What does it mean to hold the legacy of beloveds on changing formats?
Please Hold
An experimental documentary engaging with decades of DIY activist media, two death bed/legacy videos, and the wisdom of many living AIDS workers, as we all sit together in one (changing) format, video—VHS, hi-8, digital, Zoom—to address these and other questions:
How do neighborhoods, sweaters and scarves, videotapes and queer bars hold ghosts?
How do we let them go?
Watch the trailer
How do mourning and memory change across time and tech?
Technologies of Memory
Installation
An activation of AIDS histories, memories, and futures through situated archival research with close attention to medium specificity.
Stills
A collection of memories taken from and held within the videotape Please Hold and its worldly life.
Videos
The original activist legacy tapes, made in collaboration, and on the request of Juanita and Jim.
Resources
Digital collections of AIDS media, history, memorials, and culture.
Interviews
Interviews with contemporary AIDS workers, Ted Kerr, Marty Fink, Pato Hebert, and Jih-Fei Cheng
Viewing and Discussion
Viewing
An invitation to approach Please Hold with the time and space you need to attend to its commitments to community, conversation, legacy, and mourning.
Engagement
Please Hold is an extended conversation. Join us!
Alexandra Juhasz
Matt Hittle
Paul Hill
James Robert Lamb
Pato Hebert
Henry & Juanita
Parkside Lounge
Brief Bios
Crew
Alexandra Juhasz is Distinguished Professor of the Film at Brooklyn College, CUNY. She makes and studies committed media practices that contribute to political change and individual and community growth.
Matt Hittle is a video editor and artist based in Indianapolis. He holds a B.A. in Film Production from Brooklyn College, City University of New York (2020).
Paul Hill is an award-winning filmmaker, editor, and sound mixer. He joined the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Studio in 1996, where has worked on hundreds of projects.
Cast
James Robert Lamb (1963-1993) was a member of Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company in the late 80s and early 90s.
Juanita Mohammed Szczepanski (1957–2022) was a prolific AIDS activist videomaker and an active member of WAVE, The Women’s AIDS Video Enterprise, in 1989.
Jih-Fei Cheng is Associate Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Scripps College, a media and arts organizer, and former HIV/AIDS social service provider.
Marty Fink is the author of Forget Burial: HIV Kinship, Disability, and Queer/Trans Narratives of Care, bringing together HIV narratives past and present toward prison abolition, trans activism, and a free Palestine.
Pato Hebert is an artist, teacher, and organizer living with Long COVID.
Theodore (Ted) Kerr is a writer, organizer, and founding member of What Would an HIV Doula Do?
Juanita Mohammed Szczepanski
Jih-Fei Cheng
Marty Fink
Theodore (Ted) Kerr
Elizabeth Koke
Christeene