Frida Kahlo - the Exhibition on Screen movie comes to Littlehampton

Frida Kahlo Exhibition on Screen movie poster

A Frida Kahlo movie is showing at the Windmill in Littlehampton on June 2, 2026: Frida Kahlo Exhibition on Screen.

Who is/was Frida Kahlo?

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist whose self portraits are currently very in vogue (despite having died in 1954) - full name Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón. 

Mexico is, of course, Spanish speaking, and my view on language learning is that culture is important to help us understand the language. As well, of course, as making the language and learning fun.

Her art is bold, folksy,, attractive, colourful. But it also examines some pretty serious issues: gender, class, race, colonialism. Kahlo was a member of the Mexican communist party. In the West, we tend to think ‘Russia’-type communism, but in Latin America, although with links to the Soviets, the fight was far more about equality. In Kahlo’s time, there was extreme wealth and extreme poverty, with few ways out of poverty and a teensy middle class.

Kahlo’s other claims to fame include having been married to famous artist Diego Rivera and having been friends with the revolutionary Che Guevara, so it’s unsurprising that people read politics into her art. And her 1940 self portrait, El Sueño (La Cama) - which translates as The Dream (Bed), apparently holds the record for the most expensive work by a female artist ever auctioned, at $54.7 million. Unfortunately this was in November 2025, so Kahlo, like so many famous artists, didn’t benefit in her lifetime.

About Exhibition on Screen

Trailer for Frida Kahlo Exhibition on Screen.

Exhibition on Screen takes a journey through Kahlo’s life, her art, her rebellion, her passions and her fascinating, turbulent life.

Latest technology to deliver a modern quality film, using Kahlo’s own letters to delve into her emotions and the symbolism in her art. There are interviews with world experts, access to her works, home and studio. Her creativity, and unmatched lust for life, beauty and revolution are looked at - as well as her resilience.

Kahlo contracted polio aged 6, which left her right leg thinner and weaker than the other. Then at 18, she was in a bus accident which broke her spine, collarbone, ribs, pelvis and leg - and a metal handrail pierced her abdomen and pelvis. Throughout her life she had numerous surgeries, experienced mobility issues, and at times was confined to her bed - she is known to have worn corsets and braces, and used crutches and a wheelchair when she was older.

Her relationship with Rivera was both passionate and explosive.

Lots there to make this fascinating.

I haven’t seen it yet, but the film is in English, but expect Latin American Spanish backdrops.

(There is, incidentally, also an exhibition currently on at The Tate, in London: Frida, The Making of an Icon).

About The Windmill

Windmill Cinema: Windmill Rd, Littlehampton BN17 5LH

The Windmill Cinema in Littlehampton didn’t start life as a cinema at all. According to the Theatres Trust it was built as a shelter pavillion and bandstand, gifted by the Duke of Norfolk in 1912. By 1927, the fashion was for indoor entertainment and it was converted to a theatre.

This is turn was refurbished in the late 1960s and renamed the Western Pavillion. And again in 1973 when it became the Windmill Theatre - with a bar and a windmill ‘sail’ added. But in 1989, film projection equipment was installed, and theatre now also had a cinema. With other cinemas closing, it became the town’s only cinema, so when it closed in 2013, there was an outcry.

In true Littlehampton community style, the closure lasted just ove a year: A public campaign successfully raised funds for a digital projection system, and in February 2014, it was back open as a full time cinema.

Almost a decade later, it seemed to be facing closure again, when the adjoining Harvester restaurant caught light and was burned to the ground. The Windmill, however, lived on, and remains today a cinema and theatre with a full programme of events.

Tickets to Exhibition on Screen

Exhibition on Screen is showing: Tuesday 2 Jun 2026, 7:30pm  - ends at 9:10pm

Practise your Spanish

I found this little film online about Kahlo in Spanish. I’d put the video’s level at intermediate/advanced.

It costs nothing to try!

The Kahlo story in Spanish.