UCLA appoints Judith Smith as Herb Alpert School of Music’s first dean

UCLA officials appointed a founding dean for the Herb Alpert School of Music on Friday, ending the national search for the leader of the first autonomous music school in the University of California. Interim dean Judith Smith will postpone her retirement from UCLA and begin her term as dean March 1 until June 30, 2019, […]

Wacsmash ‘Fingers’ performances tell unique stories through dance

Electronic dance music, Mexican female warriors, neurological phenomena, the ocean and consumerism find common ground in the Glorya Kaufman Dance Theater. Undergraduates of the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance have been preparing since September for this year’s Wacsmash performance, titled “Fingers,” which will take place Friday and Saturday. The show consists of 10 […]

Reel Representation: Asian-Americans gravely underrepresented in mainstream cinema

Diversity in film and television came into the spotlight in 2016 with #OscarsSoWhite. A USC study in 2016 found only about a quarter of speaking characters belonged to non-white racial/ethnic groups. In “Reel Representation,” columnist Olivia Mazzucato discusses different issues of race and representation in media as they relate to new movies and TV shows. […]

Bruins collaborate on James Franco movie ‘High School Lover’

Jerell Rosales didn’t think twice when his friend and former teacher James Franco emailed to ask if he wanted to direct Franco’s new movie. UCLA alumnus and lecturer Franco brought on both Rosales, a directing graduate student, and Jessica Dube, a UCLA screenwriting alumna, to work on the Lifetime film “High School Lover.” Debuting Saturday, […]

Movie review: ‘The Space Between Us’

Most stories of space travel deal with Earth-bound humans who long to visit other worlds, but the new science fiction romance film “The Space Between Us” tells a story from the reverse perspective. Sixteen-year-old Gardner (Asa Butterfield), the first human born on Mars, desperately wants to live with the rest of his species on Earth. […]

Alum Kalil Wilson uses operatic roots to rise in jazz world

Kalil Wilson sat on a black wooden stool, crooning the jazz tune “I Get a Kick Out of You” by Cole Porter fora singing competition at UCLA. It was the first time in his life singing jazz, but he finished the 2007 José Iturbi Competitionas a finalist. Wilson, a 2006 alumnus, is now performing jazz in […]