According to production notes in AMPAS library files, the project, which took twelve years to complete, began in 1978 when filmmaker Jan Oxenberg received a grant from AFI to make a short film. The funding allowed Oxenberg to make a home movie of her terminally ill grandmother, Mae Joffe, and create an oral history on cassette tape.
       Although the 12 Dec 1984 Var production chart reported a summer 1984 start date on the 16mm film, the film remained in limbo. Nearly three years later, the 11 Nov 1987 Var announced that Dark Horse Films was providing “end money” and supplying creative support to help complete production. Over two years passed before the 14 Apr 1990 The Jersey Journal announced that filming would finally conclude that weekend on the decade-long production, after a two day shoot at the historic Loew’s Jersey Theatre in Jersey City, NJ. Oxenberg had filmed scenes in the ornate lobby ten years earlier, and was grateful that the building was still standing by the end of her project. After receiving a grant in 1980 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Oxenberg had to write the script and complete other projects before she could resume working on the documentary. Raising funds for the independent project created considerable challenges and delays, but the film was finally near completion after funding was procured from the Public Broadcasting Station’s (PBS) American Playhouse series. According to the May 1993 Pulse!, additional funds came from England’s Channel Four Television.
       The picture premiered in Jan 1991 at the Sundance Film Festival. It later screened at several other film festivals in 1991, including Chicago, Denver, Toronto, Boston, and at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, where it won “Best Documentary Feature” for lesbian filmmaker, Oxenberg, as announced in the 4 Jul 1991 Bay Area Reporter.
       The 20 Jan 1992 Var announced an “exclusive limited engagement” release on 29 Jan 1992 at New York City’s Film Forum 1.
       On 10 Feb 1992, LAT reported an 11 Feb 1992 screening to be held at the University of California Los Angeles’s (UCLA) Melnitz Theater, as part of the UCLA Film Archive and Independent Feature Project/West series.
       The 6 Mar 1992 LAT announced that day’s West Coast theatrical release at Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex in Santa Monica, CA.
       End credits include the following acknowledgements: “Special Thanks to Jeanne LaBerge, Lynn Holst, Rose Weber, Sally Heckel, Brenda Goodman”; “And Thanks to: Herman Abrahms, James Biberi, Judith Cummings, Robert Grillo, Selma Levenson, Perry Levinson, Sheila Mart, Fortunata Martin, Dorothy Mesney, Marilyn Monaco, John Nacco, Jackie Russ, Philip Sung, Tom Trankle.” Additional acknowledgements include: “Special Thanks to: Irwin Young, Dan Pietragallo, Iris Cahn, John Pierson, Terry Lawler, Janet Cole, Cecilia Roque, Roberta Friedman, Sandra Schulberg, Gilda Zwerman, Athena Alonge, Flory Barnett, Dixie Beckham, Stellar Bennet, Fred Berner, Marjorie Cantor, Ira Deutchman, Lenore DeKoven, Rose Dobroff, Lynn Doherty, Simon Egelton, Bruce Feinberg, Sara Fishko, Stephen Gang, Carmen Goodyear, Janet Grillo, Lynda Hansen, Perrin Ireland, David Joffe, Phyllis Joffe, Marc Kaminsky, Paul Killian, Ruth Landy, Robert Luttrell, Bob Mastronardi, Kay Maunsbach, Kathy Neville, Bill Nisselson, Bill Oliver, Neil Pilzer, Jane Pipik, Dennis Rieff, B. Ruby Rich, Sherry Rogers, Greta Schiller, Ellen Schneider, Rhea Schnurman, Rudd Simmons, Vickie Traub, Roberta Lynn Tross, Barbara Ulrich, Nondas Voll; and to: Miriam Bishop, Carissa Carroll, David Carroll, Elliott Crown, Ted Dunson, Jose Evangelista, Leah Ganz, Susan Gosdick, Ruth Gotheimer, Karen Hamilton, Gary Henderson, L.R. & Nathaniel Hults, Florence Kastriner, Jared Kastriner, Alice Katz, Ellen Klein, Rhiannon Kressler, Raphael Leaderman, Lila Lewis, Fred Nash, Jean Ngpk, Mary Schaefer, Joseph Scott, Stanley Seidman, Mari Share, Hershey Snyder, Maria Speigler, Emanuel Spencer, Bill Tari, Bresci Thompson, Paul Treatman, Gloria Vernack, Jeff Wax, Gracie Wright, Norma Zahrn, Nellie Zastawana.” Special acknowledgements include: “Town of Hempstead Housing Authority; Westover Gardens Residential Community, Ronnie Lawrence, Executive Director, the residents of Westover Gardens; the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; the Lincoln Tunnel, Richard Kodora, Construction Coordinator, Irene Golinski, Principle Administrative Assistant; the town of Elmont, New York, the Elmont, New York Volunteer Fire Department; the Jersey City Center for the Performing Arts, Inc., Colin Egan, Board of Directors, the Honorable Gerald McCann, Mayor of Jersey City; the New York State Department of Labor, Thomas McDonald; Daughters of Jacoby Geriatric Center; the New York City Mayor’s Office for Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, Jaynne C. Keyes, Director; The Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development, Mario C. Cuomo, Governor; TVC Film Labs, Roseanne Shaeffer, Bernie Cooper; Ralph Donelly, City Cinemas; Cinergy Communications Corp., Patricia Kranish, Al Wertheimer; Sound Dimensions, Bernie Hadjenberg, Brian Langman; the Independent Feature Project, Karen Arikian; Frankfurt, Garbus, Klein & Selz, Tom Selz; blowup by DuArt, Richard Skeete.” Final end credit acknowledgements include: “Produced in association with American Playhouse and P.O.V. with funds from Public Television Stations; the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies; and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding provided by: Channel Four Television; the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts; the Jerome Foundation; the American Film Institute; the New York Foundation for the Arts; the Film Fund Women’s Project; the Astraea Foundation; Original Cinema; and by: Irene Gould, Vivian Shapiro, Tracy O’Kates, Marilyn Lamkay, Jeanne Laberge, Shirley Eaton, Eleanor and Arthur Chernick, Phyllis and Seymour Joffe, Helen Oxenberg, Arthur Oxenberg.” Credits conclude with: “For my friend Vito Russo, 1946-1990.”