Oddball
Films presents Strange Sinema 96, a monthly evening of newly discovered films, rarities
and choice selects from the stacks of the archive. Drawing on his collection of
over 50,000 16mm film prints, Oddball Films director
Stephen Parr has compiled this 96th program of classic, strange, offbeat and
unusual films. This installment, Strange Sinema 96: Visionary Music and Beyond features
films that expand the boundaries of cinema and music. The program presents rare
music documentaries, experimental animation and genuinely forward-thinking
films that meld together music and moving images. From the 20th
century’s most revolutionary avant garde genius Harry Partch to Bruno Bozzetto’s
brilliant cameraless collaboration with swingin soundtrack maestro Franco Godi
this program is an eye-popping and ear-opening excursion into the beyond. Selected
films include The Dreamer That Remains
(1973) featuring a rare
profile of legendary composer, musical inventor and hobo Harry
Partch;
Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom (1953), Ward Kimball’s
brilliant Technicolor, mid-century cartoon that explores the development of
Western musical instruments from caveman to present day; Glass
(1958), the beautiful, masterful, Oscar-winning short film about glass-blowing
featuring the occasionally eerie mixture
of jazz, bebop, and the metallic punctuations of industry at work performed by
the Pim Jacobs Quintet; Ego (1970) Italy’s Bruno
Bozzetto optical printing and pop art imagery bond with master Franco
Godi’s wildly ultra-lounge soundtrack; Begone Dull Care (1949) a
cameraless, abstract, constantly morphing film by internationally renowned
National Film Board of Canada animator Norman McLaren, cut to a upbeat jazz
score by Oscar Peterson and winner of six international prizes; Allegro
Ma Troppo (1963) French director Paul De Roubaix’s award-winning,
hyperkinetic vision of Parisian nightlife between 6PM and 6AM, shot at two
frames per second utilizing automatic cameras and montage sound; Jammin’
The Blues (1944), the most famous jazz film ever made- produced by jazz
impresario Norman Granz, directed by Gjon Mili with noir like cinematography and
featuring incredible performances by jazz legends; Free Fall (1964) famed Canadian
filmmaker Arthur Lipsett’s synesthetic experience created through the
intensification of image and sound utilizing single-frame editing and tribal
music; A Balinese Gong Orchestra (1974), features the Tunjuk Orchestra. Each instrument is
explained and demonstrated, then the orchestra plays a hypnotic and mesmerizing
piece from the Ramayana Ballet Suite. Plus, for your preshow pleasure Discovering
Electronic Music (1983), veteran director Bernard Wilets’
introduction to music synthesizers and computers used to create electronic
music.
Date: Friday, January 22nd, 2016 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
I feel
taste, and smell sound – it's all one – I myself am the tone-Arthur
Lipsett
Featuring:
The Dreamer That Remains (Color, 1973)
“Harry Partch is an American visionary. He has built his
own musical world out of microtones, hobo speech, elastic octaves and
percussion instruments made from hubcaps and nuclear cloud chambers.”
Stephen Pouliot's portrait of Harry Partch, one of the
most innovative and influential composers of the 20th century. Partch invented
instruments (cloud chamber bowls, cong gongs, the harmonic canon, more),
experimented with drama and ritual and created a live ensemble utilizing dozens
of invented instruments.
Partch influenced virtually every forward thinking
composer and experimental musician of the 20th century. A fascinating artist
Partch lectured, performed and rode the rails as a hobo during the Great
Depression, incorporated everyday speech into his melodic lines. He transcribed
graffiti and used it as text. Partch was one of the great musical innovators of
the last century.
“The work
that I have been doing these many years parallels much in the attitudes and
actions of primitive man. He found sound-magic in the common materials around
him. He then proceeded to make the vehicle, the instrument, as visually
beautiful as he could. Finally, he involved the sound-magic and the visual
beauty in his everyday words and experiences, his ritual and drama, in order to
lend greater meaning to his life. This is my trinity: sound-magic, visual beauty,
experience-ritual.”-Harry Partch
Note: Recently the rock performer Beck created a musical
tribute to Harry Partch. For more info visit: http://www.beck.com/news/index.php/page/3
Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom (Dir.
Ward Kimball, Color, 1953)
Academy Award winner in stunning Technicolor- this short
was originally released in theaters as part of the “Adventures in Music”
educational series. The short features a stuffy owl teacher lecturing his
feathered flock on the origins of Western musical instruments. Starting with
cave people, whose crude implements could only "toot, whistle, plunk and
boom," the owl explains how these beginnings led to the development of the
four basic types of Western musical instruments: brass, woodwinds, strings, and
percussion. Directed by the brilliant Ward Kimball, this is a classic of
mid-century cartoon design and has been ranked one of the top 50 greatest
cartoons.
Glass (Color, 1958)
A simple but stunning film by Dutch director Bert
Haanstra, this short looks at glassmaking in a beautiful and interesting
way. Winning an Oscar for Best Documentary Short in 1960 the amazing
photography and inventive soundtrack make this a unique melding of filmic
improvisation and sound. Molten blobs of beautiful colored glass, fluid
motion and editing, and a quirky musical score make this a near perfect film,
perfectly balancing images and rhythm with the occasionally eerie mixture of
jazz, bebop, and the metallic punctuations of industry at work performed by the
Pim Jacobs Quintet.
Ego (Color, 1970)
Brilliant animation by Italy’s Bruno Bozzetto (of the cult
favorite Mr. Rossi series and the outrageous feature Allegro Non Troppo)-
starts with traditional comic-style animation until the factory-working family
man goes to sleep and unleashes his subconscious thoughts sending him into a
battleground of situations. Utilizes brilliant animation styles
including optical printing and pop art imagery. Featuring ultra-lounge master
Franco Godi’s mesmerizing soundtrack. An Oddball favorite!
Begone Dull Care (Color, 1949)
In this film without words vibrant abstract images are
drawn directly onto the
film by the legendary National Film Board of Canada
animator Norman McLaren. “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 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
Oscar Peterson's jazz piano. “Begone Dull Care” won six international prizes between
1949 and 1954.
Allegro Ma Troppo (Color, 1963, Paul Roubaix)
A Parisian evening, conveyed through automatic cameras and
imaginative cinematography of the life of Paris between 6PM and 6AM shot at two
frames per second utilizing automatic cameras. From strippers to car crashes,
Paul Roubaix’s Allegro Ma Troppo evokes the intensity and variety of nocturnal
life in the City of Light through speeded-up action, freeze-frame, and virtuoso
editing.
Jammin’ the Blues (B+W, 1944)
Probably the most famous jazz film ever made- produced by
jazz impresario Norman Granz, directed by Gjon Mili and featuring incredible
performances by Lester “Prez” Young, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Illinois Jacquet,
Barney Kessel, Marlowe Morris, John Simmons, George “Red” Callender, “Big” Sid
Catlett and “Papa” Jo Jones. Nominated for an Oscar in 1945 and entered
into the National Film registry in 1955, this film simply must be seen by any serious
jazz fan. Cinematography was by the later Hitchcock stalwart Robert Burks on
his very first DP assignment. There is a noir ambience to the film and
each scene has a formal elegance that is enthralling. Mili has total command of
his form (his only film as director!), and the mise-en-scene and continuity are
impeccable.
Free Fall (B+W, 1964)
Free Fall features
dazzling pixilation, in-camera superimpositions, percussive tribal music,
syncopated rhythms and ironic juxtapositions. Using a brisk “single-framing”
technique, Arthur Lipsett attempts to create a synesthetic experience through
the intensification of image and sound. Citing the film theorist Sigfreud
Kracauer, Lipsett writes:
“Throughout this psychophysical reality, inner and outer
events intermingle and fuse with each other – “I cannot tell whether I am
seeing or hearing – I feel taste, and smell sound – it's all one – I myself am
the tone.'”
*Note: Free
Fall was intended as a collaboration with the American composer John
Cage, modeled on his system of chance operations. However, Cage subsequently
withdrew his participation fearing Lipsett would attempt to control and thereby
undermine the aleatory organization of audio and visuals.
A Balinese Gong Orchestra (Color,
1974).
A simple, explanatory film on the well-known gamelan gong,
featuring the Tunjuk Orchestra. Each instrument is explained and demonstrated,
then the orchestra plays a hypnotic and mesmerizing piece from the Ramayana
Ballet Suite, which is based on traditional music.
Discovering Electronic Music (Color, 1983)
An introduction to the synthesizers and computers used to create electronic music, including the legendary Fairlight CMI, one of the first sampling synthesizers used for pop music production. Directed by Bernard Wilets, a veteran educational producer and particularly known for his “Discovering Music” series.
Stephen Parr’s programs have explored the erotic underbelly of sex-in-cinema (The Subject is Sex), the offbeat and bizarre (Oddities Beyond Belief), the pervasive effects of propaganda (Historical/Hysterical?) and oddities from his archives (Strange Sinema). He is the director of Oddball Films, a stock film company and the San Francisco Media Archive (www.sfm.org), a non-profit archive that preserves culturally significant films. He is a co-founder of Other Cinema DVD and a member of the Association of Moving Archivists (AMIA) where he is a frequent presenter.
Oddball Films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, 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.