Let The Record Show

SCREENING REQUEST FORM

LET THE RECORD SHOW is the only feature documentary dedicated entirely to the artist led response to the AIDS crisis and the radical art movement that emerged from it. When government leaders, the media, and medical institutions failed to respond, New York City’s art community took action, transforming grief and rage into a new visual and performative language of resistance.

Through rare archival footage and first person accounts, the film brings together many of the most influential artists and activists of the era, figures whose work defined AIDS art activism and permanently altered the relationship between art, protest, and public life. Performers, filmmakers, photographers, playwrights, and visual artists recount how their work moved beyond galleries and theaters into the streets, demanding visibility, accountability, and change.

From confrontational performances and mass distributed graphics to enduring symbols like the red ribbon, these artists created cultural interventions that forced a global reckoning. Set within the lost bohemia of downtown New York, LET THE RECORD SHOW is both a historical record and a collective portrait of a movement that proved art could be a tool for survival and a catalyst for saving lives.

Format: Feature Documentary

Status: Original Release 2014 | Expanded Edition in Development

Director: Demetrëa Dewald

Producers: Rebekah Dewald, Matthew Principe

Cinematographer: Michael Woody Lipschutz

Editor: Demetrëa Dewald, Blaise Basara

Participants: Alexander Gray, Allen Frame, Avram Finkelstein, Cee Scott Brown, Charles Busch, Donna Ann McAdams, Drew Hodges, Frank Franka, Harvey Weiss, Hunter Reynolds, Jerry Tartaglia, John Kelly, Justin Vivian Bond, Karen Finley, Larry Kramer, Mark Happel, Michael Hunt Stolbach, Patrick O’Connell, Penny Arcade, Philip Yenawine, Richard Elovich, Rodger McFarlane, Sarah Schulman, Stephanie Kaye, Sur Rodney Sur, Tom Viola

The Expanded Edition

LET THE RECORD SHOW returns as an expanded edition that recognizes the film itself as a historical document, one that now requires preservation, contextualization, and continued public access.

Created in 2007, LET THE RECORD SHOW was conceived as a historical record from the outset, preserving firsthand accounts of an artist led movement already at risk of erasure. In the years since the film was completed, multiple participants have been lost, and the testimonies captured within the film have taken on even greater significance as primary source material for future generations.

The expanded edition brings forward newly restored archival material, extended and previously unseen interviews, and a refined narrative structure shaped by years of academic engagement, public screenings, and classroom use. Together, these additions position LET THE RECORD SHOW not only as a film, but as an evolving educational and archival resource.

Newly restored and expanded archival material
Additional interviews and extended conversations
Integrated educational and archival components

Educational Impact and Archival Significance

Since its release, LET THE RECORD SHOW has been incorporated into academic and cultural institutions as a teaching and research resource. The film has been screened and taught at universities, museums, and community organizations as part of coursework and public programming focused on AIDS history, visual culture, activist practice, and the role of artists in public health advocacy.

Previous Screenings

Universities (Screened & Taught)

Rice University
Humanities Research Center
Course screening and discussion
(Melissa Bailar, PhD)
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
Screened and taught in 2016, 2019, and 2023
(Marshall Price, PhD)
University of Manchester
Course: The AIDS Crisis: American Culture & Representation
(Professor Dr. Monica Pearl)
Columbia College Chicago
Queer Literature and LGBTQ Studies courses
(Professor Ames Hawkins, PhD)

Museums & Galleries

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Screened in conjunction with Guise and Dolls: Mapplethorpe / Warhol exhibition (2015)
Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art
Public screening and educational programming (2015)
Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center
Screening and artist-centered discussion (2015)

Conferences, Public Programs & Broadcast

Southwest Alternate Media Project
10th Anniversary Conference
(Demetrëa Dewald, featured panelist)
Albuquerque Pride Fest (2016)
HEGOAK Elkartea
Second Meeting on HIV Visibility (Spain, 2016)
Houston Media Source
Public Access broadcast (2023, 2024)

“This was one of the most educational pieces I have ever seen regarding the AIDS crisis. I am a queer kid who has taken LGBTQ history classes, but nothing has ever painted such a clear picture of what the times were really like.”

— Julia Gagliardo, student

“I know about ACT UP and Visual AIDS, but the way this history is usually taught made me believe everyone involved was long gone. Seeing that there are survivors — and that they get to tell their own story — was incredibly powerful.”

— Jerakah Greene, student

A few years ago, I had the fortune of watching the amazing documentary "Let the record show" on a film festival here in Barcelona. I was very moved by the story told, as well as the exercise of understanding many lives who struggled and fought in the middle of the AIDS crisis. Congratulations on such amazing work to rethink illness and memory.

— Diego Falconí Trávez Profesor Asociado