Weirdsville 9: Krazy Christmas Capers at Oddball Films December 11, 2009

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 Weirdsville gets hijacked by the holidays- highlights include: A CHRISTMAS STORY with Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids; ON THE 12TH DAY, a krazy live action version of the 12 days of Christmas; MICKEY PLAYS SANTA CLAUS, the famous animated rodent in an early short; the classic A CHRISTMAS DREAM, little girl’s toys come to life on xmas eve; SANTA CLAUS PUNCH & JUDY; plus much more including some sweet Frank and Bing duets, bizarre holiday “soundies”, holiday commercials and trailers straight out of a yuletide Weirdsville!
Date: Friday, December 11, 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/?p=423
"Weirdsville”
Kooky Christmas Capers
Screens at Oddball Films

On Friday, December 11, 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:

A Christmas Story (Color, 1978)
Hey Hey Hey! Fat Albert and the gang star in their very own Christmas special! While rehearsing their version of A Christmas Story in their Clubhouse, mean old Tightwad Tyrone pays a visit informing them he intends to bulldoze their hangout (it’s lowering the junkyard’s property value). In addition, a poor boy, his out of work dad and pregnant mom show up at the door needing a place to stay. What will happen?

On The 12th Day (Color, 1955)
Kooky live action version of the 12 Days of Christmas made in Britain on beautiful Eastman Color film stock. As you know, the suitor brings his love some pretty weird presents, but also duplicates on each ensuing day- her house becomes a barnyard full of partridges, geese a-laying, French hens, choral ensembles, etc. Very weird.

Mickey Plays Santa Claus (B+W, 1931)
Very early short featuring the famous little rodent- Mickey and Minnie are getting ready for the holidays when a basket of kittens is left on their doorstep. Despite being overrun by the mewling little guys, Mickey decides to throw them a Christmas party. The Mouse has not been as charitable since…

A Christmas Dream (B+W, 1940s)
Little girl goes to sleep on Christmas Eve and her toys come to life. Cool/creepy stop motion animation of her favorite rag doll gives this more of Christmas Nightmare effect.

With Santa Claus Punch and Judy, Snowtime Serenade soundies, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby in the spirit circa 1957 and more.

PLUS- Holiday movie trailers and commercials straight out of Yulesville!

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
Sat Dec 12- Close Encounters of the Weird Kind
Fri Dec 18- Oddball’s Greatest Hits Highlights From 6 Months of Programming
Sat Dec 19- Fetish Films #1: Scopophilia: The Sensual Dimensions of the Human Body  Featuring filmmakers/curators Kerry Laitala and Stephen Parr Plus! Laitala’s “Film Flogger”!
Sat Dec 26- Strange Sinema-More Oddities From the archives

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=423