Weirdsville 11 at Oddball Films February 12, 2010

Event: “Weirdsville: Oddities from the Archives”. Guest curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening of rare, weird and some highly entertaining 16mm shorts, movie trailers and commercials culled from the 50,000+ archive at Oddball Films. This month’s highlights include: 7362, wild optically printed experimental film by Pat O’Neill; Brake Free, by Oddball Films favorite Carson Davidson; The Face, intriguing morph animation; Presenting Allen & Rossi, rare promotional film with “Mr. Bug Eyes” Marty Allen and Steve Rossi; Stop, Look and Listen, crazy pixilation car safety short; Gumby, Mae West, Mr. Ed plus movie trailers, commercials and more straight out of Weirdsville!
Date: Friday, February 12, 2009 at 8:30PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco 94110
Admission: $10.00 RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117 or [email protected]
Web: http://www.oddballfilm.com/oddballftp/Weirdsville_11_PR.pdf
"Weirdsville”
Oddities From The Archives
Screens at Oddball Films

On Friday, February 12, Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening of the strange, the bizarre, and the sometimes baffling short films, commercials and trailers from deep within the Oddball archive. These “found” films surface in the process of research for other programs: too good to languish on the shelves, they demand to be screened! Weirdsville is a monthly companion program to the Strange Sinema series. Showtime is 8:30PM and admission is $10.00. Seating is limited so RSVP is preferred to: [email protected] or 415-558-8117.

Highlights Include:

7362 (Dir. Pat O’Neill, Color, 1965-67)
A mind-blowing visual and sound experience by experimental filmmaker Pat O’Neill with sound by cult musician/early synthesizer artist Joseph Byrd (The United States of America). Described as “a bilaterally symmetrical (west to east) fusion of human, biomorphic and mechanical shapes in motion. Has to do with the spontaneous generation of electrical energy. A fairly rare (ten years ago) demonstration of the Sabattier Effect (re-exposing partially developed film to light during the processing) in motion. Title refers to the film stock of the same name.

Brake Free (Dir. Carson Davidson, Color, 1970)
A young boy’s fantasy excursion is captured on a steam-powered, mountain-climbing cog rail train in New Hampshire, skillfully edited to Beethoven's Third and Seventh symphonies. Director of Oddball favorites “3rd Ave. El and Help, My Snowman’s Burning Down, Davidson’s Brake Free was winner of the Silver Medal for short subject at the Venice Film Festival.

The Face (Dir. Herbert Kosower, Color, 1967)
Based on the original engravings of Piero Fornasetti. An animated bit of whimsy triggered by the premise that IDEAS lead to IDEAS. In what has been described as 'film absurdity' Kosower manipulates a woman's face into the bizarre and the beautiful. Kosower taught animation and film graphics at USC, where two f his students were George Lucas and John Milius.

Presenting Allen & Rossi (Color, 1966)
Rare Paramount promotional short “introducing” their newest acquisition: the comedy team of Marty Allen and Steve Rossi. Soon to star in their spy spoof The Last of the Secret Agents?, the comedy duo get a big push from poppa Paramount, complete with glamour gals and fancy cars- in eye-poppingly stunning color.

Stop, Look and Listen (Dir. Len Janson/Chuck Menville, Color, 1967)
Inventive traffic safety short utilizes the pixilation technique (pioneered by Norman McLaren) to animate live actors as they “drive” all around Los Angeles.

Mae West Meets Mr. Ed (B+W, 1964)
Mae West visits Wilbur to discuss building a luxury, pampering barn for her horses. Mr. Ed wants to join them- until he discovers he will have to cross-dress… Oh my gosh does it get wacky!

Goofy Movies Number 8 (B+W, 1934)
Phony newsreel comedy short (one of ten made by MGM in the early 1930’s) narrated by Pet Smith- utilizes early films with “comic” commentary (you be the judge how successful Mr. Smith is…) However, there is an hilarious early silent about a guy having his arms, legs, and head amputated and then put back on in the wrong places.

Gumby Concerto (Dir. Art Clokey, Color, 1957)
Gumby's back with Too and Loo in a trip back to Music Land to have some musical fun.

PLUS- movie trailers, commercials and more straight out of Weirdsville!

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.

Upcoming Programs
Fri Feb 5– “Roaring 20s and Quirky 30’s” w/ The Dimestore Dandy Live!
Sat Feb 6– “The Art of Film”
Fri Feb 12– Weirdsville 11
Sat Feb 13-“ Love, Sex and VD” and “Beasts and Babes”
Fri Feb 19- Mardi Gras New Orleans Gumbo
Sat Feb 20th- “Strange Sinema”
Fri Feb 26- From Australia-Other Films!
Sat Feb 27th- Portland Curator Dennis Nyback’s “Terrorism Light and Dark” and “I Know Why You’re Afraid”

About Oddball Films
Oddball films is the film component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.  
Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educationals, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.

Official Website: http://www.flarerecord.com/?p=503