The sky gets more and more gray with each day as we enter the month of September, yet our fiery hot programming here at The Frida doesn’t slow down for any change of season. This month, we generously welcome the independent and queer underdog hit Bottoms alongside a slew of steamy movies such as Cronenberg’s Crash and Ducournau’s Titane. We will also once again nurture early 2000s nostalgia with our SOLD OUT annual Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition marathon. But before we can dance to the music of Stop Making Sense and pay our respects through our loaded Friedkin Weekends this month, we must stop by a small and mysterious mountain town with Jesse Camacho’s volunteer of the month pick for September – Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.
Twin Peaks: FWWM, initially hated by most critics and confusing audiences both familiar and unfamiliar with the show, has since its 1992 Cannes premiere seen a resurgence in reevaluations that praise the genius of David Lynch’s dark prologue leading up to the events of his famed television work. Premiering more than twenty years before the third and unexpected yet critically celebrated season of the show, The Return, this prequel film establishes a much more nihilistic yet also empathy-driven portrait of the life of Laura Palmer before her untimely (or quite timely) death, and it cements the brooding atmosphere and world intended by Lynch from the very beginning.
How did you find out about The Frida Cinema?
I found out about The Frida Cinema when I got an advertisement on Instagram for Donnie Darko, which is one of my favorite movies, and I brought my family to come see it. I saw the lineup for that month, and I thought they played cool movies here, so I guess I just started coming.
What made you want to volunteer here?
I guess I’ve never really had any friends that are into movies, so I thought it would be a cool place to meet people that have the same interests as me, and I’ve never done a retail job so I thought I would get the experience I need for the workforce. And also, you get free movies.
Tell us a little bit about Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.
I don’t know how to talk about this movie without spoiling the entire series. David Lynch is my favorite director of all time, it is obviously my favorite David Lynch movie, and I think it is a thesis on his entire filmography. It’s his darkest movie, in my opinion, and it’s also his most empathetic, and I think it’s essential to understanding David Lynch as a director and everything he stands for (especially the first half of his filmography that focuses on American suburbia).
What were your other choices for Volunteer Pick of the Month?
My other choices were Mulholland Drive, which is my second favorite David Lynch movie, and The Matrix Reloaded, which is one of my favorite movies, and I think I like it a little more than The Matrix.
What is your favorite Frida memory?
I really enjoyed the Doom Generation when we had the Q&A with James Duvall. I got to ask him a question, which was, “Which character from Gregg Araki’s teenage apocalypse trilogy do you relate with more?” And he said Dark from Nowhere. That was really cool. It was the first time I’ve ever been to a Q&A and the first time I’ve seen a movie’s restoration, and I have never seen movies being taken that seriously before, so seeing that this place really cares about the art of movies was really cool. That was the day before I started volunteering, so that day assured me that this would be a place I would really like to volunteer at.
If you could program any movie here, what would you pick?
That’s something I’ve really got to think about. I’ve seen most of my top ten here already. My dream thing to play at The Frida would be watching any part of Twin Peaks: The Return in a theater, especially episode eight or the final two, as outside of the movies that is my favorite David Lynch thing ever.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me screens starting Friday, September 15th.
Friday, Sep 15th – 5:15pm
Saturday, Sep 16th – 7:15pm
Sunday, Sep 17th – 7:30pm
Monday, Sep 18th – 8pm
Tickets