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Strange Sinema 75: Strange DiscoveriesPost an Event »
Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema, a monthly screening of new finds, old gems and offbeat oddities from the collection. Drawing on his archive of over 50,000 16mm film prints Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has complied his 75th program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This installment, Strange Sinema 75: Strange Discoveries celebrates the 75th anniversary of monthly Strange Sinema screenings. In true Strange Sinema style this program presents entirely new discoveries from the archive’s recent acquisition of 300 new 16mm film prints. Most, if not all of these films are rarely screened and unavailable online. Films include Die Pistole (1964), a powerful stop-motion short and wry commentary by West German animation filmmaker Wolfgang Urchs; Art For Tomorrow (1969) an eye-popping exploration of experimental tech-oriented art incorporating early IBM computers, cybernetics, heart beat triggers, invisible art by magnetis m all narrated by Walter Cronkite; Two Bagatelles (1953), two experiments in pixilation co-directed by animation genius and founder of the National Film Board of Canada Norman McLaren and filmmaker and actor Grant Munro; Opus (1969) a fascinating tour-de-force montage of British art, architecture, theater and swingin’ London fashions-all that was shocking in 1969; directed by experimental cinema legend Don Levy. Other discoveries include Himalayan Shaman of Northern Nepal (1967), focusing on the work of a shaman including spirit possession, sucking out evil spirits and purifying his mouth with fire; Enfantillage (Kid Stuff) Pierre Trudeau’s potent metaphorical film combines drawings and puppet animation conveying the extreme effects of family discord on a small child; and Subject: Narcotics (1951), a very early drug education film produced for police orientation and training presenting dramatized sequences of addicts in shooting galleries with excellent footage of pre-renewal downtown Los Angeles (a neighborhood now lost). Lumiere’s First Picture Show (1895-1897) is a compilation of the earliest films ever made by French cinema pioneers the Lumière Brothers as well as a vintage look at the Lumières' patented cinematograph, a combination camera, projector, and film printer. To end up the evening we present a fascinating profile of a Nigerian Yoruba healer in Ifa Divination Diagnosis: A Traditional Specialist (1977).