Filmforum’s Now Scratching the Belly of Video : ‘Cutting Edge Media’ showcases experimental films by key artists that have been presented over the years and, more comprehensively, a survey of video works.

Filmforum’s monumental “Scratching the Belly of the Beast: Cutting Edge Media in Los Angeles, 1992-94” presents “L.A. Video: Scratching the Surface,” at Hollywood Moguls (1650 N. Hudson Ave.), tonight at 8 p.m. and on Wednesday at 8 p.m., “Fitful Flashes,” a program by filmmakers who have been showcased by Filmforum over the years.

Both programs are daunting and range widely from the self-indulgent and murky to the challenging and captivating. The video survey is far more accessible and comprehensive, chronicling how artists began to explore the possibilities of a brand-new medium. The second half of the video program is more engaging.

Highlights of this portion include Wendy Clarke’s “Love Tapes” (1981-), in which she turns her camera on her subject and asks that he or she discuss for three minutes the meaning of love. Especially poignant is a young disabled Japanese man who tells us, via subtitles, that “love makes it possible to open hearts closed by fear of rejection.” Later, a bright fifth-grader, as part of her definition, tells us that adults forget what it’s like to be a child.

Nina Sobell’s similarly ongoing “Electro-Encephalographic Video Drawings” (1972-) involves a breathtakingly ambitious and complex experiment whose starting point involves getting the brain waves of two individuals in sync as a way of exploring the possibilities of nonverbal communication. Both Chris Burden and Bill Viola represent successful attempts to get brief experimental work on mainstream TV.

In the ‘70s, Burden created several amusing verbal and visual gags that had wide repeated play, where a decade later Viola created his “Reverse Television: Portraits of Viewers,” a series composed entirely of individuals ranging in age from 16 to 93 sitting silently in their homes for his camera.

In 1980, Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, founders of Santa Monica’s Electronic Cafe, recorded, as “Hole in Space,” their video-camera experiment that enabled, via satellite, passersby in Century City and in Lincoln Center to communicate through wall-sized video projections of each other.

Program notes tell us that “Fitful Flashes,” which was curated by former Filmforum programmers Terry Cannon and Albert Kilchesty, represents the work of artists “who have shaped Filmforum’s artistic vision over its first 19 years.” Actually, countless presentations by the organization have been far more rigorous and impressive than this offering. While it’s true that not all the films were available for preview, those that were more often were turn-offs than turn-ons.

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Among the best is Craig Rice’s “Zulu as Konoe” (1980), an experimental in split-screen multiple imagery that provides distancing necessary to absorb the full impact of a repeated shot of a particularly savage act of brutality. Betzy Bromberg and Laura Ewig’s “Marasmus” (1981) is a rambling but often beautiful collage expressing feminist sentiments and typifies much of the program in its bits-and-pieces fragmented style.

Information: (213) 663-9568.

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Chaney Double-Bill: The Silent Movie (611 N. Fairfax Ave.), has an intriguing Lon Chaney double feature Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., “Mr. Wu” (1927) and “The Scarlet Car” (1917), both of which are being presented in excellent prints.

The first is one of the five most successful films Chaney made at MGM, a highly theatrical adaptation of a 1914 British play in which Chaney plays both a Chinese mandarin and his aged grandfather. A variation on “Madame Butterfly,” it tells of the seduction of the mandarin’s sheltered, innocent daughter (Renee Adoree) by an Englishman (Ralph Forbes).

This is classic Chaney material: He was drawn to stories of men who loved their daughters or wards a little too much. He loved to disguise himself--his Chinese makeup here is one of his best efforts, especially for the aged grandfather--and he had a passion for tragic revenge themes.

The handsome “Mr. Wu” has typical Metro gloss with superb production design, whereas “The Scarlet Car,” a rambling tale about a proud bank cashier (Chaney) wrongly accused of stealing $35,000, is a modest Universal production. It’s not very involving, but its historic importance is considerable: It is only one of 11 of the 107 films he appeared in at that studio between 1913 and 1918 known to exist.

Information: (213) 653-2389.