John Waters’ gleefully campy classic Hairspray is being threaded up by our friends at See It On 16mm for a sock-hopping good time on the big screen!
‘Pleasantly plump’ teenager Tracy Turnblad achieves her dream of becoming a regular on the Corny Collins Dance Show. Now a teen hero, she starts using her fame to speak out for the causes she believes in, most of all integration. In doing so, she earns the wrath of the show’s former star, Amber Von Tussle, as well as Amber’s manipulative, pro-segregation parents. The rivalry comes to a head as Amber and Tracy vie for the title of Miss Auto Show 1963.
A joyous explosion of color and music, Hairspray bridges the gap between counterculture and mainstream celebration. Featuring cameos from Sonny Bono, Debbie Harry, and Pia Zadora, Waters’ affectionate satire of 1960s America remains as infectious as ever.
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Join us for some extra spooky encores of Tim Burton and Mike Johnson’s Corpse Bride, now celebrating its 20th anniversary with a brand new 4K restoration!
In a gloomy Victorian village where arranged marriages are the norm, nervous groom-to-be Victor (Johnny Depp) accidentally proposes to the wrong bride—one who happens to be dead. Swept into the underworld by the ghostly and gorgeous Emily (Helena Bonham Carter), Victor finds himself torn between two worlds—one teeming with color, music, and life after death, and another gray and suffocating among the living.
With Danny Elfman’s whimsical score and Burton’s signature gothic romanticism, this modern classic remains one of the director’s most heartfelt creations. Don’t miss the chance to see Corpse Bride it on the big screen!
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Join SAHARA (South Asian Helpline and Referral Agency) for a screening of Designed by Preeti: When the Old Life No Longer Fits, a powerful story about one woman’s journey from abuse to empowerment. This inspiring film sheds light on resilience, healing, and the strength it takes to rebuild life with courage and hope.
Seats are limited – donate today to secure your spot here and stand with survivors on their journey to empowerment.
This event is presented by SAHARA, serving survivors of abuse with compassion and community support.
SAHARA serves survivors of all forms of abuse within the South Asian community in Southern California with culturally sensitive and linguistically specific services.
At SAHARA, we firmly believe that every human being regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, deserves to live a life of dignity and respect.
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Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.
A bloodsucker blast of style and sass, Joel Schumacher’s cult classic The Lost Boys has joined our Halloween week lineup!
In the sleepy town of Santa Carla, brothers Michael and Sam (Jason Patric and Corey Haim) discover the boardwalk nightlife hides more than just roller coasters and neon thrills. Enter a gang of leather-clad, motorcycle-riding vampires led by the magnetic David (Kiefer Sutherland), and suddenly it’s bloodsucking, comic book wisdom, and holy water squirt guns galore.
Dripping with MTV swagger, a killer soundtrack (INXS! Echo & the Bunnymen!), and unforgettable performances from the “two Coreys,” The Lost Boys redefined the teen vampire movie as a sexy, funny, and stylish rollercoaster of horror and humor.
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The Frida Cinema pays tribute to Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur with a shadowy double feature of Cat People and The Leopard Man!
In Cat People, a young woman’s secret obsession with a Balkan curse blurs the line between love, repression, and deadly feline transformation. In The Leopard Man, a small New Mexico town is gripped by terror when an escaped circus cat–or perhaps something far worse–begins claiming victims in the night. Who stalks the darkness: beast or human?
Brimming with moody cinematography, eerie sound design, and suggestive scares, both films exemplify RKO’s golden age of psychological horror. These flicks might not satisfy fans of buckets of gore, but they’ll still stay with you long after you left the theater.
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The 2025 Orange County Latino International Film Festival (OCLIFF) is proud to close its Saturday lineup of short and feature films with writer-director José Paredes’ Entre actores (Amongst Actors), screening Saturday, September 20th at 7:30PM.
Cristobal Dearie and Ale Yáñez star as Rodrigo and Diana, two best friends living in Tijuana, Mexico. When Diana decides to move to Mexico City to further advance her career as an actress, the separation forces Rodrigo to wrestle with the decision to stay silent and support her dreams, or share his true feelings for her.
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Join us at The Frida Cinema for a special matinee screening of Mexican romantic classic Maclovia, presented by Alta Baja Market as part of their Rancho Gordo Encuentro Festival!
On a small Mexican island dwells a group of Indians who live in the traditional manner and who disdain outsiders. The beautiful Maclovia and the poverty-stricken Jose Maria are in love, but her father refuses to allow their marriage, or even any communication between them, due to Jose Maria’s lack of means.
As part of this special event, we will be offering General Admission tickets for $12 and a special Rancho Gordo VIP Lunch ticket that includes a full meal of Rancho Gordo goods from Alta Baja Market + admission to the film for $32!
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.
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Love, Brooklyn is about Brooklynite writer assigned with writing a piece on the borough’s renaissance post-COVID. With his work deadline looming, he bikes around the borough, and at the same navigates the complexities of intertangled relationships in his life, including with: Casey (Nicole Beharie), his gallerist ex-girlfriend whom he is trying to remain friends with and who is dealing with her own professional deadlines; Nicole (DeWanda Wise), his new situationship who is a recent widow and new single mother studying to be a massage therapist; and Alan (Roy Wood Jr.), his best friend who is increasingly interested in cheating on his wife. Like Brooklyn itself, our characters are at moments in their lives where they need to leap forward while also needing to hold onto the pasts that have shaped them.
Premiering at Sundance earlier this year, Love, Brooklyn is a deeply romantic film, focusing on the connections of these characters and how they choose to operate within a changing world, both individually and together. The film’s tone is remarkably lovely in a way that we so rarely get to see from romantic dramas.
The film is the debut feature from filmmaker Rachael Abigail Hodler, and a large part of her intention in achieving this tone was to tell a story of Black people that isn’t seeped in tragedy. As she put it in her director’s statement from the film’s Sundance press notes: “As a filmmaker, I want to tell stories about sensitive Black people who cry and feel, in life not tragic or saccharine… I hope to expand the representation of what it means to be Black and what’s cool about this moment of inclusion in storytelling is that I don’t have to try to represent Blackness as a whole or all Black people. I can be really specific with how I see people, how they love, hide from love and ultimately show up for it. I want to show the soft parts of the people who look like me. I want to show the sensitive bits that show up, not when we are in danger or inferior but when we are in love.”
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This screening is open to Film Club Members only.
To learn more about the Frida Film Club or become a member, click here!
In anticipation of our upcoming run of the new 4K Restoration of visionary French filmmaker Leos Carax’s The Lovers on the Bridge (Sept 12 – 18), we are pleased to treat our Film Club Members with a rare opportunity to experience his 1986 masterpiece Mauvais sang (Bad Blood) on the big screen!
In a near-future Paris, residents are gripped with fear by a mysterious sexually transmitted plague. A dying gangster enlists young thief Alex (Denis Lavant) to steal the serum that could mean humanity’s salvation. Caught between underworld rivalries, the shadow of his late father, and the suffocating weight of expectation, Alex navigates a landscape of danger and deceit that becomes even more complicated when he encounters Anna (Juliette Binoche), the much younger mistress of his employer, sparking a chain of events that threaten both their lives.
A stylish and surreal blend of crime drama, romantic fable, and pop-art cinematic poetry, Carax’s 1986 award-winner is a feverish meditation on love, risk, and mortality that cemented him as one of cinema’s great modern romantics.
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Leos Carax’s delirious saga The Lovers On The Bridge is coming to The Frida Cinema in a brand new 4K restoration!
The story traces the highs and lows of the passionate relationship that develops between a homeless artist (Juliette Binoche) who is losing her sight and a troubled, alcoholic street performer (Denis Lavant) living on Paris’s famed Pont-Neuf bridge. Capturing their romantic abandon with a giddy expressionist energy—especially in a wild dance sequence set against an explosion of fireworks— this whirlwind love story is an exhilarating journey through a relationship that confirmed Carax’s status as one of the leading lights of the post–New Wave French cinema.
This 4K restoration was carried out by TransPerfect Media from the original 35mm film negative and multi tracks. Color grading supervised by Caroline Champetier, sound by Thomas Guader. Project supervised by Sophie Boyer, Jean Pierre Boiget and the StudioCanal team. Digitization and restoration done with the support of the CNC and the participation of Theo Films.
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