The world’s first-ever film festival dedicated to heavy metal music is set to take place at the Downtown Independent Cinema in Los Angeles, California this coming March 31st through April 3rd.

The following four shorts will be a part of the festival's inaugural short film program:

Faces Of Budokan

A short film by Mike Cassidy and Tim Sheridan (USA) - In March of 2003, "The Hottest Band in the World," KISS, embarked on a concert tour throughout Japan, stopping for three Crazy Nights at the legendary Budokan Hall in Tokyo. With consecutive sold out shows bringing out over 14,200 Japanese Super-Fans each night, the Psycho Circus was as evident outside of the venue as it was inside. Dressed To Kill, the kabuki-faced fans from all walks of life joined en force to celebrate this much anticipated event. This KISS Army was more like a KISS Family. With lavish costumes and elaborate face make-up, this spectacle was unrivaled by any modern day costume ball. In other words, it's Cold Gin time again! Faces of Budokan puts you front row for the "show" before the show. It's like Heavy Metal Parking Lot with an extra shot of sake and a spicy tuna roll!

Beyond The Thunder

Directors: Gregg Ferguson & Kurt Squiers (USA) - Finally, a documentary with balls. How did millions of fans connect with AC/DC? To find out... we asked them. The mission: create a unique film about the fans of one of the greatest bands the world has ever known, AC/DC. The inaugural Heavy Metal Film Festival has been given the unique opportunity to screen 16 minutes of the film for its Los Angeles premiere, as directors Gregg Ferguson & Kurt Squiers are still battling time to complete the project.

DEATH ANGEL: A Thrashumentary (Trailer)

Director: Tommy Jones (USA) - This is an exclusive 12-minute trailer to the DVD that will be released in 2012. This film gives the viewer an in-depth look into the mighty Death Angel, one of the longest-running thrash metal acts from the San Francisco Bay Area known for turning out historic thrash bands such as METALLICA, TESTAMENT and EXODUS. With their classic debut album The Ultra-Violence nearing its 25th anniversary, Death Angel has survived a span of 30 years of activity and now was the time to finally tell their story. Filmed on the Relentless Retribution world tour, the film shows the band on the road talking about their career, is cut with “fly-on-the-wall” documentary-style interview footage, and captures their trademarked, high-energy live performances that leaves their fans purged of sweat and adrenaline.

Capital Metal

Director: Mohammad Kabeer (INDIA) - Capital Metal is a documentary about the local metal scene in New Delhi, India. It features big bands in the scene like THIRD SOEREIGN and UNDYING INC., as well as little known yet extremely talented bands like PHOBIA and GUILLOTINE. The film focuses on various issues related to the scene, from handling their day jobs and playing metal to how they hold their own in a market dominated by Bollywood. Since no band in Delhi (no matter how popular they are) can play metal to support themselves, they all need a second job. The film was made in eight days with a meager budget of 200 dollars as part of a college project. It is the first metal documentary to be made in India and explores the passion to play music despite all odds and shows us that metal exists outside of Europe and America.

Organizer and metalhead Samuel Douek recently announced an exciting addition to the festival’s inaugural line-up:

“We are proud to announce that Germany’s BLIND GUARDIAN have submitted a magical, one-of-a-kind, still-in-the-making film edited by Andreas Fiekers, called Travelers At The Edge Of Time, for a world premiere to debut exclusively at the Heavy Metal Film Festival in Downtown Los Angeles. The new film speaks to the band’s evolution and how it led them into the symphonic saga of their latest album, 2010’s Billboard Top 200-charting At The Edge Of Time.

Travelers At The Edge Of Time will be screened at the HMFF’s special Closing Night event on Sunday at 9 PM.”

Travelers At The Edge Of Time (Editor: Andreas Fiekers) Germany 2011: This documentary follows Germany’s legendary power metal band, Blind Guardian, through an unfinished cycle of their remarkable career up to now. Showcasing an intimate insight throughout the massive amount of events the musicians had to face since Summer 2009, the film begins abruptly during the production for their breathtaking opus, At The Edge Of Time, when the band begins orchestra recordings at the Rudolfinum in Prague.

During the fragile act of creating real music, Blind Guardian are suddenly confronted with the virtual reality of a computer game called Sacred 2. While tasting the sweetness of having accomplished one mission, another one immediately starts with dreary rehearsals in the Twilight Hall before the band heads off to spread their mystical message to thousands of enthusiastic bards on another world tour.

We will meet an unmasked Hansi Kürsch, André Olbrich, Marcus Siepen, Frederik Ehmke, and their crew members through the many private on-the-road & behind-the-scenes encounters. Fans will witness Blind Guardian take part in their never-ending quest for perfection beyond the musical aspects when cameras follow the band onto different stages from the first indoor shows to subsequent outdoor shows on the Sacred World and Songs Divine Tour.

Travelers At The Edge Of Time then takes on a new voyage when the group gets back to the studio and starts working on its lifetime project: the orchestral album. Both completion of this film project and the touring cycle for the latest album are not yet complete, proving only one thing: There is no real beginning, nor there is a real ending...

In addition to the Blind Guardian film’s world premiere, Until The Light Takes Us has been added to the midnight screening taking place on Saturday, April 2nd.

Until The Light Takes Us (Aaron Aites & Audrey Ewell) USA 2009: Until The Light Takes Us tells the story of black metal. Part music scene and part cultural uprising, black metal rose to worldwide notoriety in the mid-nineties when a rash of suicides, murders, and church burnings accompanied the explosive artistic growth and output of a music scene that would forever redefine what heavy metal is and what it stands for to other musicians, artists and music fans worldwide. Until The Light Takes Us goes behind the highly sensationalized media reports of "Satanists running amok in Europe" to examine the complex and largely misunderstood principles and beliefs that led to this rebellion against both Christianity and modern culture.

To capture this on film, directors Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell moved to Norway and lived with the musicians for several years, building relationships that allowed them to create a surprisingly intimate portrait of this violent, but ultimately misunderstood, movement. The result is a poignant, moving story that’s as much about the idea that reality is composed of whatever the most people believe, regardless of what’s actually true, as it is about a music scene that blazed a path of murder and arson across the northern sky.

Douek recently announced the festival’s Nuclear Blast In Cinema Concert Series:

“As part of the world’s first Heavy Metal Film Festival, we’d like to announce our Nuclear Blast Concert Series featuring MESHUGGAH: Alive by Ian McFarland and The Seventh Date of Blashyrkh by IMMORTAL. These two concerts have been captured on DVD and each brings to the screen something magnificent. Alive was made as a film first and as concert second, while The Seventh Date of Blashyrkh brings to life a band that can only be seen on a big screen to understand.”

A Q&A; session with Alive filmmaker Ian McFarland of Killswitch Productions (who created the music video for the Meshuggah song 'Bleed') will follow the screening.

Shot by director/producer Ian McFarland of Killswitch Productions during Meshuggah's 2009 North American tour and at their 2008 performance at the Loudpark Festival in Tokyo, Japan, Alive contains concert footage of selections from the band’s 2008 release, obZen, in addition to their time-tested career staples. Gracefully interlacing the live tracks are behind-the-scenes vignettes shot in black & white that give Alive a concert film feel so unlike many of the live DVDs currently on the market. The result is a visceral, visual abduction into the band’s metric insanity-in-action.

The Seventh Date Of Blashyrkh is the first official live DVD in the history of Immortal’s existence. Many remember the shock in 2003 when - thirteen years into their existence – Immortal suddenly announced they would disband. Shot at the prestigious Wacken Open Air festival in Germany when the band headlined the Black Metal Stage in 2007 as their reunion show, The Seventh Date Of Blashyrkh features songs that span Immortal’s timeless discography and includes three back-to-back-to-back selections from their most acclaimed release, Sons Of Northern Darkness. The leather and spikes, the “war paint,” the bursting pyrotechnics, the essential anthems, and Abbath’s on-stage acrobatics are all there, along with an audience of 70,000 witnesses to the magic.

Showtime schedule and additional films will be announced soon.

Las Marimbas Del Infierno (Marimbas From Hell) by Julio Hernández Cordón will be opening the festival on Thursday evening, March 31st.

The first portion of the maiden line-up for 2011’s Heavy Metal Film Festival can be viewed at the festival’s official website.

On Thursday, March 10th, advanced tickets to the Heavy Metal Film Festival will be available for purchase via the Downtown Independent Cinema Box Office. Ticket prices will be as follows:

$9.00 per film

$15.00 - Opening Night Screening (includes After-Party)

$33.00 - Day Pass (Friday, Saturday & Sunday)

$66.60 - Advanced Purchase Festival Pass (ONLY 30 available at this SPECIAL PRICE; includes Opening Night)

$99.00 – Advanced Purchase Festival Pass (ONLY 100 available; includes Opening Night)

For more information about volunteering for this event, please write in to heavymetalfilmfestival@gmail.com.

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