"Frida," an award-winning documentary providing an intimate exploration of iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo's life, is now available on Amazon's streaming platform, Prime Video.
Directed by Peruvian filmmaker Carla Gutiérrez, the film offers an unprecedented look into Kahlo's mind and heart, spanning over four decades of her life. An outstanding feature, in comparison to other work about her, is that her story is completely told through her own words.
The film guides the viewer through the experiences of the legendary artist but from her own perspective, using as a platform thoughts documented in her diary, printed interviews, essays, and numerous letters she sent to her loved ones.
'Frida' explores the life of the influential artist from her formative years in Coyoacán, Mexico City, to her turbulent partnership with the renowned muralist Diego Rivera.
It also covers her time spent in cities like New York and Detroit, as well as her affair with the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky following his escape from the Soviet Republic.
Additionally, it delves into her perspectives and philosophies in confronting the myriad challenges and traumas that shaped her existence, encompassing her injuries from the 1925 traumatic accident to her complex relationship with Rivera, as well as her political and sexual struggles.
Frida Kahlo's art has transfixed and connected with audiences for decades. Her art is intimate, raw, intense, vibrant, and sometimes very painful," Gutiérrez said in a video for the Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered and won the U.S. Documentary Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award.
"Ultimately, this film is about someone who couldn't hold back her voice. Her emotions really bled into her canvases, and I hope that this film brings her closer to you," she added.
Gutiérrez said she is proud to have been able to work on a documentary about Kahlo's life, especially as her art touched her from a very young age.
"I first saw a Frida Kahlo painting when I was 19. The painting was called 'Borderline,' and it depicted Frida between the border of the USA and Mexico. As a recent immigrant from Latin America, I saw myself reflected in that painting, desperately missing home and navigating a new world," she said in an interview.
She continued: "As I've matured, I've continued to see my own experiences and emotions expressed in Frida's intimate art. Her paintings have been a refuge for my feelings, as they have been for the many people around the world who connect with her art and her story."
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