The passion, the violence, the birth of America’s Gilded Age.
Flickrhappy is back at The Frida Cinema, bringing with them a restoration of Milos Forman’s 1981 rarely-screened epic Ragtime!
America at the dawn of the 20th century bursts to life in this sweeping, ambitious adaptation of E. L. Doctorow’s celebrated novel. Set in a nation electrified by upheaval, Ragtime weaves together the lives of dreamers and revolutionaries as their stories collide in a rapidly changing New York. A proud Black pianist seeks justice after an act of racist cruelty. A glamorous chorus girl becomes the center of a national scandal. Historical figures – including magician Harry Houdini, activist Emma Goldman, and tycoon J. P. Morgan – drift through a world where wealth and poverty sit side by side, and where the promise of America feels both intoxicating and fragile.
Featuring a remarkable ensemble cast,including screen legend James Cagney in his final film performance, Ragtime is a powerful tapestry of music and hope.
This program is a venue rental engagement. The views and opinions expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of The Frida Cinema or its staff. Flickrhappy is allowing Frida Cinema members to use their regular discounts to this event!
Read More
Just added: representatives from the Palestinian Youth Movement will be joining us for a post-screening chat after the 3:30PM screening on Friday, April 24th!
Watermelon Pictures is proud to present Palestine 36, their new humanist cinematic tour de force!
1936. As villages across Mandatory Palestine rise against British colonial rule, Yusuf drifts between his rural home and the restless energy of Jerusalem, longing for a future beyond the growing unrest. But history is relentless. With rising numbers of Jewish immigrants escaping antisemitism in Europe, and the Palestinian population uniting in the largest and longest uprising against Britain’s 30-year dominion, all sides spiral towards inevitable collision in a decisive moment for the British Empire and the future of the entire region.
One of the year’s most lauded and highly anticipated films, Palestine 36 has received universal audience and critical acclaim in its festival rollout, including a record-setting 23 minute standing ovation at TIFF, and a win for Best Film at The Tokyo International Film Festival, while holding a rating of 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Read More
This March, Frida Cinema Film Club Members are being treated to Jim Jarmusch’s acid Western Dead Man , now with a new 4K restoration!
Accountant William Blake (Johnny Depp) has hardly arrived in the godforsaken outpost of Machine before he’s caught in the middle of a fatal lovers’ quarrel. Wounded and on the lam, Blake falls under the watch of the outcast Nobody (Gary Farmer), who guides his companion on a spiritual journey, teaching him to dispense poetic justice along the way.
Featuring austerely beautiful black-and-white photography by Robby Müller and a live-wire score by Neil Young, Dead Man is a profound and unique revision of the western genre. Thank you to our friends at Janus Films for allowing us to screen this starkly beautiful film on the big screen!
Not a Frida Cinema Film Club member? Sign up here!
Read More
Love finds a way…even in the middle of a war.
The third film in our four film Starring Natalie Wood tribute is West Side Story, where she shines as Maria alongside other screen icons Rita Moreno, Russ Tamblyn, and George Chakiris!
In Manhattan’s Upper West Side, rival gangs of Polish-Americans and newly arrived Puerto Ricans clash for control of the neighborhood, even as two young members from opposite sides fall dangerously in love. Featuring unforgettable songs by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, this landmark musical remains one of cinema’s most vibrant expressions of youthful hope and heartbreak.
This Summer, we are celebrating the unforgettable star power of Natalie Wood with a quartet of films that showcase the unique blend of charisma and emotional intensity that made her one of Hollywood’s most beloved screen icons. This series is co-presented by the amazing folks over at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton as part of their exhibit More Than Love: The Life & Art of Natalie Wood!
Read More
The second film in our Starring Natalie Wood series is Splendor In The Grass, co-starring Warren Beatty in his screen debut! Wood’s performance garnered her the second Oscar nomination of her career, this time Best Actress!
The story follows a small-town Kansas teenager whose passionate romance collides with the strict social expectations of the late 1920s. As heartbreak begins to take its toll, she’s forced to confront the fragile line between desire and despair.
This Summer, we are celebrating the unforgettable star power of Natalie Wood with a quartet of films that showcase the unique blend of charisma and emotional intensity that made her one of Hollywood’s most beloved screen icons. This series is co-presented by the amazing folks over at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton as part of their exhibit More Than Love: The Life & Art of Natalie Wood!
Read More
Our Starring Natalie Wood series kicks off with the iconic 1955 Nicholas Ray landmark drama Rebel Without A Cause, in which she co-stars as Judy, going toe-to-toe with big fellow big screen icon James Dean. She earned herself an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the role–the first of her career.
After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate, although being the new kid in town brings its own problems. While searching for some stability, Stark forms a bond with a disturbed classmate, Plato, and falls for local girl Judy. However, Judy is the girlfriend of neighborhood tough, Buzz. When Buzz violently confronts Jim and challenges him to a drag race, the new kid’s real troubles begin.
This Summer, we are celebrating the unforgettable star power of Natalie Wood with a quartet of films that showcase the unique blend of charisma and emotional intensity that made her one of Hollywood’s most beloved screen icons. This series is co-presented by the amazing folks over at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton as part of their exhibit More Than Love: The Life & Art of Natalie Wood!
Read More
Real women take chances, have flaws and embrace life…
Celebrate Women’s History Month with a free screening of the 2002 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award-winning film Real Women Have Curves,presented by our friends at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts!
America Ferrera stars in her feature film debut as a first-generation Mexican American student who finds herself juggling her own ambitions, her mother’s expectations and a community of women working together in an East Los Angeles garment factory.
Attendees of the screening will have the opportunity to win a pair of tickets to the West Coast premiere of Curves In Concert, a one night only concert adaptation of Real Women Have Curves: The Musical on Friday, March 20, 2026 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. This performance features members of the original Broadway cast and includes a free 20-minute talkback/Q&A with the cast alongside original playwright, Josefina López.
Frida Cinema fans get 10% off tickets with code: CURVESCOMMUNITY at scfta.org/curves
Real Women Have Curves: The Musical features a Tony-nominated score by Grammy® Award–winning songwriter Joy Huerta (Jesse & Joy) and Benjamin Velez (Kiss My Aztec), a book by Lisa Loomer (Girl, Interrupted) with Nell Benjamin (Mean Girls), music supervision by Nadia DiGiallonardo (Waitress) and choreography and direction by Tony® Award winner Sergio Trujillo (Ain’t Too Proud)
Read More
Pillion, the highly-anticipated new movie from filmmaker Harry Lighton, starring Alexander Skasgard and Harry Melling, is coming to The Frida Cinema!
The story follows Colin, a timid gay man, is swept off his feet when Ray, an enigmatic and impossibly handsome biker, takes him on as his submissive in a crazy and erotic BDSM-focused relationship.
The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival and won accolades for its screenplay and overall standout reception. It also earned multiple British Independent Film Awards, including Best British Independent Film.
Read More
Who killed Laura Palmer?
Be still your beating heart, The Frida Cinema is finally bringing the original 94 minute Twin Peaks pilot to our audience!
Widely regarded as a landmark in television history, the pilot stunned audiences with its combination of small-town mystery and supernatural weirdness that only a dreamer like David Lynch could create. Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost established a tone that was at once familiar and made it completely and utterly disorienting, layering dark secrets and eery characters one after another, influencing decades of prestige television and cinema alike.
Join us, one night only, on Sunday, March 29th as we attempt to re-create appointment television viewing. Only this time, on a much bigger screen.
Doors open at 7:30PM and the show will begin at 8:00PM!
Read More
By the mid-sixties, Ingmar Bergman had already conjured many of the cinema’s most unforgettable images. But with the radical Persona, this supreme artist attained new levels of visual poetry. Celebrate 60 years of his iconic film as we present it as a limited engagement, recently restored for the big screen.
In the first of a series of legendary performances for Bergman, Liv Ullmann plays a stage actor who has inexplicably gone mute; an equally mesmerizing Bibi Andersson is the garrulous young nurse caring for her in a remote island cottage. While isolated together there, the women perform a mysterious spiritual and emotional transference that would prove to be one of cinema’s most influential creations.
Acted with astonishing nuance and shot in stark contrast and soft light by the great Sven Nykvist, Persona is a penetrating, dreamlike work of profound psychological depth and one of the most influential films ever made.
Read More
