Weirdsville 2: More Oddities From the Archives May 8, 2009

Event: “Weirdsville 2: More Oddities from the Archives”. Guest curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening of rare, weird and some highly entertaining 16mm shorts, clips and trailers culled from the 50,000+ archive at Oddball Films. Highlights include “Porklips Now” (Color, 1980), an hilarious send-up of “Apocalypse Now”; “Comput-Her Baby”, (Color, 1968), early computer love!; “Frank Film” (Color, 1973), bizarre classic art/collage film; “Careers: Leisure Industries” (Color, 1970), groovy work; a clip from “Sex and the Professional” (Color, 1975), a twisted training film for doctors; “Free Fall” (b+w, 1964), more brilliant art/collage by genius Arthur Lipsett; and much more!
Date: Friday, May 8, 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.flarerecord.com

"Weirdsville 2”
More Bizarre, Offbeat, and Just Plain Kooky Films from the Archives

On Friday, May 8, Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening of the strange, the bizarre, and the sometimes baffling short films, clips 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! A companion program to the Strange Sinema series, this month’s program features several acknowledged classics of weird cinema. 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:

“Porklips Now” (Color, 1980)
Hilarious by some accounts, incredibly stupid by others, this spot-on low budget spoof of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” features Billy Gray (of Father Knows Best fame) as Dullard, who is sent on a journey to Chinatown by two butchers to meet with a business rival and “take care of business”. San Francisco locations.

“Comput-Her Baby” (Color, 1968)
An ode to computers and computer dating. Sweet and strangely prescient.

“Frank Film” (Color, 1973)
Brilliant art film by Frank Mouris featuring rapid animation collage of magazine clip art with “competing” narration. Winner of the 1974 Academy Award for short film.

“Careers: Leisure Industries” (Color, 1970)
This one must of went over well with high school career counselors. Especially as it could only highlight how dull their own careers were.

“Free Fall” (b+w, 1964)
By the brilliant but troubled avant-garde filmmaker Arthur Lipsett (who committed suicide in 1986), “Free Fall” is, in the words of Lipsett himself, an “attempt to express in filmic terms an intensive flow of life – a vision of a world in the throes of creativity – the transformation of physical phenomena into psychological ones – a visual bubbling of picture and sound operating to create a new continuity of experience – a reality in seeing and hearing which would continually overwhelm the conscious state – penetration of outward appearances – suddenly the continuity is broken – it is as if all clocks ceased to tick – summoned by a big close-up or fragment of a diffuse nature – strange shapes shine forth from the abyss of timelessness.”

“Elliot 60-16 Optical Addresser” (Color, 1966)
Learn the ins and outs of a completely obsolete piece of office equipment (a punch-card chewing mail addresser) for a nearly obsolete service (direct mail marketing).

PLUS much more including a twisted doctor’s training film “Sex and The Professional”, a tacky clip from “Gentlemen Marry Brunettes” featuring Jane Russell & Jean Crain in a cannibal’s stew pot (singing “Ain’t Misbehavin”) & trailers 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.

Official Website: http://www.flarerecord.com