Ferrara’s ‘Addiction’ Opens L.A. Independent Film Fest

A number of films available for preview in this weekend’s first Los Angeles Independent Film Festival impress with an unflinching, often despairing view of life, presented dynamically and unpretentiously--frequently in harsh black-and-white images.

Presented by the Filmmakers Foundation and the Independent Film Channel, the festival opens Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Directors Guild with Abel Ferrara’s corrosive vampire picture “The Addiction,” starring Lili Taylor.

This is the film Ferrara has been leading up to in his abiding concern with the tension between spirituality and bloodshed, and in Taylor he has an actress who can span his range. “The Addiction,” in which vampirism is a metaphor for drug-taking, is unlike any vampire picture you’ve ever seen.

The festival will close April 10, again at the Directors Guild, with “New Jersey Drive,” a drama of poor urban youth from “Laws of Gravity’s” Nick Gomez. All other screenings will be held in the Chaplin Theater at Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Ave., in Hollywood.

Neil Abramson’s “Without Air” (Friday at 7:30 p.m.) offers an ultra-realistic portrait of a talented Memphis singer (Lauri Crook) living on the edge. Dragging her down is her relationship with a guitarist (Jack May) in a struggling band in which she is a singer. He’s consumed with love for her but is more boy than man, someone she knows she has outgrown. This is a compassionate, edgy, stylish film, and Crook--who has a raw Janis Joplin sound when she sings--comes across as the genuine article.

Lise Raven’s aptly titled “Low” (Friday at 9:50 p.m.) reminds us that we’re in for a spate of pictures either inspired by “Pulp Fiction” (and, of course, “Reservoir Dogs”) or suffering in comparison to them.

Although uneven, “Low” is fresh enough to be viewed as a promising first film, a gritty, great-looking fable about a boxing-gym towel boy (Thomas Vallette) so carried away by the release from prison of his idol and brother-in-law (John Ventimiglia)--a once-promising boxer who served a sentence for child molestation--that he kidnaps a young woman as a welcome-home gift.

George Hickenlooper’s “The Low Life” (Saturday at 8:05 p.m.) is a deeply felt study of young people adrift in Los Angeles. John (Rory Cochrane), an aspiring writer from St. Louis, and his pals may be educated white males, but the best they seem to be able to do for themselves is to get work as temps, leading to situations both comical and degrading.

“The Low Life” is a portrait of a generation facing the prospect of a life of lowered expectations, which is reflected in the seedy side streets and bars where they hang out. “The Low Life” is sometimes uneven but always affecting, especially in the engaging performance of Sean Astin as John’s nerdy, eager-beaver roommate.

Robby Henson’s “Pharaoh’s Army” (Sunday at 12:35 p.m.) is a fine piece of regional filmmaking, inspired by an incident that took place in 1862 in the Cumberland Mountains of Kentucky near the Tennessee border. Eschewing familiar pacifist pieties, Henson, in spare, eloquent fashion, brings war down to an agonizingly personal level where individuals, faced with people very much like themselves, are forced to make the toughest of moral choices. Sarah Anders and Chris Cooper head a top-notch cast that includes Kris Kristofferson, Robert Joy and Richard Tyson.

“The Big Bang Theory” (Sunday at 9:45 p.m.), made by a 28-year-old British filmmaker known only as Ash, is another winner, a kind of uncontrived distaff version of “Falling Down.” After three especially hostile encounters with white males, the film’s Asian American heroine (Darling Narita) ends up donning the uniform of a LAPD motorcycle cop. In her new guise she’s abruptly confronted with the chaos and anarchy that lie just below the surface of L.A. life. A beautiful and strong screen presence, Narita sustains flawlessly a role requiring tremendous stamina and concentration.

Full schedule and tickets: (213) 466-1767.