FILM/SNEAK PEEK : IMMIGRATION'S CELLULOID HISTORY.

The immigrant experience in America has long been the focus of films - many made by directors who were once immigrants themselves.

On Friday and Saturday nights through March 15, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art highlights these efforts with ``Coming to America: Dreams and Realities,'' a film program that includes 14 movies about immigrants.

The program kicks off on Feb. 28 with an evening of four classic silent-era films accompanied by live music. The films are D.W. Griffith's 10-minute ``A Child of the Ghetto,'' made in 1910; Charles Chaplin's 20-minute, 1917 film ``The Immigrant''; Buster Keaton's ``My Wife's Relations''; and Reginald Barker's 90-minute film ``The Italian,'' made in 1915.

Other films featured in the program include the 1941 soaper, ``Hold Back the Dawn,'' about a wily European gigolo's attempts to marry for a green card; director Ang Lee's acclaimed 1993 comedy ``The Wedding Banquet''; and indie king Jim Jarmusch's heralded 1984 film ``Stranger Than Paradise.''

Programming on the subject of immigrants coordinates with the museum's ``Exiles and Emigres'' exhibit, which runs through May 11.

Tickets are $6 for general admission, $4 for museum members, AFI members and students. All films are shown at 7:30 p.m. at the museum's Bing Theater. For tickets, call [phone] or [phone].

What's in a name

The 276-seat Melnitz Theater at the University of California, Los Angeles, is getting a major renovation, thanks to two hefty donations to the college's School of Theater, Film and Television.

The biggest gift - $500,000 - comes from the Bridges/Larson Foundation, a nonprofit fund established by Jack Larson (Jimmy Olson in the 1950s ``Superman'' TV series) after the death of his longtime friend, James Bridges, in 1993.

Bridges was an actor, writer and director who wrote and directed ``The Paper Chase,'' ``The China Syndrome'' and ``Urban Cowboy.'' Bridges had a longtime relationship with UCLA, starting in 1959 when he was stage manager for the Theatre Group on campus. (The organization went on to become Center Theatre Group and now operates the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson.)

Another $75,000 for the theater renovation comes from the Cecil B. DeMille foundation. Together, the donations will transform the movie house into a state-of-the-art exhibition venue.

``Finally, we will have a theater that is fully suitable to the quality of films we present,'' says UCLA theater/film/TV dean Gilbert Cates.