The Frida Cinema is teaming up with our friends at VAALA to screen the critically acclaimed documentary Jimmy in Saigon! And stick around after the screening for a special conversation with the director of the film, Peter McDowell!
Jimmy in Saigon begins as a personal exploration into the mysterious death and radical life of Jimmy McDowell, an American 24-year-old Vietnam veteran who died as a civilian in Saigon in 1972, when filmmaker Peter McDowell was only five. While investigating Jimmy’s drug use and sexuality, Peter takes us from the US Midwest to Vietnam, France and back home again. In his quest to get to know his brother, he uncovers a hidden romance, new family ties and a remarkable global love story.
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Coroner to the Stars, the new documentary about the life and controversial career of Dr. Thomas Noguchi, is coming to The Frida Cinema for a special one night only event! And make sure to stick around after the screening, as director Ben Hethcoat and producer Billy Ray Brewton join us for a Q&A!
The doc chronicles Noguchi, whose celebrity autopsies forever shaped American culture. From Marilyn Monroe and Robert Kennedy to Sharon Tate and Natalie Wood, Dr. Noguchi’s death investigations pushed forensic science into the spotlight, even as Hollywood elites and political adversaries sought to silence him. A Japanese American who unwittingly rose to fame in a city driven by stardom, Noguchi’s commitment to “tell it like it is” often put him within the crosshairs of controversy.
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Celebrate Pride Month with a signature themed cocktail and 30th anniversary FREE screening of The Celluloid Closet, a documentary adaptation of Vito Russo’s groundbreaking book and lecture series exploring LGBTQ+ representation in film.
The Celluloid Closet is an epic story, by turns surprising, hilarious, and disturbing. Academy Award-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman assemble clips from over 100 Hollywood movies and interviews with many of the filmmakers and actors who created them (including Tom Hanks, Shirley MacLaine, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Curtis, and Gore Vidal).
“Thoroughly enjoyable…a colorful overview with the popular appeal of a ‘That’s Entertainment’…sheer fun.” – The New York Times
“TWO THUMBS UP…terrific” – Siskel and Ebert
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We’re teaming up with the fine folks at Muzeo to present a very special screening of the legendary documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys! And make sure to stick around after the screening for a Q&A with our very special guests, Craig Stecyk and Jim Fitzpatrick!
This award-winning, thrilling story is about a group of discarded kids who revolutionized skateboarding and shaped the attitude and culture of modern day extreme sports. Featuring old skool skating footage, exclusive interviews and a blistering rock soundtrack, Dogtown and Z-Boys captures the rise of the Zephyr skateboarding team from Venice’s Dogtown, a tough “locals only” beach with a legacy of outlaw surfing.
Directed by former pro skater Stacy Peralta and narrated with gravelly cool by three-time Academy Award winner Sean Penn, this electrifying documentary that chronicles how a scrappy crew of skateboarding misfits revolutionized youth culture forever. Come see it on the big screen, loud and proud!
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This visionary music documentary traces the turbulent, transcendent life of Gregg Allman, from a childhood ruptured by his father’s murder to the soulful emergence that reshaped American music. Through archival recordings, candid interviews, and electric performances, the film follows Gregg’s musical awakening amid the blues he worshipped, the creation of the Allman Brothers Band with his brother.
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We are presenting a free screening of Sophie Calle & Greg Shephard’s documentary/art experiment Double Blind (No Sex Last Night)!
Armed with camcorders, French artist Sophie Calle and American photographer Greg Shephard head West across the United States in his Cadillac convertible to produce and document a narrative of their journey and relationship. Independently, they create a kind of cinematic diary where two completely different emotional realities begin to emerge…
A fascinating intersection between autobiographical filmmaking and conceptual art, Calle was already internationally known for work that specialized in blurred surveillance, and this film extended those themes into deeply, deeply uncomfortable territory.
“Sophie Calle: Overshare” is the French artist’s first Orange County exhibition put on by our friends at UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art. Make sure to catch it before it closes on May 24th!
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Our documentary pick for our Art House for Families series is For All Mankind, Al Reinert’s thrilling portrait about the twenty-four men who went to the moon!
Constructed entirely from restored NASA footage and accompanied by a hypnotic score from Brian Eno, the film immerses audiences in the experience of the Apollo missions, transforming historic events into something deeply human. Rather than focusing on technical milestones or political history, For All Mankind captures the surreal beauty of space travel itself.
Few documentaries evoke the scale of discovery quite like this one. Projected on the big screen, its images of Earth floating silently in darkness still inspire the same awe they did more than fifty years ago.
Our Art House for Families series celebrates the magic of moviegoing across generations all summer long. From silent comedy and international classics to science fiction and fantasy adventures, the series invites longtime cinephiles and first-time art house audiences of all ages to discover some of cinema’s most enduring films together on the big screen. This event is sponsored in part by the City of Santa Ana.
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Bad Things Happen At The Happiest Place On Earth…
Join for a special encore screening of the buzzy new documentary Stolen Kingdom!
Directed by Joshua Bailey in his feature directorial debut, the 74-minute documentary follows the history of urban exploration around Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, and the people who break into closed or closing attractions around the park to document the infrastructure. Some of the figures covered include anonymous figures in the community, who documented and explored closed rides and attractions such as Horizons, Discovery Island, and River Country.
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One band. Forty years of beautiful chaos.
Catch a final encore of the brand new documentary about the legacy of NOFX with 40 Years of Fuckin’ Up, up on the big screen, loud and proud!
Spanning four decades of provocation, this no-holds-barred documentary dives headfirst into the band’s history: the music, the mayhem, the fights, the fallout, and everything in between. Built around their final run, it’s as much a goodbye as it is a brutally honest look at what it takes to last this long without selling out or slowing down.
Both emotionally raw and gut-bustingly funny, 40 Years of Fuckin’ Up is staying true to tis form and never coming to streaming. This is your chance to experience it the way it was meant to be seen: in a room full of fans, turned all the way up!
Tickets are $20 to this event. Frida Cinema comp passes and member discounts do not apply.
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Undeterred by armed soldiers, evasive politicians, and riot police, journalist Amy Goodman has reported some of the most consequential stories of our time. Steal This Story, Please! is a gripping portrait of the trailblazer whose unwavering commitment to truth-telling spans three decades of turbulent history. From the frontlines of global conflicts to the organized chaos of her daily news show Democracy Now!, Goodman broadcasts stories and voices routinely silenced by commercial media.
Oscar-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water, The Janes) take us behind the scenes with the warm, wisecracking granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi–raised in a tradition of asking hard questions–as she navigates a news landscape reshaped by technology, corporate consolidation, and political assaults on the press…and on truth itself.
Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, Steal This Story, Please! is both a call to action and a celebration of resistance, posing the question: what happens to democracy when the press surrenders to power?
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