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Retro-Tech - Vintage Computer Shorts from the ArchivePost an Event »
Oddball Films presents Retro-Tech - Vintage Computer Shorts from the Archive, a program of 16mm films from the 60s-80s about the rise of computer technology and the early predictions for an automated future. From William Shatner explaining microprocessors to killer-computers, the original computer dates, animation and more, take a look at the future of technology through the eyes of the past. Science Fiction's perennial Captain, William Shatner gets trippy with silica and microprocessors in the AT&T sponsored Microworld (1976). Presaging the current internet matchmaking trend, Comput-Her Baby is a wacky art film spoofing the notion of computer-assisted love in 1967. The Oddball favorite Signal Syntax (1980) will have you watching out for your personal computer, because it might be trying to kill you. It's not Monty Python, but John Cleese attempts to answer that burning early-80s question: What is a Word Processor? (1982). View early computer-generated animation and imagery in Bruce and Katharine Cornwell's Dragonfold and Other Ways to Fill Space (1979), John Wilson's Both Sides Now (1972) the first computer generated music short featuring the musical stylings of Joni Mitchell, the parasitological applications of computer graphics in Shapes of Nature: Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus (1981), and even more! Everything screened on 16mm film from our massive stock footage collection. Date: Friday, September 9th, 2016 at 8:00pm Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilms.com or (415) 558-8117 Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com Featuring: Microworld (Color, 1976) Host William Shatner explores the oddly psychedelic world of silica and microprocessors. This AT&T-produced film is chock full of outdated notions of the future and obsolete technology. What is a Word Processor? (Color, 1982, excerpt) It's almost too terrible to sit through (and we won't watch it all), but this British film introduces the viewer to the must-have features of that word-crunching wonder (shown here as an early gargantuan version) that'd go on to make the typewriter redundant. This early 80's industrial film is also noteworthy for it's co-star, a sort of poor man's John Cleese. (…No wait, that actually is John Cleese!?!) Dragonfold and Other Ways to Fill Space (Color, 1979) Various geometric phenomena (the Sierpinski curve, tessellation) are illustrated on-screen in this computer-animated educational film. The makers, Bruce and Katharine Cornwell of Brooklyn, NY, were a prolific pair (R.I.P.) who produced many other charming works such as “Journey to the Center of a Triangle.” Comput-Her Baby (Color, 1968) A wacky short musical/art film that spoofs the prospect of love and dating in the computer age. Sweet and strangely prescient. Signal Syntax (Color, 1980) Ridiculous, bizarre low budget short about killer computers that violently do away with their owners. Featuring vintage computer technology, this John Remington film poses is an omen to the grudge against humanity personal computers of the future will hold.