm.com.

Note: We will call you back ONLY if show is sold out.

Recent Screenings

Past Screenings

January 30 8:00 "Shellac Shack at the Movies II":
Music Films of the 78rpm Era

Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present another night of rare16mm music shorts, clips and Soundies for your visual and aural pleasure. In the day (or night, as it were) shorts would have been screened before feature films and Soundies were the original “music videos”, made for audio-visual jukeboxes in 1940’s.

As host of “Shellac Shack”, Pete Gowdy has been spinning 78 rpm records at Tony Nik’s Café and the Homestead to enthusiastic audiences in San Francisco for more than 5 years. Salon style, he’ll be spinning representative discs before and after the screening, and attendees are welcome to stay and discuss record collecting and film after the program- refreshments will be served.

Films Include:

“Frontier Frolic” (B+W, 1946)
The true “King of Western Swing” Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys host and play on this musical short with guests. Some hot pickin’ with Bob and the boys plus guests The Modernaires, The McKinney Sisters and Pat Starling. Includes a sing-along “San Antonio Rose”!

“Xavier Cugat” (B+W, 1952)
Two mambos from this 1952 feature- “Gypsy Mambo” and “Mambo Jambo” with some frantic dancers. Cugat, who spent his formative years in Cuba, was the main “rival” to Desi Arnez (he just never had his own TV show). Cugat on artistic integrity: “I would rather play Chiquita Banana and have my swimming pool than play Bach and starve.” His fourth wife: Charo!

“Fabulous Las Vegas” (B+W, 1954)
Kinescope of Joe Graydon hosted show, recorded live at the legendary Congo Room at the Sahara Hotel and Casino. Features Louis Prima and Keely Smith romping through “Hurry Home”, the Treniers with “Rag Mop” and more. Includes a “newsreel” with Zsa Zsa Gabor… A nice little time capsule of pre-Rat Pack Las Vegas.

“Hawaiian Rhythm/Hawaiian Nights” (B+W, 1939)
Two early shorts from Castle Films (later to become the leader of 8mm and 16mm films sold to consumers for in-home projection). Hawaiian Rhythms is a compilation of mostly angolo-Hawaiian Soundies with some great hulas and luau scenes, while Hawaiian Nights is more of a travelogue with music, including the slack-key master Sol Hoppii and amazing footage of Waikiki beach, outriggers and surfers in the days long before jet travel and high-rises.

Soundies (all B+W, c.1940’s):
King Cole Trio – “Errand Boy For Rhythm”
w/ Oscar Moore on Guitar, Wesley Prince on Bass and a leggy friend.
Hoagy Charmichael – “Hong Kong Blues”
The song featured in “To Have and Have Not”.
Deep River Boys – “Hark, Hark the Lark”
Early vocal group in the Ink Spots/Delta Rhythm Boys vein.
Walter Liberace – “”Tiger Rag”
Yes, that Liberace!
Spade Cooley w/Tex Williams – “There is No Sunshine”
Lady killer Cooley teams up with Tex “Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette” Williams.
Alvino Rey w/the King Sisters – “Call of the Canyon”
Jimmy Wakely Trio – “Git Along, Lil’ Pony”
Home, home on the range, where the dear, sweater-girls play. Yowza!

Plus! That bad, bad Eartha Kitt with two numbers from the Ed Sullivan show in 1956.

About Soundies:
Soundies can be considered the precursors to music videos. Produced during the years 1940 to 1946, Soundies were made to be seen on self-contained, coin-operated, 16mm rear projection machines called Panorams. They were located in nightclubs, bars, restaurants and other public places. Eight Soundies, featuring a variety of musical performances, were generally spliced together on a reel which ran in a continuous loop. The Panoram, a complicated and unique machine, later served as the basis for the RCA 16mm projector.

Soundies were produced by various companies such as Minoco and RCM Productions, headed by FDR's son James Roosevelt, Sam Coslow a song writer and Herbert Mills, a pioneer in the development of arcade music machines. In order to achieve the widest possible distribution, Soundies covered the gamut of musical styles from country and western to Russian balalaika music, tenors singing Irish folksongs, the big band swing music of Stan Kenton and Tommy Dorsey and jazz Greats, Fats Waller, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Nat King Cole.

A Soundie reel sometimes included cheesecake segments--striptease, burlesque routines or shots of women in bathing suits--specifically intended to attract wartime military personnel on leave. Appeals for war bonds and other patriotic messages ("We're All Americans", "When Hitler Kicks the Bucket", "The White Cliffs of Dover") were included. Soundies often starred little known performers who later became famous, such as Alan Ladd, Cyd Charisse, Doris Day and Ricardo Montalban, as well as performers on their way down. Many African-American performers like Dorothy Dandridge, Louis Armstrong and Stepin Fetchit, who were largely absent from mainstream films except in minor roles, were featured. -From the UCLA Film Library Web Site.

Curator Biography:
Pete Gowdy (aka DJ Chas Gaudi) is host of San Francisco’s Shellac Shack, a weekly 78 rpm listening party and a DJ specializing in vintage sounds: soul, jazz, country, punk and new wave. A graduate of the Vassar College Film Program, he is an associate producer of Marc Huestis Presents, the long-running movie legend tributes at the Castro Theatre.

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January 23 8:30 "Rhythm Riot ":
Music in America

Oddball Films presents “Rhythm Riot: Music in America," two rare documentaries tracing the history of American Music.

The rarely 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 the 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.

“Black Music in America: From Then Till Now”(Color, 1971) is a seldom seen 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!

Plus! The ”multimedia” slide/cassette show “The Poetry of Rock” was designed for High School students and produced by The Center for Humanities. This presentation covers all the bases in making rock “relevant” in the early 70s. From Edgar Allen Poe to the Big Bopper, from Bob Dylan to Janis Joplin this presentation traces the history of rock through poetry and sound. It’s alternately naive and enlightening, idiotic and insightful -- just like rock n’roll!

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January 24 8:00 "Trailer Trash":
B-Movie Trailers from the 1930s and 1970s

Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening rare B-Movie, Art Film and XXX film trailers, from the 1930’s to the 1970’s. Ranging from 30 seconds to several minutes in length, these promotional shorts for coming attractions were often much more entertaining than the features they promote.

In addition, a reel of censored film clips will be presented as found. Marked “Mandatory Edits” and compiled presumably by the editor at the big Los Angeles TV station where this reel originated, these feature film clips were apparently deemed too violent, sexual, suggestive or shocking to be shown on TV. Jarring edits take you from the Civil War to WWII to the old West, to Ancient times and back, and from color to B &W. See flaming arrows in the chest, suggestive undergarments, bloody stumps, heaving breasts, and so much more! See Gary Cooper, Buddy Greco, Burt Lancaster, Charo, and a cast of thousands together in the boldest film that never was!

Trailers Include (but not limited to):

The Possession of Joel Delaney; Dr. Jekyll, Mrs. Hyde; Escape From/Battle for/Conquest of/the Planet of the Apes; Cabaret; Dog Day Afternoon; Airport 1975; Eat My Dust (w/ Ron Howard); Cover Girl Models; Switchblade Sisters; War Goddess; The Big Bus; Zero Population Growth; Little Fauss & Big Halsy; Grave of the Vampire; House of Exorcism; Return of Count Yorga; Play It Again, Sam; Girls in Trouble; Girly; The Student Body; Super Stooges Vs. The Wonder Women; Girls Are For Loving; 1000 Convicts and a Woman; Black Mama/White Mama; Face of Terror (w/ Arch Hall Jr.); Dimension 5; The Secret Passion; Lilith; Dear Heart; Flight From Ashiya; Woman of Straw; Moment to Moment; The Farmer’s Daughter; Obsession; Prime Cut; JD’s Revenge; Mein Kampf; Underworld USA (Sam Fuller); Black Gold; Winterhawk; The Master Gunfighter; Swiss Family Robinson; The Warlord; Take Her She’s Mine; Go-Go Mania; Hitler’s Harlots; Diary of a Young Writer; Raga; Pink Flamingos; Jabberwocky; State of Siege; Truck Stop Women; Seduction of Mimi; Andy Warhol’s Trash; Marijuana; Assassin of Youth; and much more!!

Plus! “Mandatory Edits” (color, B&W, c.1950-1965)
Wild compilation of violent, sexual and otherwise “not ready for primetime viewing” film clips, edited into one bizarre reel. It’s as if William Burroughs got into the Saturday afternoon TV-movie vault and applied his “cut-up technique”.

And! “We Live in A Trailer” (color, 1959)
Trailer trash in training.

Curator Biography:
Pete Gowdy (aka DJ Chas Gaudi) is host of San Francisco’s Shellac Shack, a weekly 78 rpm listening party and a DJ specializing in vintage soul, punk and new wave. A graduate of the Vassar College Film Program, he is an associate producer of Marc Huestis Presents, the long-running movie legend tributes at the Castro Theatre.

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January 17 8:00 "Brainwashed!":
Innocent Looking Cartoons That Tell Us What To Do

Guest curator Karl Cohen and Oddball Films present “Brainwashed!” Innocent Looking Cartoons That Tell Us What to Think!” This highly entertaining survey of animated cartoons featuring classic animated propaganda, some censored, some silly and surreal, shows us who to hate, who to vote for, what foods to eat or drink and most importantly what to think!

We expect animation to be enjoyable entertainment, but some of it also contains messages intended to influence our opinions or to motivate us in other ways. These films can take many forms from hard-hitting propaganda to extremely subtle inferences that can be just as effective. The messages can be about things you approve of or assume to be true or they can be outright lies (cigarettes are recommended by doctors). Some of the most successful of these films are so enjoyable that you may not realize that they have left lasting impressions in your brain.

This survey of classic animated propaganda will tell you whom to hate, who to vote for, to buy war bonds, not to smoke, what foods to eat and drink and other things. You may leave the screening craving products that haven’t been available for many decades. You may feel angry about the atomic bomb or leave understanding that our world can be hypocritical.

We taught citizens to love thy neighbor regardless of their race or religion, but to despise them if they believe in communism. Some of the films screening are delightful, featuring star entertainers including Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Felix the Cat and Bullwinkle J. Moose. Others try to scare audiences to achieve their objective. Hopefully the show will give you new insights about how media is used to manipulate our thoughts, to brainwash the public using mass communication methods.

The program begins with one of the most controversial films ever made, “The Brotherhood of Man” directed by Robert Cannon. At the close of WWII the United Auto Workers knew Detroit was going to open factories in the South and that the industry would need an integrated work force. The film was made by some of Hollywood’s most innovative talent including the founders of the UPA studio. While you may watch this film and say it is a wonderful expression of equality and freedom, some US Congressmen were sure it was full of lies. Many were racists from southern states and openly denounced black people as inferior beings. This was the 1940s and the civil rights movement had not begun. In 1946 Congress stopped the US Army from distributing this film abroad as a tool to combat Hitler’s teachings about a white super race. Later Congress and other groups attacked, condemned and banned the film, not for its message, but because suspected communists had worked on the production as scriptwriters (Ring Lardner Jr., Maurice Rapf and Phil Eastman all were blacklisted).

In the last days of World War I (1918), Winsor McCay, the creator of “Gertie the Dinosaur” (1914) released “The Sinking of the Lusitania”, the screens first powerful animated propaganda. First it introduces us to some of the famous innocent victims of the disaster and then it shows us in graphic detail what the evil faceless German submarine crew did. It tears at your emotions as we see people falling off the ship to their death including a mother drowning while clutching her baby to her chest.

If propaganda is successful in a culture people repeat the message without questioning it. In Felix the Cat in “Felix All Puzzled”, 1925, the plot reflects the common belief in the US that life in the USSR was awful and nothing but trouble after the revolution. For the millions of poor peasants liberated by the revolution there must have been hope for a better life, even it didn’t turn out that way. I suspect for the newly freed population they viewed life differently than how it was depicted by the US press and by this film.

On a more cheerful note “The Sunshine Makers”, directed by Burt Gillett and Ted Eshbaugh in 1935 for Van Beuren (a long forgotten New York studio), teaches us to have positive attitudes, to be happy and to drink a magical white liquid that comes in a bottle. In a pre-Prozac world, relentlessly cheerful gnomes bottle sunshine (and, apparently, contentment) to distribute throughout the countryside, like little psychotropic milkmen. Meanwhile, goblins dressed like undertakers seem to have the misery franchise sown up — they spend most of their day skulking around, singing about how great it is to feel rotten. Pretty soon it’s attitude adjustment warfare, with the sunshine makers forcing everyone to get happy. When hippies saw the film in the late 1960s they were sure this mood elevating liquid was sunshine acid (LSD), but the end credit it mentions that a company named Borden’s brought you this message.

Gillett was also the director of The Three Little Pigs, 1933. It was one of Disney’s most popular shorts and it’s theme song, Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, told America not to be afraid of the mean old wolf, the depression.

At Warner Bros., Frank Tashlin directed Porky Pig in “Wholly Smokes”, 1938, a surreal musical nightmare intended to scare kids into avoiding tobacco products. It isn’t known why the film was made as there was very little public information about the dangers of smoking in the late 1930s. (All I was told growing up in the 1950s is that smoking will stunt your growth.) Tobacco’s link to cancer wasn't known then, but the message that children (not adults) shouldn’t smoke comes across loud and clear. Historians say that in the 1930s the only country with a strong anti-smoking campaign was Nazi Germany.

As Hitler invaded Austria, Poland and other countries, MGM gave the American public an anti-war message. “Peace on Earth” directed by Hugh Harman was MGM’s Christmas film for 1939. It was nominated for an Oscar and Harman later said it was the only film ever nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Upon the US entering WW II Warner Bros., like most of the big studios, started churning out propaganda films. “Bugs Bunny’s Bond Rally” (Robert McKimson, 1942) was an in your face reminder to buy victory war bonds. An uncensored print will be shown (banned on TV in the US). At least 4 other World War II propaganda films have been added to tonight’s program that range from outrageous humor to hard hitting in-your-face propaganda full of hatred for the enemy.

Possibly the rarest work in the program is “A Short Vision” by Peter and Joan Foldes, 1956. It looks at the dangers of the new technology that ended WW II. Peter and Joan Foldes trained as painters, and this, their second and last film together, is literally an animated painting. Its bleak subject reflects the widespread preoccupation in the 1950s with nuclear annihilation, which in Britain led to the rise of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). After a decade spent painting in Paris, Peter Foldes returned to film and was one of the first artists to make figurative computer-drawn animation. This film was made in England and was distributed briefly to theaters in the US. It may be the ultimate horror film.

Past Future Propaganda

While the films being shown are old, don’t assume animated propaganda is a thing of the past. Today the world is full of innocent looking message films. An Iranian studio is believed to be behind web-based anti-Israel films that to suggest to kids that it is cool to become a suicide bomber. Planned Parenthood has successfully used animation to promote their cause, but at least one of their films was so offensive to pro-life people their protest got it taken off the Internet. Anti-bullying campaigns using animation have been developed in Canada, the US and in other countries for use in schools. The National Rife Association uses an animated Eddy Eagle as its mascot in gun safety cartoons for kids. The US Army has developed as recruitment tools cool computer games aimed at young people. Animation has been used in anti-drug campaigns, to convince kids not to smoke and to warn about the dangers of drinking. TV commercials use computer-generated images to seduce us into craving the latest automobiles and other products.

The point is that mass media from TV to iPhones, is bombarding us with messages paid for by governments, corporations, non-profits, political causes and other groups to promote their beliefs. Animated propaganda can be a good or bad thing. The main thing is for all of us to recognize it and realize that somebody out there is trying to manipulate and influence what we think.

Curators notes by
Karl Cohen

Curator Biography
Karl Cohen is an animation historian who teaches at SF State University, is president of ASIFA-SF (http://www.asifa-sf.org), the Bay Area chapter of the world’s leading animation association and has written hundreds of articles about animation. He is also the author of “Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons” and “Blacklisted Animators”.
He has lectured in worldwide and his articles have been translated into numerous languages. For many years he ran a weekly film series in North Beach at Intersection for the Arts. He is currently researching a book about animated propaganda.

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January 16 8:30 "Jazz Dichotomy"
Artists, Imitators, and Innovators

Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening of Jazz on Film, focusing on the dichotomy of this great American art form- from revisionist history (downplaying the central role of black Americans), marginalizing it’s relevance (not “serious” music) and racism to exuberant performance and pure artistry. Two films from 1968: “Mingus”, the brilliant, vital, but troubling portrait of Charles Mingus on the eve of his eviction from his loft and the entertaining history piece “Discovering Jazz”. Really rare select Jazz shorts and clips from both ends of the spectrum will highlight the program.

Films Include:

“Mingus” (B & W, 1968) dir. Thomas Reichman.

Tom Reichman's penetrating cinema verite look at the struggle of jazz icon Charles Mingus as he and his daughter face hard times. Rare and riveting footage of Mingus performing on stage in a nightclub near Boston, conducting a big band and composing and singing is inter cut with scenes of the proud musician in his cluttered New York loft, where-- while awaiting eviction-- from his failed dream of a jazz school-he speaks candidly on topics ranging from music to sex to racism.

Mingus, originally from the Watts ghetto in Los Angeles worked his way up the musical ladder to become one of the greatest musicians in the history of jazz working with virtually everyone in the business. Throughout his career most of his music retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop, and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third Stream Jazz and free jazz. Yet Mingus avoided categorization, forging his own unique brand of music that fused tradition with unique and unexplored realms of jazz. He's influenced countless musicians and artists as diverse as the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and Joni Mitchell (whom he collaborated with).

In this film he is joined in performances by Dannie Richmond, Walter Bishop, John Gilmore (Sun Ra) and Charles McPherson playing such tunes as "All the Things You Are", "Secret Love", and "Take the ‘A’ Train". The film is also punctuated with some inspiring poetry. Charles Mingus is often considered the heir apparent to the great Duke Ellington both for his transcendent musicianship and his visionary compositions.

“Discovering Jazz” (Color, 1969) dir. Bernard Wilets

Beautifully lit, creatively shot and a wonderful print of this overview of Jazz history (from a series of films focused on different music styles). From the origins of Jazz through gospel, bop, cool and “funky”, this highly entertaining portrait features some nice, uncredited performances. The main problem is the sterility of the settings and the whiter than white whitey moments (especially the Choir sequence, which makes the Mormon Tabernacle Choir look like James Brown’s Fabulous Flames!). The polar opposite of the earthy, funky, angry and bluesy “Mingus”.

“Begone Dull Care” (Color, 1949) dir. Norman McLaren

The great National Film Board of Canada animator Norman McLaren’s film without words. McLaren paints vibrant abstract images directly onto the film. “Begone Dull Care” shines with masterful use of scratching and painting on film stock. The film gives warmth and movement to compositions resembling a constantly morphing Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning painting, yet never fails to remind us of its very calculated aesthetics when it suddenly adapts to the score's slower movements and shifts from expressionistic and oversaturated explosions to minimalist vertical lines that vibrate accordingly to the score by the Oscar Peterson Trio. “Begone Dull Care” won six international prizes between 1949 and 1954.

“The Interview” (Color, 1960) dir.
Ernest Pintoff

Animated short by the brilliant Ernie Pintoff has square interviewer befuddled by fictional hipster jazz musician Shorty Petterstein (voiced by Lenny Bruce) as the Stan Getz combo blows and riffs “off camera”. “Like, don’t hang me- I didn’t wanna fall up here in the first place!”

“USA Dance: Echoes of Jazz” (B+W, 1965)

Kinescope of an episode from the TV series USA Dance, this clip features interpretive dance (choreographed by John Butler) set to a Gunther Schuller piece (based on a theme by John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet). Schuller was the major exponent of Third Stream Music, a synthesis of classical music and jazz improvisation.

Plus! Criminally silent but riveting found footage of the Art Blakey Quartet from the late 50s/early 60s) tearing it up in a nightclub date. Blakey’s music will be “synced” as best as possible.

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