Eclectic festival beyond film

WITH film festivals sprouting like mushrooms in cities big and small, it’s easy to dismiss them as indistinguishable from one another. So many of them differ only in name -- not quality or format -- which is why it’s so refreshing when Resfest makes its annual swing through town.

In the nine years the festival has been taking its international show on the road, it isn’t just the roster of short films, music videos and multidisciplinary artists that change but the programs supporting their thematic content, much of which is localized. This year’s Los Angeles stop includes a tour of Mark Mothersbaugh’s sound studio, a design battle between local icons Saiman Chow and Buck studios, as well as panels on graffiti art, video sampling and music videos. That’s in addition to a retrospective of Beck videos, new music videos for Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem and other acts, and two documentaries: “Infamy,” about seven notorious graffiti writers, and “Just for Kicks,” a tribute to sneaker culture.

The three-day L.A. stop, which kicks off today at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, includes 29 segments culled from 1,800 submissions, all of them curated with one finger on the pulse of present-day counterculture and an eye on its ever-evolving future.

“We call it a celebration of creativity,” said Jonathan Wells, founder and director of the touring festival, which was begun by RES Media Group in 1997.

“We’ve always struggled with going beyond the film programming to do other interesting activities that don’t end up being boring panel discussions,” Wells said.

*

Resfest

When: Today through Sunday; check website for event times

Where: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

Cost: $10 to $15 per event; $79 for a three-day pass

Info: www.resfest.com