In 2016, writer/director Joshua Moore made “ODDBALL“, a wonderful award-winning documentary about Stephen Parr, the brilliant and legendary proprietor of Oddball Films, a San Francisco archival mainstay, and friend to Laughing Squid. This wonderful short film captures Parr’s incredible knowledge of films, the enormity of his archive, his quiet manner, and his absolute love of what he did for a living.
I’m screening memories. I’m screening history. I’m memorializing it to a certain extent, reinvigorating it, giving it a different take, recontextualizing it, remixing it. …We’re Oddball Films. We look at things differently. We have a different take on things
Sadly, Stephen Parr unexpectedly passed away on October 24, 2017 due to complications of Parkinson’s disease. “ODDBALL” distributor VIMBY paid beautiful tribute to such a unique man.
Last year, one of the top vote-getters was Joshua Moore’s piece on San Francisco icon Stephen Parr and his world-class film archive known as Oddball Films. As quirky and irreverent as the man himself, Joshua’s video has an artistic point of view and narrative style that jumped off the screen.
The video provides a glimpse into Stephen’s passion for all things film and his mission to seek out treasure in the things others often disregard. We were saddened to learn that Mr. Parr passed away last week. His loss will be felt in and beyond the Bay Area film community, but his legacy will certainly live on. We are honored to have been able to celebrate his life’s work in a small way.
