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bureau briefs

THEATER, FILM AND TELEVISION

Seven student films that explore the politically charged issues of terrorism and the nature of war will be shown by Showtime Networks on the eve of the presidential election. The seven films from the School of Theater, Film and Television will be presented Nov. 1 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. as “UCLA Shorts: Images of War.” The films were partially funded by a $125,000 donation from the network. Eligible graduate students were asked to submit proposals and budgets for films up to 20 minutes in length. The winning productions were selected by a faculty committee and Showtime executives. Among the films to be shown are “War on Their Minds: Voices of American Kids” by Jennifer W. Glos and “Dominance and Terror: a Discussion with Noam Chomsky” by Roberto S. Oregel.

SCHOOL OF LAW

As part of its Campaign Disclosure Project, the School of Law recently released a pioneering database that will make it easy to compare and contrast the campaign finance disclosure statutes and regulations of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the federal government. The database is designed to be useful to legislators, public interest groups, media representatives, scholars and the public. “Many of the existing state disclosure laws originally were written in the 1970s during the post-Watergate crisis,” said Daniel Lowenstein, a law professor and a national authority on election law. Since then, some states have amended their laws to reflect the public’s desire to know more while other states have been less active. “The database will allow people who care about these issues to compare the laws of their own state with states that are doing a better or worse job.” See it at http://disclosure.law.ucla.edu.

MATTEL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

Actor/director Mel Gibson has donated $10 million to be split evenly between Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The gifts will reimburse the hospitals for medical care of children from foreign countries who are unable to get care at home. At Mattel, Gibson’s gift will establish the Two Marias International Children’s Fund, named after the formerly conjoined twins from Guatemala who came to the hospital through Healing the Children. “For the past several years, the Gibson family has quietly supported Healing the Children’s efforts to help sick and injured children around the world,” said founder Cris Embleton. The organization will recommend the children who benefit from the fund.