Our Technicolor Summer series gets delightfully macabre with Alfred Hitchcock’s offbeat charmer The Trouble with Harry—a murder mystery where the murder is beside the point, and the comedy is as dry as a New England autumn.
When the body of Harry Worp is discovered in the woods outside a sleepy Vermont town, the locals react not with horror, but with a series of polite, peculiar inconveniences. Who killed Harry? Was it the eccentric spinster? The retired sea captain? The single mother with a past? As each character quietly confesses—or denies—involvement, the real puzzle becomes what to do with the body… and how many times it must be buried.
Unexpected, off-kilter, and beautifully shot, it’s a reminder that Technicolor wasn’t just for musicals and melodramas—it could bring even the darkest jokes to life with a brilliant, irreverent glow. And plus, you didn’t think we could do this series without a couple of Hitchcock flicks, right?
In the early 1930s, the 3-strip Technicolor process was introduced to audiences, inviting them to experience a world dripping with vibrant saturation for the very first time. The Technicolor Summer series ranges from familiar classics to rarely-screened gems all Summer long!
Read More
Our Technicolor Summer series goes from surreal to scrumptious with Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory—a candy-colored fantasy that has enchanted generations with just the right amount of weirdness and pitch-black humor!
When poor but kind-hearted Charlie Bucket finds a golden ticket inside a Wonka Bar, he wins the chance of a lifetime: a tour of the mysterious, magical chocolate factory run by the reclusive and eccentric Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder, in one of the greatest screen performances of all time). Charlie joins a group of wildly different children—each one a cautionary tale—on a journey through a world of edible delights, fizzy-lifting drinks, and Oompa Loompa morals.
Whether you grew up with it or are discovering it anew, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a golden ticket to a world where imagination rules—and where the most dazzling sights often hide the strangest secrets.
In the early 1930s, the 3-strip Technicolor process was introduced to audiences, inviting them to experience a world dripping with vibrant saturation for the very first time. The Technicolor Summer series ranges from familiar classics to rarely-screened gems all Summer long!
Read More
Our Technicolor Summer series continues with one of the most lavish and visually stunning musicals ever put to film: An American in Paris!
This dazzling musical tells the story of Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly), a former American GI turned struggling painter who’s trying to make a name for himself in the City of Light. His art catches the eye of a wealthy benefactor, Milo Roberts (Nina Foch), but Jerry’s heart belongs to someone else—Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron), a spirited young dancer with a complicated past.
With music by George and Ira Gershwin and direction by Vincente Minnelli, An American in Paris is a feast for the senses and a celebration of the intoxicating magic of post-war Paris.
In the early 1930s, the 3-strip Technicolor process was introduced to audiences, inviting them to experience a world dripping with vibrant saturation for the very first time. The Technicolor Summer series ranges from familiar classics to rarely-screened gems all Summer long!
Read More
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 Santa Ana 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.
Read More
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 Santa Ana’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.
Read More
It’s not Santa Ana 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.
Read More
Join us for some free screenings of The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert as we celebrate Santa Ana’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.
Read More
Our 21st Century Cult series sticks to the cheerleader theme as we present the mother of em all: Bring It On!
The Toro cheerleading squad from Rancho Carne High School in San Diego has got spirit, spunk, sass and a killer routine that’s sure to land them the national championship trophy for the sixth year in a row. But for newly-elected team captain Torrance, the Toros’ road to total cheer glory takes a shady turn when she discovers that their perfectly-choreographed routines were in fact stolen.
Bring It On may have started as a seemingly light teen comedy about competitive cheerleading, but over two decades later, it stands as a sharp, enduring satire of cultural appropriation and privilege while masquerading as a bubble gum pop teen movie!
Read More
Our In Defense Of Series pick for June comes via Isa as she has chosen the underrated musical Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band!
A small town band makes it big, but loses track of their roots, as they get caught up into the big-time machinations of the music biz. Now, they must thwart a plot to destroy their home town. Built around the music of The Beatles, this musical uses some big name groups like Peter Frampton and Aerosmith.
Few films have been more gleefully panned, misunderstood, or prematurely written off than Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the 1978 jukebox musical that dares to turn The Beatles’ most iconic album into a surreal, candy-colored rock opera. Dismissed by critics as a misguided cash-in, the film has long existed as a cultural punchline. But behind the glitter, kitsch, and chaos lies an ambitious, bold, and strangely hypnotic cinematic artifact that deserves a closer look. Isa says “give it a chance!”
Read More
Emma Seligman’s chaotic teen romp Bottoms is back at The Frida Cinema just in time for our Pride Month programming!
PJ and Josie are unpopular, gay, and desperate—to hook up with hot cheerleaders before graduation. Their solution? Start a high school fight club for girls, marketed as a “self-defense group” but fueled by unchecked teen delusion and deeply questionable motives. What begins as a messy ploy for clout becomes something that’s equal parts tender and violently cathartic.
This is not a coming-out story. No one’s asking for tolerance. Everyone’s already gay, and they’re busy bleeding, making out, and throwing fists.
Read More
