The Last Class is a nuanced and deeply personal portrait of master educator Robert Reich teaching his final course and reflecting on a period of immense transformation, personally and globally. It is a love letter to education. The former Secretary of Labor might be famous for his public service, best-selling books, and viral social media posts, but he always considered teaching his true calling. Now, after over 40 years and an extraordinary 40,000 students, Reich is preparing for his last class.
Over the course of the film, Reich confronts the impending finality, and his own aging, with increasing candor, introspection, and, ultimately, emotion. He displays a rawness of feeling he has never shared publicly before. Drawing on his lifetime in politics, he uses his class, “Wealth and Poverty,” to offer us all a deeper look at why inequalities of income and wealth have widened significantly since the late 1970s, and why this poses dangerous risks to our society. One thousand students fill the biggest lecture hall on the UC Berkeley campus, the last class to receive Reich’s wisdom and exhortations not to accept that the world has to stay the way it is. His belief in the next generation’s ability to take on the fight is inspiring.
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Our Lost Films Of Covid series is delving into many of the films that we wished we played on the big screen during the years of 2020 and 2021, but with The Painter And The Thief , we get to explore titles that weren’t even on our radar at that time!
When two of artist Barbora Kysilkova’s most valuable paintings are stolen from a gallery at Frogner in Oslo, the police are able to find the thief after a few days, but the paintings are nowhere to be found. Barbora goes to the trial in hopes of finding clues, but instead she ends up asking the thief if she can paint a portrait of him. This will be the start of a very unusual friendship. Over three years, the cinematic documentary follows the incredible story of the artist looking for her stolen paintings, while at the same time turning the thief into art.
The Painter and the Thief asks whether understanding another person can ever truly heal them—or ourselves. We can’t think of a better way to end our series on films of the Covid era that never got to be seen on the big screen.
Thank you to our friends at Filmbot for their support in presenting this amazing series.
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Megadoc is coming to The Frida Cinema for a special two-night presentation. Director Mike Figgis’ behind-the-scenes documentary chronicling the ambitious and often chaotic making of Francis Ford Coppola’s long-gestating passion project Megalopolis.
Shot over several years, the film follows Coppola—now in his 80s—as he self-finances a massive, decades-in-the-making science-fiction epic about rebuilding civilization. Through intimate footage, production meetings, and candid on-set moments, Megadoc captures the enormous creative and logistical challenges of realizing a dream that has obsessed Coppola for more than forty years.
Rather than presenting a tidy “making-of,” Figgis’s film becomes a portrait of obsession, creativity, and artistic risk. The result is as much about the filmmaker himself as it is about the film he’s trying to make—a meditation on the uncompromising pursuit of art.
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Fifty years after Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre shocked the world and forever changed the face of global cinema and popular culture, Chain Reactions charts the film’s profound impact and lasting influence on five great artists–Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, and Karyn Kusama.
Through early memories, sensory experiences, and childhood trauma, the film creates a dynamic dialogue between contemporary footage and never-before-seen outtakes and delving into personal impressions triggered by distinct audiovisual formats (16mm, 35mm, VHS, digital), Chain Reactions goes to the heart of how a scruffy, no-budget independent film wormed its way into our collective nightmares and permanently altered the zeitgeist.
Pair this up before or after our screenings of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre during our Halloween Hangover Weekend series for the ultimate deep dive into the 70s horror phenomenon!
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George Orwell was one of the most radical and visionary authors of the 20th Century, whose 1940s novels, such as 1984 and Animal Farm, foretold a chilling, all-too-believable authoritarian future that has become scarily prescient in our modern era. Acclaimed director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro), working in collaboration with the Orwell Estate, seamlessly interweaves historical clips, readings from Orwell’s diary, cinematic references, and dynamic modern day footage to craft the definitive portrait of the writer himself–Orwell: 2+2=5.
Peck, who has his his own personal connection to the material–as an 8-year-old he was forced to flee the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti–doesn’t just present the information but shows new ways of seeing it, drawing patterns and connections we might not otherwise realize, and creating a stimulating and thought-provoking experience for the viewer at every turn.
As terms like “Big Brother” and “Newspeak” become more prevalent and ominous with each passing day, Orwell: 2+2=5, featuring award-winning actor Damian Lewis as the voice of Orwell, provides a stirring depiction of the dangers of power and the fragility of so-called civilized society, told through the eyes of a man from the past who just might hold the key to the world’s future.
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The True Story Of Tamara de Lempicka and the Art of Survival is coming off of its festival run straight to The Frida Cinema!
A visually stunning and sweeping feature documentary that traces the life and survival of the renowned painter through her powerful paintings – from her rise to international stardom in 1920s Paris, to her move to the United States in 1940, fleeing the rise of fascism, and her revival in the current art market.
Tamara de Lempicka was the preeminent Art Deco painter, known for her high-gloss sensual nudes and portraits of high society during the Jazz Age. She was marginalized and gained notoriety for her romantic liaisons with her models and her indulgent, decadent lifestyle, but she was so much more.
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Come for the grammar. Stay for the humanity. The Frida Cinema is excited to present a special screening of the new documentary Rebel With A Clause! And as an awesome bonus, grammar guru Ellen Jovin will set up her grammar advice stand at the theater starting at 6:30 to take your grammar questions, resolve long-standing grammar disputes, and listen to any tales of grammar woe. Please also stick around after the screening for a Q&A with director Brandt Johnson and Ellen, who will sign copies of her national bestseller!
One fall day, Ellen Jovin set up a folding table on a Manhattan sidewalk with a homemade sign that said “Grammar Table.” Right away, passersby began excitedly asking questions, telling stories, and filing complaints. What happened next is the stuff of grammar legend.
Ellen and her filmmaker husband, Brandt Johnson, took the table on the road, visiting all 50 states as Brandt shot the grammar action. Media outlets across the country celebrated the adventures of the Grammar Table in over 100 print, radio, and television stories. People from every imaginable background visited the table to share a laugh, settle disputes, and talk about their grammar insecurities. These conversations took place in small towns and big cities, by bookstores and coffee shops, on beaches and mountainsides.
But this story transcends grammar. It’s the story of an epic quest to bring us all closer together. In a time of social and political division, the Grammar Table is a place of unity and connection. The conversations at the table help answer the question “How can we all get along?”
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The 2025 Orange County Latino International Film Festival (OCLIFF) is proud to present director Srdjan Sarenac’s acclaimed new documentary, Prison Beauty Contest.
Inside a Brazilian women’s correctional facility, a daring beauty pageant becomes an act of rebellion and self-reclamation, as three inmates – Joyce, Angel, and Sueli – defy the uniformity of prison life in a quest for dignity, identity, and hope. Far more than a film about beauty and fashion, Sarenac’s bold documentary takes viewers inside the lives of the incarcerated women as they endeavor to maintain their dignity and positive self-image while navigating life in confinement.
Presented in Portuguese, with English subtitles.
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Just added: the vendors added to our 11AM physical media sale are VHS Spectacular, Play It Fear, and The Deeper Issues Nerdcast!
Join us for an epic essay film from the mind of Alex Ross Perry as he takes us on a deep dive back in time with his three hour video store tribute Videoheaven!
Since the 1980s, the video shop has been a desperately necessary space for film culture. In Videoheaven, Alex Ross Perry tells the story of the neighbourhood video shop to consider wider, changing social histories, using appropriated footage from the high and lowbrow.
All day, The Frida Cinema will be celebrating the art of physical media with various vendors and displays! Get to the screening early at 11AM when doors open to shop around!
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Please note: our previously announced screenings of this documentary included bonus footage–as of September 2nd, we have been notified that version of the film is no longer available for us to theatrically screen. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes.
The Frida Cinema is proud to present the new documentary It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley!
An immersive journey into the artistry, inner turmoil, tenderness, and legacy of a one-of-a-kind musician. This is a film that will stay with you long after the credits roll. If you’ve ever fallen under the spell of Buckley’s voice, or wondered what made him so profound, this is the window into his world fans have been waiting for.
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