Film nerds rejoice at The Frida Cinema trivia nights

During the last Tuesday of every month, residents around Orange County gather in groups of up to six at The Frida Cinema to participate in five rounds of film trivia. Photos by NICHOLAS DE LUCCA, assistant features & entertainment editor

Whether it be a track star at the Olympics or a movie buff at trivia night, it’s important to stay loose and lumber to yield peak performance. That’s why approximately halfway through five rounds of movie trivia, the Orange County film nerds participating in trivia night at The Frida Cinema get out of their seats and stretch to the music of classic films, from the theme of “Jurassic Park” or Cantina Band in “Star Wars.”

Atalia Lopez (left), a Chapman adjunct professor, and Ashley Alegre (right), an OC local, host the trivia nights.

The fourth round stretch is just one of the many facets of trivia night implemented by hosts Atalia Lopez, a Chapman adjunct professor in the First Year Foundations (FFC) department, and Ashley Alegre, an Orange County local. The duo not only brings their charisma to each event, but they told The Panther they create the presentation slides, write the 50 trivia questions and create new rounds based on the upcoming films screened at The Frida Cinema each month.

While these tasks require Lopez and Alegre to dip deep into their film knowledge, the tradition allows their long standing friendship to flourish. 

“Doing anything with your best friends makes it easy,” Alegre said. “We love it. This is the highlight of our month. We get to talk about movies and think about movies.”

Every last Tuesday of the month, The Frida Cinema, a non-profit art-house theater located in Santa Ana, hosts a free trivia night open to the public. Teams of up to six participants will compete through five rounds of film trivia along with a sixth bonus round. First place winners receive prizes such as movie tickets or free concession snacks. 

On Oct. 25, Fountain Valley caretaker Alex Luu and his five friends from high school theater class took home first prize in a special horror-movie themed trivia night. Although the group has trouble connecting for Tuesday nights due to their jobs, they made sure to reconnect for horror trivia — one year after placing first in the 2021 horror trivia. 

“(During the COVID-19 pandemic), we started doing trivia at home every single Saturday,” Luu said. “When the pandemic was over and The Frida opened up again (in 2021), their first trivia night was horror trivia, so we went and placed first. It’s hard to get everyone back together but we were like ‘Hey, it’s October, let’s do it again.’”

The group settled on the group name “Da Homies” after they all attended an opening night screening of “The Woman King.” As the film’s star Viola Davis screamed her war-cry “We are Dahomey,” Luu’s entire opening night crowd would scream back “We are da homies!” 

On Oct. 25, Fountain Valley caretaker Alex Luu (middle) and his four friends from high school theater class took home first prize in a special horror-movie themed trivia night.

Da Homies breezed through categories relating to horror film scores, friendly horror movies and a special category presented by members of HorrorBuzz, which revolved around the films shown at their horror festivals. 

Although it takes a true group of film buffs to dominate the competition, Lopez and Alegre enjoy throwing in a round of “Poo-Pourri” which focuses on the films that were box office flops or weren’t received well by critics. Some answers during horror included “Slender Man,” “House of Wax” and “Chopping Mall.”

“My favorite thing about (trivia night) is that (the participants) never know what the next round is going to be and how it’s going to completely throw everything off,” Alegre said. “Someone might be doing incredible because they know all the deep cuts and then they’re hit with a Poo-Pourri and it’s Jean-Claude Van Damme movies. 

Prior to first hosting in April of 2022, Lopez and Alegre were participants on a team called "The Rose Buddies" — a nod to “Citizen Kane,” which revolves around the quest to determine why publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane’s dying words were “Rose Bud.” The two met at a film class at Santiago Canyon Community College in 2008 and bonded over their love of film. 

Lopez currently teaches in the FFC department at Chapman, which is how she sparked a relationship with The Frida. After attempting to screen her students’ films at the residence hall lobbies, she faced hurdles such as missing remotes and broken volume. 

She reached out to The Frida Cinema, who agreed to screen her student’s films like a mini film festival. 

“When I reached out to The Frida they said, ‘Yeah, we’ll run a mini Film Festival and your students can come here and watch a movie the way it was meant to be seen, which is in a dark room with a bunch of people,’” Lopez said. “It really changed the quality of the experience for the students because they get to see a movie with their peers and get out of The Circle … We’re five miles away here, and I feel like so few Chapman students break out of the Orange Bubble.”

Lopez would go on to become a board member at The Frida and proposed taking on hosting duties last April. Since then, her and Alegre have tripled participation. 

“I think that we’ve done a good job of putting our joy into it,” Alegre said. “We ask for improvement from the people who are regulars and ask them what would be fun.”

The next round of trivia will take place on Nov. 29. In December, The Frida will be hosting an all-stars round of trivia where the winning teams from throughout 2022 will be invited back to determine the true film trivia champions.

The winning group will be able to pick a film that will be screened at The Frida. Lopez said if she were the winner, she would pick "A Goofy Movie," while Alegre would pick either “The Holy Mountain” or “The Sister Act 2.”

Although Da Homies might have trouble clearing up Tuesday nights, Luu said they’ll work on making the time to come back for more trivia nights. Either way, Luu, who has attended movies at The Frida for over a decade, said he’ll be back for The Frida’s screenings of classic films. He claims the atmosphere of The Frida is what keeps him coming back time and time again.

“My problem with a lot of theaters is that you just go in, watch a movie and leave,” Luu said. “When you come to The Frida, you know the crowd is really there to enjoy the film. It’s a bunch of people who love movies, and I think that’s really hard to come by.” 
Visit The Frida’s calendar to register your group of six for the next trivia night and check out the upcoming films being screened throughout the month.