The final film in our Béla Tarr Retrospective is The Turin Horse, his 2011 swan song.
Inspired by the legendary 1889 incident where philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed a cab driver whipping a stubborn horse in Turin, Italy, and collapsed after embracing the animal. The film tracks the bleak, repetitive daily survival of the aging driver, his daughter, and their horse amid a relentless windstorm.
Declared by Tarr as his final feature film, it is celebrated as a masterpiece of modern minimalist cinema and long-take cinematography. Don’t miss this new restoration on the big screen!
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One of the greatest achievements in recent art house cinema and a seminal work of “slow cinema,” Sátántangó, based on the book by László Krasznahorkai is the third film in our Béla Tarr Retrospective.
The film follows members of a small, defunct agricultural collective living in a post-apocalyptic landscape after the fall of Communism who, on the heels of a large financial windfall, set out to leave their village. As a few of the villagers secretly conspire to take off with all of the earnings for themselves, a mysterious character, long thought dead, returns to the village, altering the course of everyone’s lives forever.
Shot in stunning black-and-white by Gábor Medvigy and filled with exquisitely composed and lyrical long takes, Sátántangó unfolds in twelve distinct movements, alternating forwards and backwards in time, echoing the structure of a tango dance. Tarr’s vision, aided by longtime partner and collaborator Ágnes Hranitzky, is enthralling and his portrayal of a rural Hungary beset by boozy dance parties, treachery, and near-perpetual rainfall is both transfixing and uncompromising.
Sátántangó has been justly lauded by critics and audiences as a masterpiece and inspired none other than Susan Sontag to proclaim that she would be “glad to see it every year for the rest of [her] life”.
Sátántangó has been restored in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative by Arbelos in collaboration with The Hungarian Filmlab.
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A mid-career masterwork by legendary Hungarian art house auteur Béla Tarr and the first of his internationally acclaimed trilogy of films written in collaboration with author László Krasznahorkai (including the legendary Sátántangó), Damnation is the second film in our Béla Tarr Retrospective.
The film chronicles the doomed affair between bar Titanik regular Karrer (Sátántangó’s Miklós B. Székely) and the cruel cabaret singer (Vali Kerekes) he pines for while scheming to displace her brutish husband (György Cserhalmi).
A poignant Communism allegory that solidified Tarr’s unique aesthetic, Damnation is photographed in an exquisitely black & white palette underscored by the mesmerizing long takes that would come to be his trademark.
Damnation has been restored in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative by the Hungarian National Film Institute Film Archive under the supervision of Béla Tarr himself.
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The second feature directed by Todd Haynes,the Oscar-nominated filmmaker of Far from Heaven and Carol, Poison is the next film up in our Art House 101: Global Queer Cinema series.
This groundbreaking American Indie was the most fervently debated film of the early 1990s and a trailblazing landmark of queer cinema. A work of immense visual invention, Haynes’ spectacular follow-up to his legendary Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story is audacious, disturbing and thrillingly cinematic.
Inspired by the writings of Jean Genet, Poison deftly interweaves trio of transgressive tales-“Hero,” “Horror” and “Homo”-that build toward a devastating climax. “Hero,” shot in mock TV-documentary style, tells a bizarre story of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice; “Horror,” filmed like a delirious ’50s B-movie melodrama, is a gothic tale of a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague; while “Homo” explores the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates.
A runaway hit which made national headlines when it was attacked by right-wing figures including Dick Armey, Ralph Reed and minister Donald Wildmon, Poison is unsettling, unforgettable and thoroughly entertaining.
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Get ready to relive one of the most iconic moments in dance and pop-culture history as Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo returns to the big screen for a special 42nd Anniversary Celebration at The Frida Cinema on Thursday, September 24!
Join us for a celebration of the film, the culture, the music, and the legendary performers who helped bring breaking and street dance into the global spotlight. The evening will feature a rare and exciting live appearance by director Sam Firstenberg, alongside legendary co-star Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers, one of the most recognizable dancers to emerge from the golden era of breaking and street dance. The special event will be hosted by Vashawn Quinones, the son of the late co-star Alfonso “Shabadoo” Quinones, bringing together fans, dancers, filmmakers, and longtime supporters of the culture for an unforgettable night.
Audiences will have the opportunity to experience Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo exactly where it belongs: on the big screen, surrounded by people who understand its cultural impact. From its unforgettable dance sequences and larger-than-life characters to its infectious soundtrack and unmistakable 1980s energy, the film remains a beloved piece of dance-film history more than four decades after its original release.
Following the screening, attendees will be treated to a live Q&A with Sam Firstenberg and Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers, offering a unique opportunity to hear firsthand stories from the people who were there when this landmark film was created.
Event Schedule:
5:30 PM — Doors Open
6:00 PM — Showtime & Frida Cinema Staff Opening Message
7:35 PM — Live Q&A with Sam Firstenberg & Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers
Whether you grew up watching Breakin’ 2, discovered it through the breaking community, or simply love the films that helped define an era, this 42nd Anniversary Celebration is an opportunity to experience the Electric Boogaloo phenomenon all over again, with two of the people who helped make it happen!
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You want. He wants. She wants. But nobody wants what I want.
Our second Volunteer of the Month pick for September 2026 comes courtesy of Amrut, who has chosen Todd Solondz’s hilarious and deeply uncomfortably 1998 film Happiness, which we are presenting in a brand new 4K restoration thanks to Universal Pictures!
The story follows three sisters and the increasingly troubled people orbiting their lives, leading to a brutally funny look at the desperate search for connection in suburban America. The less plot explained about this one…the better!
Featuring Jane Adams, Dylan Baker, Lara Flynn Boyle, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Cynthia Stevenson, Happiness is a fearless portrait of how disturbing things can get when you’re searching for the purpose of life.
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Come celebrate the new movement of young filmmakers devouring the medium with their intense, cinematic visions with this double feature of two bold, boundary pushing, & incendiary debut feature films that compliment each-other: the hot-boiled angst of the timely ABRAXAS (Written, Directed, Edited, & Starring Charles Tyler Kinder) & the synthetic, neon-drenched, liminal nightmare fuel that schizoids out of the screen into your senses with FaceTape (Written, Directed, Edited, Shot, Sound Designed by Manny Liotta).
Made in unison with each other with a blend of cast members between the two films, this is a double feature that you won’t walk away from feeling the same as when you entered the theater!
ABRAXAS (85 min): Struggling to complete his college thesis, a frustrated environmentalist starts to receive “divine inspiration” which liberates him from writer’s block. However, as his ideas intensify, he spirals into a dangerous fixation, crafting an enraged manifesto against techno-industrial civilization. Watch the trailer for it here!
FaceTape (84 min): A junkie decides to come clean from abusing an analog VR drug called FaceTape only to find his life outside of his addiction is far from stable. Watch the trailer here!
There will be a 10 minute intermission between each film and an introduction by the filmmakers!
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This year’s Art House 101 series is concentrating on Global Queer Cinema, and where better to start than a 4K restoration of Wong Kar Wai’s emotionally raw, lushly stylized portrait of a relationship in breakdown: Happy Together.
Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung star as a couple traveling through Argentina that are locked in a turbulent cycle of infatuation and destructive jealousy. They break up, make up, and fall apart again and again. Setting out to depict the dynamics of a queer relationship with empathy and complexity on the cusp of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong, when the country’s LGBT community suddenly faced an uncertain future, Wong crafts a feverish look at the life cycle of a love affair that’s by turns devastating and deliriously romantic.
Shot by ace cinematographer Christopher Doyle in both luminous monochrome and luscious saturated color, Happy Together is an intoxicating exploration of displacement and desire that swoons with the ache and exhilaration of love at its heart-tearing extremes.
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Every man fights his own war.
Frida Cinema Film Club members are invited to very exclusive screenings of a new 4K restoration of Terrence Malick’s 1998 wartime masterpiece The Thin Red Line!
The story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It follows their journey, from the surprise of an unopposed landing, through the bloody and exhausting battles that follow, to the ultimate departure of those who survived.
Featuring Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, Adrien Brody, Nick Nolte, Ben Chaplin, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Elias Koteas, and John Travolta, The Thin Red Line is an incredible mix of visceral combat photography and Malick’s signature eye for nature. Hans Zimmer’s haunting score tops everything off, making it a transcendent meditation on humanity and violence that goes way beyond the “war movie” genre.
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There are no clean getaways.
Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive is back at The Frida to celebrate its 15th anniversary with some very special In Remembrance screenings for Kavinsky, whose iconic song “Nightcall” helped define the film’s unforgettable neon-noir atmosphere.
Ryan Gosling stars as The Driver, a quiet Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver and finds himself pulled into a dangerous world of criminals and forbidden romance.
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and featuring Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Christina Hendricks, and Ron Perlman, Drive has been electrifying audiences at The Frida Cinema for over a decade since we first played it. And most of that can be attributed to the film’s brilliant soundtrack, which is a synth-soaked masterpiece featuring artists like Kavinsky, Chromatics, Desire, College & Electric Youth, and Cliff Martinez.
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