Los Angeles as Eden is an evening that considers the persistent image of Southern California as an earthly paradise through archival film, commentary, slides, and marionette performances. From advertisements that marketed young Pasadena as the city where roses grew year round, to actual Utopian experiments, Los Angeles has been imagined as a temperate and florid promised land–despite its arch-opposite reputation as hell on earth. Highlights include early color nitrate footage of Hollywood’s storybook restaurants, an advertorial film urging Easterners to move to Santa Monica, home movies from Muscle Beach, and an exploration of Grandma Prisbrey’s beatific Bottle Village, punctuated by magical marionette performances.