Scared Straight! Vintage Drug-Scare Films October 24, 2009

Event: “Scared Straight! Vintage Drug-Scare Films” Guest curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening of mind-expanding, fear-intending and hilarity-inducing short films about the dangers of drugs. These classroom classics from the semi-informed golden age of the late 1960s and early 1970s probably encouraged as many to experiment as it discouraged. Featured films include: Marijuana, a cult classic featuring a gold-lamé suited Sonny Bono; Dragnet: Little Pusher, hilarious episode of the classic TV show excoriates hippie family values; LSD: Trip or Trap?, master scare-monger Sid Davis examines the psychedelic scene; Drug Dialogue: Involvement, ride along with a pair of undercover narcs- PLUS! SF Trips Festival: An Opening, a trip-inducing short from Frisco circa 1966!
Date: Saturday, October 24, 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=366

"Scared Straight!"
More Vintage Drug Scare Films

On Saturday, October 24, Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an all-new evening of “drug scare” films. Aimed squarely (no pun intended) at teenagers and designed to “educate” them about the perils of drug use, these films (like the drunk driving films that preceded them) were really meant to scare the hell out of kids. Nonetheless, the laughable freak out scenes and super squares reveal perhaps a subversive intent by some of the filmmakers. Showtime is 8:30PM and admission is $10.00. Seating is limited so RSVP is preferred to: [email protected] or 415-558-8117.

Films Include:

“Marijuana” (Color, 1968)
Sonny Bono graces the silver screen in gold lamé to set the facts straight about grass; that he appears utterly stoned himself should not denigrate his message one bit. He systematically counters all the usual arguments in favor of the evil weed (hilariously rattled off one by one by a group of teenagers being arrested).
Words of wisdom in stoner monotone: “Unlike alcohol, when you take too much at one time, you don’t pass out. You more than likely run the risk of an unpredictable - and unpleasant - bummer”.

“Dragnet: Little Pusher” (Color, 1969)
Howlingly funny episode of the squarer than square TV show starring Jack Webb and Henry Morgan. Sgt. Friday and Officer Gannon investigate a juvenile pusher that leads them to a filthy hippy house. The scene is priceless as Friday discovers the dirty, neglected kids eating cold spaghetti out of a can, surveys the fetid kitchen, and arrests the clueless groovy and utterly ridiculous looking pusher parents. Sample dialogue: Filthy Hippie: “It’s the maid’s day off.” Officer Gannon: “How long you been blowin’ pot, son?” ER Doc: “From diapers to drugs. What’s next, pre-natal goofballs?”

“LSD: Trip or Trap?” (Color, 1967)
A Sid Davis classic that starts with a fatal crash, and then traces the tragic path that led a good boy to experiment with the latest thrill on the scene- LSD-25. Good freak-out scenes and good kids pressured into drugs by misguided peers. Sid Davis films were famously funded by an initial $1000 donation by John Wayne. He went on to produce numerous classics of the educational scare film genre, priding himself by making each one for $1000- a miniscule amount even its day.

“Drug Dialogue: Involvement” (Color, 1970)
Refreshingly frank dialogue with two undercover narcotic officers. As they cruise around Los Angeles, the two agents discuss the scourge on the streets with a surprising amount of empathy and even a hint of respect. This one was definitely not aimed at the kids!

“SF Trips Festival: An Opening” (Color, 1967)
Experimental multi-exposure freak out documents the 1966 Trips Festival, an acid-drenched “Happening” staged in San Francisco at the Longshoremen’s Hall (400 North Point) in January of 1966. Good trip, or bad trip- you decide.

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 Oct 23 - Sonic Oddities Live
Sat Oct 24 – Scared Straight (Drug/Alcohol Scare Films)
Fri Oct 30 - Rock n’ Roll at the Movies
Sat Oct 31st Terror Noir- The House on Telegraph Hill in SF + Halloween Wet Dream

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=366