April showers may bring an abundance of glowing color to the Southland, but the three day Los Angeles Fetish Film Festival (www.losangelesfetishfilmfestival.com), held Thursday, April 14 through Saturday, April 16, 2011, promises to eclipse nature's vivid display with performance art and cinematic competition with a decidedly darker edge.

Featuring an eclectic selection of fetish films and imagery, this year's competition includes the West Coast premier of director Vivian Darkbloom's CineKink Award winning feature, 'Indietro'. All will be showcased amid delightfully depraved venues, filled with live performance, photographic art galleries and hedonistic pursuits.

This dark journey of visual delights begins Thursday with a grand opening party at Club Monte Cristo, as guests preview the entries competing for the Los Angeles Fetish Film Festival's top awards. Naked Catering will provide a selection of decadent goodies to sate the hunger of even the most ravenous night denizen, as the performance stage explodes with wicked explorations of fetishism, bondage and suspension by Sex and Metal and the Nylon Girls, culminating in cash prizes for those most elegantly bedecked in their fetish best.

Friday becomes more intimate, with an exclusive private party to let the festival contestants play the night away, before the Los Angeles Fetish Film Festival moves toward its glorious culmination on Saturday April 16, with a full day of screenings beginning at noon. Winners will be announced and presented with their trophies at the Awards show, held at Bar Sinister in Hollywood. The final evening will begin with a red carpet arrival to the awards venue, honoring the Fetish Divas, Dominants and submissives that fill the shadowed fantasy world of the fetish film movement. After the paparazzi has lit the night fantastic, the party will continue indoors, going deeper and darker into the night, weaving audio and visual dreams while a Fetish Fashion Show and performance troupe Sex and Metal and burlesque diva, Olivia Bellafontaine (pictured), bring the festival to an excruciating crescendo.

Simmons said, "This festival is Southern California's gateway to the new wave of entertainment. The imagery that is defined as 'fetish' has become the spice people have yearned for to wake up their jaded cinematic palates. You see it in commercials for the Cosmopolitan hotel in Vegas, it pops up in Conan O'Brien's monologs, as a recurring theme on CSI, and it is a rising force in all forms of entertainment. Everyone has a fetish. If you think you don't then you just haven't found yours yet! This is our first festival and I plan for it to grow bigger each year, as people embrace this element of their own personalities. I am very grateful to not only the directors and producers of these films and videos, but also to the performers, sponsors and my hardworking crew, who have stepped up to make our debut event everything I imagined it could be."

Confirmed judges for the festival are Simmons, a director and producer in his own right, fashion fetish photographer Alejandra Guerrero, publisher Erik von Gutenberg, fetish photographer Eric Kroll, film producer and director, Master Liam, Dr. Susan Block and Bellafontaine. Sponsors for the first annual Los Angeles Fetish Film Festival include, American Fetish, LA Decadence, Bizzy B and KinkEvents.

The Red Carpet Entry for the Los Angeles Fetish Film Festival opens at 8:30PM, with the Awards presentation beginning at 9:30. Bar Sinister is an 18+ venue. Flash your best fetish attire for this special event. Advance tickets are available online through the official website, losangelesfetishfilmfestival.com. A limited amount of tickets will be available at the door for those wishing to attend the official awards ceremony on Saturday, April 16.