Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Frida Kahlo’s Childhood Comes to a 99-Seat Screen East of Pasadena

Sierra Madre Playhouse will show the 2024 animated film Hola Frida! on September 12 for $15, and reviewers say the polio scenes may unsettle the youngest viewers

Long before the self-portraits, Frida Kahlo was a girl in Coyoacán who climbed trees, befriended a neighborhood dog, and then got polio.

That girl is the whole subject of Hola Frida!, an 82-minute animated feature coming to the Sierra Madre Playhouse on Saturday, September 12, at 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $15. The film stops well before the bus crash and the paintings that made Kahlo famous.

Sierra Madre is a separate incorporated city on Pasadena’s eastern edge, and the Playhouse says its seasons draw audiences from Sierra Madre, Pasadena, Altadena, Arcadia and across Greater Los Angeles. Riders can reach it from the Metro A Line’s Sierra Madre Villa Station by transferring to the Metro 268 bus.

Karine Vézina and André Kadi directed the 2024 film, adapted from Frida, c’est moi, the picture book by Sophie Faucher with illustrations by Cara Carmina. The story follows Kahlo through illness and physical limitation and turns on how she uses imagination and art to reclaim her voice and her body, according to the Playhouse. It moves through her discovery of color, nature and self-expression, and its themes are difference, creativity and hope.

The New York International Children’s Film Festival has written that “this biopic frames freedom, feminism, and the zeitgeist of 20th century Mexico” through the eyes of a young girl. 

Sierra Madre Playhouse, which announced the screening August 10, bills the film as family-friendly and suitable for viewers 7 and up. The children’s film festival sets the recommendation at 6 and up.

The film dramatizes Kahlo’s childhood polio. Common Sense Media’s advisory cites “a few scary moments when young Frida is very ill with polio”, including a scene in which the girl meets a figure of Death. The film carries no MPA rating, according to the parents’ guide Kids-In-Mind. 

Two versions circulate. Variety reported of the American theatrical release that “The film hits theaters in a Spanglish dub” — mostly English, with Spanish phrases retained — while the festival run used a Spanish-language track. 

The screening is one of 90 programs in the Playhouse’s 2026 season, which the organization calls Small Stage, Big World and which spans theater, music, dance, film, comedy and family programming. In a statement issued with the season announcement, Artistic and Executive Director Matthew Cook said audiences crave both belonging and discovery, “Sierra Madre Playhouse offers both.” 

The 99-seat theater has presented entertainment for more than a century in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, behind a movie-house façade and its original marquee. County records date the building to 1910, when it opened as a furniture store. It became a movie house in 1924, and Sierra Madre designated it a Historic Landmark in 2024.

Hola Frida! screens at 87 West Sierra Madre Boulevard, Sierra Madre, CA 91024. Doors open one hour before the performance, and the box office opens 30 minutes before curtain. Free public lots sit behind the theater and along Sierra Madre Boulevard, and close at midnight. Tickets are available at sierramadreplayhouse.org or by calling (626) 355-4318 and pressing 2, which is also the line for arranging wheelchair-accessible seating. Walk-up sales are accepted subject to availability. Teenagers 13 to 19 with a TeenTix pass pay $5. Children under 3 may sit on a lap without a ticket.

The film ends before any of it — before the bus, before the world learned her face. In Coyoacán, the girl is still climbing trees.

NEED TO KNOW

Sierra Madre Playhouse screens Hola Frida!, the 2024 animated feature about Frida Kahlo’s childhood, on Saturday, September 12, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. Admission is $15, with $5 tickets for teenagers ages 13 to 19 holding a TeenTix pass; children under 3 may sit on a lap without a ticket, and walk-up sales are accepted subject to availability. The screening takes place at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 West Sierra Madre Boulevard, Sierra Madre, CA 91024. Parking is free in the public lots behind the theater and along Sierra Madre Boulevard, which close at midnight, and on surrounding streets; limited metered spaces are available near Baldwin Avenue. Doors open one hour before the performance and the box office opens 30 minutes before curtain. For more, call (626) 355-4318 or visit sierramadreplayhouse.org.

TICKET LINK: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=306831
EVENT PAGE: https://www.sierramadreplayhouse.org/event/frida2026