Los Angeles is a film town -- maybe the film town. Like the Hollywood district contained within it, the name "Los Angeles" a metonym for American film industry in the minds of many. "La La Land," "The Entertainment Capital of the World" and all that. I love movies; however, in my mind, the Hollywood film thing actually ranks pretty low in the long list of what makes Los Angeles the greatest city in the world. This is possibly (probably) shocking to hear/read if you're a cog in the blockbuster factory or a celebrity worshipper but better you find that out now than never. Luckily, Los Angeles doesn't just make movies, it also shows them. There are few cities in the world with as robust a film culture as Los Angeles.

For those who love celebrity-driven, gazillion dollar CGI superhero franchises you're in luck; there are multiplexes in every mall and Redboxes at every 7-11. Thankfully for other varieties of cinéastes, there's a lot more to Los Angeles’s mise en scène than that. There are architecturally beautiful picture palaces, romantic drive-ins, dingy dollar theaters, high profile revival houses, low profile smut houses, and actual art house chains. Additionally there are all sorts of special screenings and festivals that take place every week of the year.

The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles returns to its home at ArcLight Hollywood from April 9th - April 14th. For the 11th year in a row, the fest features the best in critically acclaimed independent cinema, Bollywood kitsch, shorts from exciting new filmmaker voices, and so much more. On Saturday, April 13th, Amoeba Music will be on-site with a booth, so come by and say hi!

Festival highlights include the opening night gala screening and Los Angeles premiere of Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur and the closing night gala screening and Los Angeles premiere of Deepa Mehta’s Midnight's Children.

Other films presented at the festival include Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a political thriller based on the New York Times bestseller with a star-studded cast; Miss Lovely by Ashim Ahluwalia, a dark look at the seedy underbelly of Bollywood C-movies and soft-porn during the 1980s; Peddlers, Vasan Bala’s directorial debut, which is a crime thriller following the desperation of young drug runners who are merely looking to survive; Shahid, based on the true story of Shahid Azmi - a human rights activist murdered in India in 2010, directed by Hansal Mehta and produced by Guneet Monga and Anurag Kashyap; and Sundance and Berlin favorite Salma, directed by Kim Longinotto, a documentary about one South Indian woman's courageous journey in the face of mass oppression.

Little India is a small neighborhood within Artesia centered on Pioneer Blvd. However, since the population of Artesia surrounding Little India is more Mexican, Filipino and Chinese (not to mention home to smaller but significant number of Koreans and Vietnamese), the city council and mayor rather lamely compromised, officially designating it the "International and Cultural Shopping District." Catchy, huh? That silliness suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of what a designated ethnic enclave is... that is, a community that retains a cultural distinction from the larger community. Oh well, everyone knows it as Little India, whether it's official or not.

EARLY ARTESIA - DAIRYLAND

Artesia, named after the area's artesian wells, was primarily developed in the 1920s and '30s by mostly Portuguese and Dutch dairy farmers. Later came Dutch-colonized Indonesians. The character of Southeast Los Angeles became increasingly suburban after World War II and most of the homes in the immediate area date from the mid 1940s to the early '50s.

Australian producer/remixer/mash-up master Wax Audio supplies this week's brilliant mash-up of the week. He effortlessly melds metal with Bollywood in "Maiden Goes to Bollywood (Iron Maiden vs Dhoom 2)." "Let Bruce Dickinson and the boys, along with a stunning cast of Bollywood studs and starlets, get you doing choreographed gyrations and headbanging all at once as Iron Maiden meets the crew from Dhoom 2," says Wax Audio. He finished producing this brand new video in the past week, and it was made to match the mash-up audio track he produced two years ago.  The track can be found on his Mashopolos release and can be downloaded for free (along with others by Wax Audio) on his website.