Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Paul Shaffer, and other entertainment icons got their start in a 1972 Toronto production of the musical Godspell. You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution…is the documentary that lived to tell the tale! 

Featuring interviews with the surviving cast members, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mike Myers, and more, the film recounts a pivotal moment in comedy history, in hilarious, moving, and inspiring detail. 

Kwaidan has been given the 4K restoration treatment via our friends at Janus Films, so of course we’re kicking off our October programming with it! 

After more than a decade of sober political dramas and socially minded period pieces, the great Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi shifted gears dramatically for this rapturously stylized quartet of ghost stories. Featuring colorfully surreal sets and luminous cinematography, these haunting tales of demonic comeuppance and spiritual trials, adapted from writer Lafcadio Hearn’s collections of Japanese folklore, are existentially frightening and meticulously crafted.

Please note: the DCP version of Kwaidan is a 4K restoration of the original three-hour cut.

We’re screening the brand new 4K restoration of František Vláčil’s Marketa Lazarová starting on October 1st! 

In its native land, the film has been hailed as the greatest Czech film ever made; for many U.S. viewers, it will be a revelation. Based on a novel by Vladislav Vančura, this stirring and poetic depiction of a feud between two rival medieval clans is a fierce, epic, and meticulously designed evocation of the clashes between Christianity and paganism, humankind and nature, love and violence.

Vláčil’s approach was to re-create the textures and mentalities of a long-ago way of life, rather than to make a conventional historical drama, and the result is dazzling. With its inventive widescreen cinematography, editing, and sound design, Marketa Lazarová is an experimental action film.

KCTV AV Club is presenting a very special 30th anniversary of director Tom Hanks’ That Thing You Do!

A Pennsylvania band scores a hit in 1964 and rides the star-making machinery as long as it can, with lots of help from its manager. But behind the scenes, the group’s sudden fame tests their strength, their maturity and responsibility, and their ability to resist the temptations that money and notoriety always make possible.

That Thing You Do! has evolved the last three decades from a modest box office disappointment to beloved, wholesome cult classic that’s best enjoyed on the big screen with fellow fans of the film! Don’t miss it!

This will be the Theatrical Cut of the film that runs 108 minutes.

They came. They Shopped. They saved the world!

See It On 16mm is back at The Frida to unspool the 1984 sci-fi horror cult classic Night of the Comet!

When a mysterious comet passes close to Earth, nearly everyone on the planet is reduced to piles of red dust…or transformed into bloodthirsty zombies! Among the few survivors are Valley Girl sisters Regina and Samantha, who emerge from their steel-lined shelters to find Los Angeles completely deserted. 

Zombies, machine guns, deserted malls, killer ’80s fashion, and a killer soundtrack…what else do you want from a movie!?

The rumors are true! John Wilson’s The History of Concrete is coming to The Frida Cinema!

The plot is super normal and simple: after attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, filmmaker John Wilson tries to use the same formula to sell a documentary about concrete.

Don’t miss this extremely informative documentary on the big screen!

Enhanced Accessibility: this film has Closed Captioning capability!