Our first Volunteer of the Month pick for the month of August comes courtesy of Dorene, who has chosen to spotlight Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Mamma Roma!

Anna Magnani is Mamma Roma, a middle-aged sex worker who attempts to extricate herself from her sordid past for the sake of her son. Filmed in the great tradition of Italian neorealism, the film offers an unflinching look at the struggle for survival in postwar Italy, and highlights director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s lifelong fascination with the marginalized and dispossessed.

Though banned upon its release in Italy for obscenity, today Mamma Roma remains a classic, featuring a powerhouse performance by one of cinema’s greatest actresses and offering a glimpse at a country’s most controversial director in the process of finding his style.

If you run, the beast catches you. If you stay, the beast eats you.

The second Volunteer Of The Month pick for August comes courtesy of Angel, who has chosen Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund’s 2002 masterpiece City of God! 

In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.

Few films burst onto the world cinema stage with the raw power of City of God. This electric crime epic remains one of the defining films of the 21st century, backing up its “masterpiece” designation with pure adrenaline and style.

Silence affects everyone in the end.

The Piano is back on the big on the big screen in a stunning 4K restoration supervised and approved by writer-director Jane Campion and cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh.

Set in the rugged wilderness of 19th-century New Zealand, the film follows Ada McGrath, a mute Scottish pianist who is sent halfway across the world for an arranged marriage. Accompanied only by her young daughter and her beloved piano, Ada finds herself caught between duty, desire, and self-discovery in a story as emotionally overwhelming as the landscape that surrounds her.

Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes and three Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Holly Hunter and Best Supporting Actress for Anna Paquin, The Piano is one of cinema’s most haunting and unforgettable romances ever made.

The brand new 4K restoration of Luchino Visconti’s White Nights is coming to The Frida Cinema starting on August 14th! 

Marcello Mastroianni, as a lonely city transplant, and Maria Schell, as a sheltered girl haunted by a lover’s promise, meet by chance on a canal bridge and begin a tentative romance that quickly entangles them in a web of longing and self-delusion.

White Nights is an exquisite adaptation of Dostoevsky’s legendary novella, transforming this romantic, shattering tale of two restless souls into a ravishing black-and-white dream.

We’re getting real glam with the third film in our Broadway Thursdays: Segerstrom Center at The Frida series as we screen Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gasby! 

An adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Long Island-set novel, where Midwesterner Nick Carraway is lured into the lavish world of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo Dicaprio). Soon enough, however, Carraway will see through the cracks of Gatsby’s nouveau riche existence, where obsession, madness, and tragedy await.

Overflowing with lavish production design and a bold modern soundtrack the way only Baz can do, The Great Gatsby embraces spectacle in a way few literary adaptations ever attempt.

See It On 16mm is back at the end of August to dust off some well-loved (worn) prints of ignored exploitation, horror, and other off the radar films as we present another entry into our Secret Grindhouse series!

They’re gonna dig up some decaying prints and thread them up for genre fans! Most titles are either in a rights limbo, forgotten, or just need to be shown more appreciation. They’ll be playing blaxploitation, vansploitation, nunsploitation, kung fu, made-for-TV terrors, and everything else between!

Grab a ticket and watch as the secret movie unspools loud and proud on the big screen!

Certified Frida Favorite Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going To The World’s Fair, I Saw The TV Glow) is back with their latest mindf**k, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring the supernova duo of Hannah Einbender and Gillian Anderson!

After years of slapdash sequels and waning fandom, the Camp Miasma slasher franchise is handed over to an enthusiastic young director for resurrection. But when she visits the original’s star, a now-reclusive actress shrouded in mystery, the two women fall into a blood-soaked world of desire, fear, and delirium.

Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in 2026, the early reviews for Camp Miasma were passionate, promising a wildly entertaining exploration of the slasher film, erotic pleasure, and everything in between. The words “gonzo” and “pop art” were also being thrown around, which you know we love!