In 1967, French filmmaker Agnes Varda landed in Los Angeles with “a suitcase of assumptions and judgments.” Varda liked to maintain her outsider insouciance and the three films she made in Southern California are packed with wry observations on the region’s daydreams and dissonance.

Director/producer Roger Corman titled his 1990 memoir “How I Made a Hundred Movies and Never Lost A Dime.” In Corman’s classic horror comedies A Bucket of Blood (1959) and Little Shop of Horrors (1960), his inimitable talent for lightning quick schedules, minuscule budgets, and uncanny storylines transcends all expectations.

In 1930, as the film East of Borneo was being made, a team of scientists descended on the remote volcanic island of Niuafo'ou to view an eclipse. Joseph Cornell, an avid stargazer who kept dossiers on constellations and heavenly bodies and subscribed to at least one journal of astronomy, was likely aware of this expedition.