The East Lansing Film Festival is like a breath of fresh air for film buffs.

Sure, you can go to the megaplex anytime and see a flick, but whether it is brand new or has been out for awhile, most of the Hollywood fodder we're fed every Friday tastes the same. It is the difference between Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes - one just has a sprinkling of more flavor.

Then comes the film festival - which hits campus and East Lansing starting Wednesday - a chance to clear away the mind-numbing toxic gas that wafts our way from the West Coast.

"Because we've had such an enormous response, there seems to be a hunger for independent film as people are spoon-fed this pabulum of mediocrity," said Susan Woods, who directs the 6-year-old East Lansing Film Festival.

What the films of the East Lansing Film Festival have that Hollywood deprives us of is quite simple: They take risks. They are films that refuse to conform to the mainstream.

There's a minimal use of Hollywood stylization, like the old shot-reverse shot or the token love story.

They bring to light issues more important than star appeal. They are films that decide to make a point instead of a product-placement opportunity. They make you think - something that people seem to be shunning in movies.

"The films we are showing are more personal," festival program director Shannon Burton said. "The filmmakers wrote and produced a lot of the films and they have more creative control.

"You have the Hollywood formula with the good-looking guy and the good-looking girl, the conflict and the resolution. A lot of these films don't have that,"

Why is it that, with such a diverse student population supposedly inspired by the art and possibilities of cinema, independent film has not found a mainstay in the community?

The East Lansing festival, which features an international selection of both short and feature-length films, focuses on films not readily available in the Lansing market.

"I'd like to see year-round the kind of independent films they have in Ann Arbor without having to drive all the way down there. Community support could make that possible," Burton said.

So, instead of allowing the movies to shove ideas into the mass-media numbed collective psyche of the East Lansing mainstream, the festival allows you to sit back and think.

Scary, eh?

Unfortunately, the reason films featured in the festival do not find a great deal of commercial success seems to be that people just don't want to think. Why watch "A Shot in the Dark," a documentary about actor Adrian Grenier's (best known for "Drive Me Crazy," and scheduled to appear at the festival) search for his biological father, when you can watch Bruce Willis shoot people in "Tears of the Sun"?

Why watch a series of shorts when we have commercials? Why watch something that begs you to create your own interpretation when we have movies like "The Life of David Gale" to lay all the cards on the table for you?

If Hollywood is day care for your mind then the East Lansing Film Festival is like Harvard.

"The goal is to celebrate independent film and encourage and foster film making in Michigan and allow the audience to see films they would never get a chance to see otherwise," Woods said.

East Lansing has something special with the festival. Something unique. Most of the films will likely never be screened in the Lansing area again. It is highly unlikely you will see any of the films featured in the festival at any of the major cineplexes because, quite frankly, they will not make any money.

This is the reason "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," a recently released and critically acclaimed documentary, still has not hit Celebration Cinema or NCG Eastwood Cinema despite the fact that it is a musically driven time capsule set in Michigan.

The film barely ran in Detroit - the home of Motown. But East Lansing has it, and it's probably your only shot at seeing the acclaimed and riveting piece of history.

Of course, not all the films of this year's festival have the credentials of "Standing in the Shadows of Motown." But they all take risks.

"You're not necessarily going to go and be pleasantly entertained," Burton said. "We have some films that are more crowd-pleasers, but a lot of these films we've selected because they are something you would not normally see."

The festival's activities are not limited to screenings of films. Directors Ghazi Albuliwi ("West Bank Brooklyn"), Grenier ("A Shot in the Dark"), Daniel Cross ("S.P.I.T.: Squeegee Punks in Traffic") and Peter Callahan ("Last Ball") will be on hand with actors, producers editors and publishers for interviews and roundtable discussions following screenings of their films.

"This year's festival is the best we've ever had," Woods said.