Please Hold

Twice in Alexandra Juhasz’s life (once in the early 1990s and once in the early 2020s), very different friends have asked her to record them on their deathbeds. Jim, a gay, white, male go-go dancer, died painfully of AIDS at age 29 before treatment medications were widely available. Juanita, a Black, disabled, queer feminist media activist, died in 2022 on her own terms, in her sixties, largely due to inequities in the American healthcare system and COVID-19. Please Hold is a bold, personal documentary engaging with decades of activist media and the wisdom of many living AIDS workers to assemble connections between the legacy of Juhasz’s two friends. 

A celebration of the life and legacy of AIDS activists and collaborators is created through archival footage—captured on formats ranging from VHS and hi-8 to iPhone and Zoom—resulting in a meditation on media, format, technology, disability, and healthcare. Juhasz has had a long, impressive career as an activist, author, media artist, and as the producer of the landmark film The Watermelon Woman (1997); this powerful, singular, and vital film could only have been made by her. In English with English subtitles. (71 mins., DCP)

Supported by a 2024 Film/Video Studio residency.

See the entire Picture Lock lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
Please Hold, courtesy of the artist.