The music that once ruled the Sunset Strip with an iron fist in a studded leather glove gets the film-fest treatment at the inaugural Heavy Metal Film Festival. Opening night kicks off with the L.A. premiere of Las Marimbas del Infierno (Marimbas From Hell), Julio Hernandez Cordon's 2010 film about an unprecedented mash-up group formed by a Guatemala City marimba player and a local M.D. addicted to metal who take the scene by storm. The weekend continues with Meshuggah: Alive (a record of the Swedish band's 2009 tour), Promised Land of Heavy Metal (exploring the history and philosophy of the genre); The Bunny Game (a twisted drama with a metal score, with the director and cast in person for a Q&A), Three Days (a road trip with Lithuanian band Dissimulation), Absent (interviews about absent and disengaged fathers, with a director Q&A), Exodus (profiling the pioneers of the Bay Area thrash scene), Anvil! The Story of Anvil (the story of the underrated but influential Canadian heavy metal band, with director Sacha Gervasi and founding member Lips in person), Travelers at the Edge of Time (following the German power metal band as they record an orchestral album) and more, including a midnight screening of psycho-biography Hated: G.G Allin & the Murder Junkies. Full schedule at heavymetalff.com.

March 31-April 3, 2011

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