Echo Park Film Center

Among Hollywood agencies, there exists a notorious Black List of the best unsold scripts floating around L.A. at any given moment. The Nihilist Film Festival is sort of the exact opposite of that -- short films that in one way or another proved too hot, too appalling or too flinty for the local festival circuit. Catch a bevy of them surrounded by a surely rowdy crowd. Echo Park Film Center, 1200 N. Alvarado St., L.A. 7:30 p.m. Sun. A donation of 99 cents is requested. www.echoparkfilmcenter.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, 16 students ages 12 to 19 gathered around three fold-out tables in an Echo Park storefront on Alvarado Street. Shelves of film canisters, movie journals and how-to guides lined the bright red and teal walls of the 900-square-foot space. Three teachers and a guest speaker instructed the kids to use an array of wooden blocks, plastic figurines and other knickknacks to build miniature models of their ideal cities. The brainstorming session will eventually culminate in a 16-millimeter student-made film that focuses on urban planning.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, 16 students ages 12 to 19 gathered around three fold-out tables in an Echo Park storefront on Alvarado Street. Shelves of film canisters, movie journals and how-to guides lined the bright red and teal walls of the 900-square-foot space. Three teachers and a guest speaker instructed the kids to use an array of wooden blocks, plastic figurines and other knickknacks to build miniature models of their ideal cities. The brainstorming session will eventually culminate in a 16-millimeter student-made film that focuses on urban planning.

'Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000' Where and When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Jan. 21, Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd.; 7:30 p.m. Sunday , Spielberg Theater at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.; 8:30 p.m. Monday, REDCAT at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 631 W. 2nd St.; 7:30 p.m. Jan. 20, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 6522 Hollywood Blvd.; 7:30 p.m. Jan. 23, Echo Park Film Center, 1200 N. Alvarado St. Info: (213)

'Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000' Where and When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Jan. 21, Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd.; 7:30 p.m. Sunday , Spielberg Theater at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.; 8:30 p.m. Monday, REDCAT at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 631 W. 2nd St.; 7:30 p.m. Jan. 20, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 6522 Hollywood Blvd.; 7:30 p.m. Jan. 23, Echo Park Film Center, 1200 N. Alvarado St. Info: (213)

In addition to "Nocturne," critic Betsy Sharkey's pick for the American Cinematheque's "Deadline: Noir City -- the 11th Annual Film Noir Festival," there are plenty of other fedora-wearing tough guys and even tougher dames to see at the Egyptian Theatre over the next two weeks.

County audit: An article in Thursday's LATExtra section said that a county audit had identified Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Helen Jo as having received a written reprimand for mishandling a personnel case. She was not the person reprimanded. The case involved the department's hiring of the future son-in-law of a high-ranking county employee. The audit, which was released Wednesday, did not name Jo. It stated that a "fire manager" had received a reprimand. Screening Room: The Screening Room column in Thursday's Calendar section said that the Echo Park Film Center would be presenting "Experimental Acquisitions: An Animation Celebration" on Friday.

The American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre is commemorating Memorial Day with a quartet of terrific war films. Friday's offerings are a pulsating double bill from director Robert Aldrich — 1967's adventure "The Dirty Dozen ," in which tough-nosed Lee Marvin whips a group of misfit criminals into fighting shape to take on a suicide mission during World War II, and his 1955 masterpiece, "Attack ," set during the Battle of...

Screenwriter-director Tom Mankiewicz, who died in July of cancer, is being honored Thursday evening at the American Cinematheque's Aero Theatre with screenings of two of the Roger Moore James Bond films he wrote: 1973's " Live and Let Die," which marked Moore's first outing as 007, and 1974's " The Man With the Golden Gun," which Mankiewicz co-penned with Richard Maibaum. And on Wednesday, the Aero welcomes George Lazenby, who played Bond only one time, in 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Screenwriter-director Tom Mankiewicz, who died in July of cancer, is being honored Thursday evening at the American Cinematheque's Aero Theatre with screenings of two of the Roger Moore James Bond films he wrote: 1973's " Live and Let Die," which marked Moore's first outing as 007, and 1974's " The Man With the Golden Gun," which Mankiewicz co-penned with Richard Maibaum. And on Wednesday, the Aero welcomes George Lazenby, who played Bond only one time, in 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

County audit: An article in Thursday's LATExtra section said that a county audit had identified Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Helen Jo as having received a written reprimand for mishandling a personnel case. She was not the person reprimanded. The case involved the department's hiring of the future son-in-law of a high-ranking county employee. The audit, which was released Wednesday, did not name Jo. It stated that a "fire manager" had received a reprimand. Screening Room: The Screening Room column in Thursday's Calendar section said that the Echo Park Film Center would be presenting "Experimental Acquisitions: An Animation Celebration" on Friday.

The American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre is commemorating Memorial Day with a quartet of terrific war films. Friday's offerings are a pulsating double bill from director Robert Aldrich — 1967's adventure "The Dirty Dozen ," in which tough-nosed Lee Marvin whips a group of misfit criminals into fighting shape to take on a suicide mission during World War II, and his 1955 masterpiece, "Attack ," set during the Battle of...

Among Hollywood agencies, there exists a notorious Black List of the best unsold scripts floating around L.A. at any given moment. The Nihilist Film Festival is sort of the exact opposite of that -- short films that in one way or another proved too hot, too appalling or too flinty for the local festival circuit. Catch a bevy of them surrounded by a surely rowdy crowd. Echo Park Film Center, 1200 N. Alvarado St., L.A. 7:30 p.m. Sun. A donation of 99 cents is requested. www.echoparkfilmcenter.

In addition to "Nocturne," critic Betsy Sharkey's pick for the American Cinematheque's "Deadline: Noir City -- the 11th Annual Film Noir Festival," there are plenty of other fedora-wearing tough guys and even tougher dames to see at the Egyptian Theatre over the next two weeks.

THE girl on screen is petite, almost boyish, with cropped blond hair and black-framed glasses. "Mount Washington, a seemingly peaceful neighborhood smack-dab in the middle of fast-paced Highland Park," she says. "Full of Vietnam survivors, stray cats, speed addicts and sorcerers. The only home I've ever had," she concludes wistfully. The girl is 16-year-old Anabel Curry, and her short film, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?

THE girl on screen is petite, almost boyish, with cropped blond hair and black-framed glasses. "Mount Washington, a seemingly peaceful neighborhood smack-dab in the middle of fast-paced Highland Park," she says. "Full of Vietnam survivors, stray cats, speed addicts and sorcerers. The only home I've ever had," she concludes wistfully. The girl is 16-year-old Anabel Curry, and her short film, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?

In the center of a brightly lit Echo Park storefront, Paolo Davanzo beams like a proud father.

In the center of a brightly lit Echo Park storefront, Paolo Davanzo beams like a proud father.