Synopsis : In the U.S., the concept of a « company town » refers to a town which is dominated by, dependent on, and defined by a specific corporate employer, usually to the detriment of the citizens/workers. Used ironically here, Los Angeles is of course in some ways like a company town, in that the entertainment industry is extremely present as a mode of employment. Because the history of the Los Angeles cinematic avant-garde has been only very minimally written about when compared to that of New York, London, or San Francisco, many people assume there is not much of an experimental film culture or history, perhaps due to the presence of the industry. On the contrary, there has for many decades been a massive and thriving cinematic avant-garde in Los Angeles, at least in part because of the industry. This wide-ranging program, composed mostly of restored prints from the Academy Film Archive, includes films from the Los Angeles avant-garde which suggest an awareness of and engagement with not just the film medium, but the underlying politics of the film industry and cinematic representation in general.