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The 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival is doing An Evening with James Franco, that is a screening of his film “The Broken Tower” and a conversation, June 20th at 8pm in downtown Los Angeles at the Regal Cinemas L.A. Live 8.

The multi-talented James Franco sits down for a freewheeling discussion of the film, poetry and pushing the envelope. As part of this special evening, Franco will also present “The Broken Tower,” a look at the brief, burning life of early 20th century American poet Hart Crane.

Shot in glorious black and white, filled with Hart’s visionary poetry, which married the ambitious sweep of Whitman to the wild stream-of-consciousness of Rimbaud, Franco’s experimental biopic follows the rebellious, self-destructive poet from his early years as the son of a wealthy Cleveland businessman through his sojourns in New York, Cuba and Paris, documenting his dreams, his unapologetic love of men , his manic highs and depressive, death-haunted lows.

This program contains mature content. No one 17 and under will be admitted.

This is an exclusive event for the following pass/package holders: Pechanga VIP, Fast, and Industry Pass holders; Film Lover and Downtown Package holders. Limit 1 ticket per pass/package holder. Individual tickets will only be available on a rush basis on the night of the event.

The Los Angeles Film Festival is downtown Los Angeles and runs June 16-26 for more information click HERE.

Academy Award nominee James Franco called into “On Air with Ryan Seacrest” on Monday, to talk about the Los Angeles Film Festival, who his role models are and why he shut down his Twitter account.

James Franco could be considered a Renaissance man with his many accomplishments. He is starring in the summer blockbuster “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” but not only is James an actor, he is also an artist, a writer, holds a MFA from Columbia University and is currently a Ph.D student at Yale University.

James caused quite an uproar in the Twitter community when recently deleted his Twitter account.

“Despite having had a Twitter account I’m still pretty Twitter ignorant. I found it to be a really interesting outlet, but I was uncomfortable putting my opinions up there. I didn’t want to write little blurbs like ‘here’s what I’m thinking today’ or whatever. Partly because I just felt like who wants to hear about my little things.”

“I write or I direct these movies or I act. I kind of felt like if I talk about all my little experiences then I just waste all my material on Twitter,” James continues. “I guess maybe I need to get a Tumblr account. Since I was only using photos and videos and I thought that would be kind of cool. Because photos document what I am going through, but are also still kind of ambiguous. You can read them a bunch of different ways.”

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James mentioned during the interview that when he was younger some of the icons he looked up to were Marlon Brando, James Dean, Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn and Clint Eastwood. “I think those guys used performance to learn some other skills. They were able to channel it into other aspects of either film making or writing or creative arts.”

Taking from his role models, James has definitely channeled his performance into another aspect, film making. James is presenting the film “The Broken Tower” at the Los Angeles Film Festival tonight, a film in which he directed and acted in.

“The film is about a poet, a real poet, Hart Crane. He died tragically when he was in his early thirties. Coming back from a Guggenheim fellowship in Mexico, he jumped off the boat.” James says. Although not a happy ending “He is a big inspiration to Allen Ginsberg, who I played in ‘Howl,’ Tennessee Williams, and Robert Lowell, people like that.”

Listen to the full interview below and catch James in the “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” opening in theaters August 5, 2011.