What’s Playing at Los Angeles Film Festival

The Los Angeles Independent Film Festival opens tonight at 7:30 at the Directors Guild with Roberto Benabib’s “Little City,” a tale of romantic entanglements set in San Francisco. Among the other films available for preview are a pair of terrific, quintessentially New York movies--intimate, passionate, bristling with intelligence and vitality--screening Friday at Raleigh Studios.

The first of them, Heather Johnston and Gordon Ericson’s “Lena’s Dreams” (at 7:30 p.m.), inevitably brings to mind “Anna,” in which Sally Kirkland won an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a famous, no-longer-young Czech actress struggling to survive in Manhattan. Marlene Forte’s beautiful and talented Lena is only 32, but she’s also feeling overcome by desperation. The flashpoint for Lena, who is of Cuban American descent, is an audition where she is doubly rejected: too well-bred to play a maid, too ethnic to play her aristocratic employer; never mind that easily she dazzles in either role. Although Lena’s Latino background is surely limiting, we are able to see in her the plight of every actor attempting to carve out a career and have some kind of life as well. Dreams, Lena is beginning to conclude, can become an addiction.

Even richer and broader in scope is Scott Saunders’ “The Headhunter’s Sister” (at 9:30 p.m.). An attractive Santa Monica wife and mother (Elizabeth Schofield) on the verge of divorce makes a series of visits in the course of a summer to her seemingly carefree, live-by-his-wits brother (Bob McGrath) at his Lower East Side apartment. This deftly provides a structure in which the siblings, who are devoted despite crucial differences in temperament and outlook, and others significant in their lives impact upon each other deeply. At the heart of this beguiling, beautifully acted and written film is the brother’s belated coming of age.

“Lena’s Dreams” and “The Headhunter’s Sister” have much the appeal of “The Daytrippers,” in current release, but the LAIFF has also come up with a couple of New York movies that decidedly disappoint: “States of Control” (8:05 p.m. Saturday at Raleigh), in which a profoundly unsympathetic woman is caught up in a vague, dangerous angst, and “Under the Bridge” (Sunday at 4:10 p.m. at the Paramount Studio Theater), in which an adorable little boy, a runaway from an orphanage, attaches himself to a drug-addicted, homeless prostitute.

On the plus side are Michele Ohayon’s “Colors Straight Up,” a deeply probing and stirring documentary on how Colors United, an organization in several South-Central L.A. high schools, is saving young lives through challenging performing arts programs. It screens at Raleigh Saturday and Sunday at 1:15 p.m.

Also very impressive is Rea Tajira’s “Strawberry Fields” (Sunday at Raleigh at 7:55 p.m.), a tough-minded, idiosyncratic coming-of-age story in which a 16-year-old Midwestern Japanese American girl (Suzy Nakamura, outstanding) discovers how crucial it is for her to confront the heritage of the World War II internment camps, an experience her family would rather repress. Yet another worthy, though more conventional effort, is Jon Resnik’s “Ties to Rachel” (Paramount Studio Theater Saturday at 9:20 p.m.), a compassionate, caring drama of desperate small-town lives.

Closing the festival is Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s “Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen’s” (Monday at Directors Guild at 7:30 p.m.), a loving, altogether heartbreaking record of the death throes of a legendary Hollywood institution and a moving account of the way in which individuals can proudly work together more for pleasure and fulfillment than for a paycheck.

The festival schedule follows.

Thursday

Opening Night Gala (Directors Guild, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, [213] 466-1767). World premiere screening of Roberto Benabib’s Little City. Jon Bon Jovi, Josh Charles, Joanna Going and Penelope Ann Miller star. Party to follow. 7:30 p.m.

Friday

At Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Ave., Hollywood: At 7:30 p.m.: Heather Johnston and Gordon Ericson’s Lena’s Dreams. With R.J. Cutler’s short film Anita Liberty. At 9:35 p.m.: Scott Saunders’ The Headhunters Sister. With Nisha Ganatra’s short film Junky Punky Girlz. From 6-9 p.m. at Raleigh, Stage 8: WGA Storyteller and Internet Lounge. At Paramount Studios, Studio Theater, 5555 Melrose Ave., Hollywood: At 7 p.m.: Vincent DiPersio’s The Price of Kissing. With Francine McDougall’s short film The Date. At 9:35 p.m.: Gary Tieche’s Nevada. With Matthew Irving’s short film Fire. At the Martini Lounge, 5657 Melrose Ave., Hollywood: At 8 p.m.: The first LAIFF Indie Music Jam. At the Directors Guild, Theater 1: At 10 a.m.: Legal Aspects of Producing I. At 1:30 p.m.: Legal Aspects of Producing II.

Saturday

At Raleigh Studios: At 11 a.m.: Shorts Program I. Includes Mark Becker’s Jules at Eight, Rosemary Moritz and Ian Neeson’s Mississippi: Power of Place, Seth Kramer’s The Hut, Tina DiFeliciantonio and Jane Wagner’s Two or Three Things but Nothing for Sure, and Robert Edwards’ Paranoia. At 1:15 p.m.: Michele Ohayon’s Colors Straight Up. With Rachel Libert and Barbara Parker’s short film Undertaker. At 3:30 p.m.: Danny Leiner’s Layin’ Low. With Sarah Chumsky’s short film The Regulars. At 5:50 p.m.: Gregg Lachow’s The Wright Brothers. With Carina Chocano’s short film Samuel Beckett Orders Out. At 8:05 p.m.: Zack Winestine’s States of Control. With Loren Marsh’s short Virginity. At 10:15 p.m.: Stephen Winter’s Chocolate Babies. With Tag Purvis’ America the Beautiful. At Paramount Studios: At 11 a.m.: Actors Direct Shorts program. Includes Sandra Bullock’s Making Sandwiches, Richard Dreyfuss’ Present Tense, Past Perfect and Rob Lowe’s American Untitled. At 1:30 p.m.: Will Geiger’s Ocean Tribe. With Spike Jonze’s short How They Got There. At 4:10 p.m.: Scott D. Goldstein’s Levitation. With Karin Thayer’s short Seed. At 6:45 p.m.: Actors Direct Shorts program. At 9:20 p.m.: Jon Resnik’s Ties to Rachel. And Eric Weinrib’s short Jimmy Walks Away.

Sunday

At Raleigh Studios, Stage 8: At 11 a.m.: Festivals, Markets & the Indie Filmmaker Seminar. At 1:30 p.m.: Music in Film Seminar. At 4 p.m.: Working With Guilds & Unions on a Budget Seminar. Stage 9: 10 a.m.-8 p.m.: WGA Storyteller and Internet Lounge. Chaplin Theater: At 11 a.m.: Shorts Program II includes Jennifer Provost’s Wash-Dry-Fold, Russell DeGrazier’s Goulet’s Sick, Curtiss Clayton’s The Man Who Counted and Marc Silverstein and Abby Kohn’s Fairfax Fandango. At 1:15 p.m.: Michele Ohayon’s Colors Straight Up. With Rachel Libert and Barbara Parker’s short film Undertaker. At 3:30 p.m.: Hamilton Sterling’s Faith of Our Fathers. With Marc Marriott’s Last Impression. At 5:50 p.m.: Tom Danon’s Bleached. With Jeffrey Aguirre’s short film Puppet Show. At 7:55 p.m.: Rea Tajira’s Strawberry Fields. With Philip K. Davis’ short Dark Horse. At 10:30 p.m.: Kirby Dick’s Sick. With David Mehlman’s short Down for Life. At Paramount Studios, Studio Theater, 5555 Melrose Ave., Hollywood: At 1:30 p.m.: Chris Chan Lee’ Yellow. With Sunny Lee’s short Cowgirl. At 4:10 p.m.: Charles Weinstein’s Under the Bridge. With David Birdsell’s short Blue City. At 6:40 p.m.: Jon Harmon Feldman’s Lovelife. With Jeffrey Scott Runyan’s short Mike and Susan. At 9:10 p.m.: George Hickenlooper’s Dogtown. With Alexandra Brodsky’s short Didactic Encounter. At Directors Guild, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood: Theater 1: At 10 a.m.: Legal Aspects of Producing I. At 1:30 p.m.: Legal Aspects of Producing II. Theater 2: At 10 a.m.: Producer’s Caucus: Getting It in the Can. At 1 p.m.: Producer’s Caucus: Getting It Seen.

Monday

At Directors Guild: At 10 a.m. in Theater 2: Producer’s Caucus: Getting It in the Can. At 1 p.m. in Theater 2: Producer’s Caucus: Getting It Seen. At 7:30 p.m. in Theater 1: Closing Night Gala and Award Presentation and screening of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s film Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen’s.

Tickets: [213] 466-1767).