John Ford’s towering Western classic returns to the big screen as The Frida Cinema celebrates the 70th anniversary of The Searchers!

When his niece is kidnapped by Comanches, Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) embarks on a years-long search across the unforgiving Texas frontier, joined by his adopted nephew Martin (Jeffrey Hunter). What follows is an epic journey fueled by obsession, prejudice, and a determination that threatens to consume everyone involved.

With its breathtaking Monument Valley vistas and Wayne’s career-defining performance, The Searchers remains one of the most influential films in American cinema. See this landmark Western the way it was meant to be seen: on the big screen!

The new film On The Road (En el camino) from director David Pablos is coming to The Frida Cinema!

Veneno, a rebellious young drifter, frequents roadside diners where he sleeps with truck drivers. Urgently needing a ride, he meets Muñeco, a hard-edged driver who keeps to himself. He convinces Muñeco to take him deep into the hyper-masculine world of long-haul trucking across the north of Mexico. As they travel together and an unexpected intimacy builds between them, shadows from Veneno’s past resurface, putting both their lives at risk.

Winner of the 2025 Venice Horizons best film and Queer Lion awards, On The Road has been described as a racy, turbo-charged thriller that scorches up the big screen! Don’t miss your chance to see it!

From acclaimed filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida, Cold War) comes Fatherland, a striking new black-and-white portrait of postwar Germany, starring Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler.

In the summer of 1949, Nobel Prize-winning author Thomas Mann returns to Germany after years of exile, embarking on a road trip with his daughter Erika across a country split between East and West. As they travel from American-occupied Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled Weimar, old wounds resurface and difficult questions emerge about national identity, artistic responsibility, and what it means to return home when the place you remember no longer exists.

With Pawlikowski’s signature visual precision and Hüller’s quietly commanding performance, Fatherland transforms a journey across a fractured nation into an intimate reckoning of guilt and the complicated bonds between parents and children. A true standout at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Pawlikowski once again finds extraordinary emotional weight in what remains unsaid.

Just added: Helena Odeh, daughter of Alex Odeh, will be joining us before the 8:30PM screening on 11/5 to introduce the film! 

Who Killed Alex Odeh?, the powerful new documentary from directors Jason Osder and William Lafi Youmans, is coming to The Frida Cinema for a limited run on November 5th-10th.

In October 1985, Santa Ana, California was shaken by a brazen act of political violence when Palestinian American Alex Odeh, a beloved teacher and community leader, was killed by a tripwire bomb planted in his office. Despite substantial evidence and identified suspects, the case was never solved. Who Killed Alex Odeh? reopens the mystery, tracking a renewed investigation in real time as new leads emerge, long-buried records come to light, and the forces behind a political assassination are finally confronted.

Alex Odeh was a Palestinian-born American citizen, a father of three, a teacher, a poet, and an advocate for Arab American civil rights and peaceful coexistence.

According to Carnegie Mellon University and Grand Central Art Center, the statue of Alex that sits outside of the Santa Ana Public Library (just a ten minute walk from The Frida Cinema) is the only public monument to an Arab American in the United States.