Pride Month

Our Classic Movie Nights series hits the stage in June for our highly-anticipated screening the legendarily catty All About Eve! Long before “gay icon” was a household term, there was Margo Channing—played with fire and majesty by Bette Davis, in this ultimate camp classic of backstage betrayal, biting wit, and theatrical fabulousness. This is the blueprint: a film drenched in glamour, gossip, and the punishment of aging in a world obsessed with youth. Not to be outdone (ever) is Anne Baxter’s Eve, the original ingénue, and George Sanders, delivering high-grade snark as the venomous critic Addison DeWitt. And we could never forget a baby Marilyn Monroe in a scene-stealing early role.  Every glance is loaded, every line is iconic, and every cigarette is smoked like a weapon. Fasten your seatbelts? Darling, we never took them off. Make sure to get to the screening early, as our Marketing Director Bekah will be doing a very informative and entertaining presentation on the film before it starts!

Has it really been thirty years since To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar came out? Yes. Are we screening it two times for absolutely no charge on the weekend of OC's Pride celebrations? Also yes!  Manhattan drag queens Vida Boheme and Noxeema Jackson impress regional judges in competition, securing berths in the Nationals in Los Angeles. When the two meet pathetic drag novice Chi-Chi Rodriguez — one of the losers that evening — the charmed Vida and Noxeema agree to take the hopeless youngster under their joined wing. Soon the three set off on a madcap road trip across America and struggle to make it to Los Angeles in time. Join us for this bold, campy, and surprisingly tender film that helped bring drag culture—and a message of acceptance—to the mainstream in the mid-1990s.

It's not OC Pride weekend at The Frida without a screening or two of Hedwig And The Angry Inch! And this year, the showings are completely free!  Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig undergoes a personal transformation in order to emigrate to the U.S., where she reinvents herself as an 'internationally ignored' but divinely talented rock diva, inhabiting a 'beautiful gender of one'. At a time when few films dared to center queer and trans experiences with this much raw honesty and visual style, Hedwig and the Angry Inch carved out a space that felt radical and necessary.

Join us for some free screenings of The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert as we celebrate OC's official Pride weekend!  Two drag queens and a transgender woman contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs, a town in the remote Australian desert. As they head west from Sydney aboard their lavender bus, Priscilla, the three friends come to the forefront of a comedy of errors, encountering a number of strange characters, as well as incidents of homophobia, whilst widening comfort zones and exploring new horizons. Released at a time when positive queer representation in film was still rare, Priscilla broke ground simply by putting LGBTQ+ characters front and center—and letting them shine.

Always a favorite around these parts, Mike Nichols and Elaine May's The Birdcage is returning to The Frida Cinema just in time for some screenings on Orange County Pride celebration weekend! Oh, and did we mention we're playing it totally free of charge!? Middle-aged gay life partners, Armand Goldman, a Jewish drag club owner, and Albert, the club's flamboyant star attraction, live in the eclectic community of South Beach and have raised a straight son. Now, their newly engaged son, 20-year-old Val, wants to bring his fiancée, Barbara, and her ultraconservative parents home to meet his family for the first time. By Val's request, Armand pretends to be straight, not Jewish and attempts to hide his relationship with Albert, in order to please Barbara's father, controversial right-wing Republican Sen. Kevin Keeley. Starring the iconic trio of Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, and Gene Hackman, The Birdcage is a rare gem in the realm of mainstream American comedy—a film that manages to be riotously funny, sharply satirical, and quietly groundbreaking all at once. 

Horror Movie Night presented by HorrorBuzz is back! And this time they’re celebrating 40 years of the cult classic sequel A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge! Just in time to celebrate Pride Month!  Jesse Walsh moves with his family into the home of the lone survivor from a series of attacks by dream-stalking monster, Freddy Krueger. There, he is bedeviled by nightmares and inexplicably violent impulses. Horror Movie Night takes it to another level with a full night of entertainment, including a themed HMN Video Preshow, Trivia, Games, Prizes, and another outstanding horror short from HorrorBuzz’s The Screaming Room Film Festival at Midsummer Scream. Doors open and pre-show begins promptly at 7:30 pm, so arrive early!

Ridley Scott's girl trip Thelma & Louise winds down our Pride Month programming with a brand new 4K restoration! The story follows Thelma (Geena Davis), a timid housewife, and Louise (Susan Sarandon), a no-nonsense waitress, as they embark on what starts as a weekend getaway and turns into a flight from the law. After Louise kills a man who attempts to rape Thelma, the two hit the road, realizing that the justice system is unlikely to see their side. Their journey becomes one of personal awakening, radical defiance, and ultimately, tragic liberation. Thelma & Louise is more than a road movie—it’s a feminist landmark, a genre-defying tale of friendship, freedom, and fury that still resonates over three decades later.

Pink Narcissus closes out our Pride Month programming with a special one night only presentation. A landmark of queer underground cinema—it's an erotic, dreamlike fantasia shot entirely within the confines of a New York apartment over the course of seven years. Originally released anonymously, the film became a cult object of fascination, long believed to have been made by Andy Warhol or one of his Factory acolytes. It wasn't until decades later that James Bidgood—a former fashion photographer and drag performer—was revealed as the true auteur behind the film. Today, Pink Narcissus is rightly celebrated as a foundational work of queer cinema and a forerunner to later visual artists and filmmakers—from Pierre et Gilles to Derek Jarman to Todd Haynes. It is a reminder that even in the most constrained circumstances, beauty and radical vision can flourish.

Join us as we present some encore screenings of the 1999 queer cult classic But I'm A Cheerleader! Megan is an all-American girl. A cheerleader. She has a boyfriend. But Megan doesn't like kissing her boyfriend very much. And she's pretty touchy with her cheerleader friends. Her conservative parents worry that she must be a lesbian and send her off to "sexual redirection" school, where she must, with other lesbians and gays learn how to be straight. Bring your friends, wear pink if you dare, and relive (or discover) a certified Frida Cinema Favorite the way it deserves to be experienced: loudly and proudly, in a movie theater!