HARVARD SQUARE, you're no Hollywood. Mass. Ave. is certainly not Sunset Boulevard; The Harvard Square Theater can't boast the same "Avenue of Stars" outside of Mann's Chinese Theater. And while star-watching might be rewarding at Wolfgang Puck's chic L.A. restaurant, Spago, it won't yield successful results at The Tasty.

This is, of course, New England--a region known more for its philosophers and educators than its starlets and agents.

But it's not that bookish Cantabrigians have sacred away filmmakers. On the contrary, it has its own thriving community of independent filmmakers and small production companies who are attracted by the City's intellectual environment.

"[Cambridge] has a long tradition of interesting work [in film]," says Robert G. Gardner, senior lecturer on visual studies at Harvard. "There's an atmosphere here which is compatible to people who want to do something serious, something thoughtful," he says.

"In a way, it's the antithesis of Hollywood," he adds.

Jonathon P. Schwartz, director of Interlock Media Associates, points to more reasons for filmmakers affinity for Cambridge. The city is "quasi-left, progressive, alternative, somewhat tolerant," he says.

FILMMAKERS in this area are less likely to have 'entertainment' as a goal, says Gardner. "They are exploring a medium, expressing ideas," he says.

In fact, Cambridge might well serve as the headquarters of a particular kind of filmmaking, Gardner says.

"Instead of it begin like New York, which is the painting capital of the world, of Milan, which is the opera capital of the world, maybe Cambridge is the nonfiction filmmaking capital of the world," he says.

Christopher C. Schmidt, who owns Zerkelo productions on Fayerweather St., agrees that Cambridge is an important filmmaking center. "It could be the diversity, or the intelligentsia," he says.

And the city's diversity is integral to these filmmakers art, many say.

"When you come here, you're not straved for sources,' says Gardner. "It's a good place to just pick up on a whole lot of interesting people and ideas, who often turn out to be helpful in collaboration."

"Greater Boston is certainly one of the strongest communities for filmmaking that I know of its very impressive," says Anne-Marie Stein, executive director of the Boston Film/Video Foundation.

Stein, who has sat on panels for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) says she has always been very pleased with the high calibre of work submitted to the NEA by Boston filmmakers.

"I've been very proud to be from Boston, when you see the quality of the work submitted," she says.