From the street to the screen

Countless filmmakers pen love letters to New York and Paris. But when it comes to cinematic valentines, Los Angeles often seems like that reliable best gal pal who rarely gets to be the main squeeze. Sure, Quentin Tarantino often sets his violent comedies here, and Paul Thomas Anderson is attracted to some of the Southland’s more isolated residential spaces. Frequently, though, the City of Angels feels more like a setting of convenience, rather than purpose.

As the Los Angeles Film Festival swings into high gear this weekend downtown and continues through June 26, Angelenos will have multiple chances to see their city on screen from a fresh perspective. More than a half-dozen movies make effective and original use of the city, particularly its east side.

“We weren’t looking for films set in Los Angeles, but then we started to notice how many there were,” said David Ansen, the festival’s artistic director. “I don’t know if we’ve ever had so many.”

Here’s a quick but by no means exhaustive rundown of films that will allow you to see the place you call home on the big screen -- and in a new light.

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“Drive”

Director Nicolas Winding Refn may be Danish, but his new violent black comedy starring Ryan Gosling as a getaway car driver caught up in a romance with a neighbor (Carey Mulligan) and a misguided heist has particularly Angeleno roots: The idea for setting it in a car that drives around the city germinated when Gosling gave the director a ride back to his hotel after the two dined at a Studio City restaurant.

The film arrives at the L.A. festival after impressing audiences at Cannes last month.

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“L!fe Happens”

Kat Coiro’s feature tells of a group of young, female Silver Lake roommates (including Rachel Bilson, Krysten Ritter and Kate Bosworth) whose lives are upended when one of them decides to have a baby as a single mother. The movie is a modern spin on ‘80s comedy hit “Three Men & a Baby,” but shots of the city’s youthful east side neighborhoods really help distinguish it. “For some reason, L.A. has never got the kind of poetic love that other cities have,” Coiro said in an interview. “This is my love letter to Elysian Park.”

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“A Better Life”

Chris Weitz is known for comedies like “American Pie” and “About a Boy.” But here he takes on a far more dramatic subject -- the everyday struggles of illegal immigrants in Southern California. Weitz tells the story of one immigrant, Carlos (Demian Bichir), a gardener who tends to the gardens of the Beverly Hills wealthy even as he scrapes by himself. Numerous colorful and authentic locations are featured, such as Premier Fiesta Mexicana, the kind of working-class bar that many Southern Californians barely notice as they drive past.

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“Leave It on the Floor”

Directed by USC School of Cinematic Arts adjunct faculty member Sheldon Larry, the African American musical centers on L.A.’s underground gay “ball culture.”

An energetic and at times campily self-aware film, it was shot in Los Angeles last year with heavy involvement from the USC community and features original music by Beyonce collaborator Kim Burse.

The plot follows a young gay black man, Brad (Ephraim Sykes), whose homophobic mother kicks him out of his house in the L.A. suburbs. He finds lust, conflict, tragedy and ultimately acceptance within the ball subculture, where gays and transsexuals don elaborate costumes and compete for teams with names like House of Allure and House of Eminence. Song-and-dance numbers break out repeatedly -- on the bus, in a bowling alley, over lunch at a cafe, in church -- as the colorful cast of misfits come together in an alternative family.

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“Mamitas”

The Latino neighborhoods of Los Angeles have become a bit more prominent on the screen in recent years with movies like the 2006 Sundance winner “Quinceanera.” Here they get a close-up in Nicholas Ozeki’s buoyant and realistic story of two high-school students (Jesse Garcia and Veronica Diaz-Carranza) from broken families struggling to find their way in the world.

Playgrounds, backyards and other down-home locales get their moments in the spotlight, and a scene set amid the expansive lawns of Pasadena throws the grittier, urban spots into sharp relief.

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“How to Cheat”

Dissatisfied couples make reliable dramatic fodder. Director Amber Sealey takes the idea one step further with the story of a soft-spoken thirtysomething named Mark (Kent Osborne) stuck in a low-paying job and an unhappy marriage with a wife (Sealey) obsessed with having a child.

As Mark sets out, uncertainly, to have an affair, the movie shows a range of young adult lives in Los Angeles, from the immaculate apartment of their yuppie friends to a cramped pad inhabited by Mark’s mistress (Amanda Street), a semi-alcoholic lost soul.

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steve.zeitchik@latimes.com

Times staff writers Julie Makinen and John Horn contributed to this report.