FILM SNEAK PEEK GETTY SERIES EXAMINES TRUTH, FICTION.

Byline: - Valerie Kuklenski

Soon after the invention of motion picture photography and projection, filmmakers began using the medium as a tool for social and political commentary, as did important still photographers such as Jacob Riis and Alfred Stieglitz.

Still photos and motion pictures share the ability to relate the truth, but that truth is only as solid as the objectivity of the photographer or director. ``Fact + Fiction: Through the Camera of the 20th Century,'' a new film series at the J. Paul Getty Museum, attempts to clarify the term ``documentary'' and contrast such works with Hollywood dramatizations.

The series, produced by the Getty and the UCLA Film and Television Archive, opens tonight with a four-minute short composed of Eadweard Muybridge's celebrated sequential photos of galloping horses, which director James Sheldon animated in 1990 using modern techniques.

It is followed by D.W Griffith's 1916 dramatic montage, ``Intolerance,'' which depicts the persecutions of Christ and the Protestant Huguenots in France, the fall of Babylon and an early-20th-century melodrama. ``Intolerance'' has been seen as Griffith's reaction to what he viewed as censorship threats a year earlier when he released ``The Birth of a Nation.''

The Saturday feature is F.W. Murnau's first American film, ``Sunrise,'' which tells the Faustian tale of a city woman who seduces a young married farmer and subtly suggests that he kill his wife. It is preceded by short films on two European photographers, Eugene Atget and August Sander.

Upcoming titles in the series, which runs through Aug. 4, include ``Modern Times,'' ``The Grapes of Wrath,'' ``A Woman Under the Influence'' and ``Do the Right Thing.'' Each is paired with a short film that runs parallel in subject, theme or photographic style.

All programs start at 7:30 p.m. in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium of the Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive. Admission is free but reservations are required; call [phone]. Information: www.getty.edu.

THE OTHER KUROSAWA: Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, known for reinventing film genres, will be on hand this weekend for the first Los Angeles retrospective of his work, including a sneak preview of his latest movie.

Kurosawa, no relation to Akira, will take part in post-screening discussions at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood during the American Cinematheque's series, which begins at 7 tonight with an exclusive preview of ``Cure.'' It's a crime drama in which a Tokyo detective is investigating a string of seemingly unrelated murders linked only by a homeless man who apparently unleashed the killers' homicidal impulses through hypnosis.

After ``Cure'' is a double feature of two U.S. premieres: the 1996 Yakuza thrillers ``The Revenge: A Visit From Fate'' and ``The Revenge: The Scar Never Fades.''

Playing at 5 p.m. Saturday is the 1999 occult terror film ``Charisma,'' followed by a double feature of ``Eyes of the Spider'' and ``Serpent's Path.'' The latter two films were shot back to back and both star actor Sho Aikawa as a man named Niijima who is seeking revenge for the slaying of his friend's daughter. Yet the films are very different, with ``Spider'' more absurdly humorous and ``Serpent'' considerably darker in tone.

On Sunday is a double feature of the chiller ``Seance,'' about a spiritualist trying to aid police in a kidnapping case, and ``License to Live,'' a Rip Van Winkle parable of a young man who awakens from a 10-year coma to find major changes in his family and their home.

Tickets are $8 for general admission, $6 for American Cinematheque members and $7 for seniors and students. The Egyptian Theatre is at 6712 Hollywood Blvd. Information: [phone] or www.egyptiantheatre.com.

'CHAIN' GANG: In 1999, filmmaker Kirby Dick gave video cameras to 10 students at a Los Angeles high school and invited them to shoot anything about their lives in one week's time.

Those 10 cameras then were handed off to 10 more students for one week, and so on. By the end of the year, the cameras had passed through the student body and captured hours and hours of day-to-day urban teen-age life.

``Chain Camera,'' which Variety called the ``raw flip side of TV teen tracts such as 'Beverly Hills 90210,' '' opens its Los Angeles run today at the downtown Laemmle Grand 4-Plex, 345 S. Figueroa St. Information: [phone] or www.laemmle.com.

BALLONA BIOGRAPHY: Ballona Wetlands, the marsh sandwiched between Marina del Rey and Los Angeles International Airport, has been caught in a tug of war in recent years between developers and environmentalists.

Two documentaries about the issue - ``Ballona Wetlands: The Ongoing Struggle 2000-2001'' and ``The Last Stand: The Struggle for Ballona Wetlands (Update 2000)'' - will be screened at 4 p.m. today in Beverly Hills.

Actor and environmental activist Ed Begley Jr. is expected to attend the screenings at the Laemmle Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd. Admission is free and refreshments will be offered. Information: [phone] or www.ballona.com.

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Photo:

George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor star in F.W. Murnau's ``Sunrise,'' which plays Saturday at the Getty Museum. The 1927 film features Gaynor as a femme fatale.