The film was screened in public for the firs time in 2012 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Due to a variety of problems (cast and crew were harassed by police during La Jolla CA location filming in May 1968; Andy Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanis less than a month later), this film was (by all reports) never completed and certainly never released commercially. It was screened in public for the first time only in 2012.
The La Jolla police were constantly harassing Warhol and his entourage during the filming. Viva was frequently stopped by the police. Taylor Mead remembered that on one occasion, Warhol dropped a handful of pills into the dirt as a police arrived to check out what they were doing.
Andy Warhol filmed the movie in May of 1968 in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla, California. The shoot lasted almost three weeks.
According to Joe Dallesandro, the cast was not really aware of what they would be shooting when they arrived in California, but one idea was that they should continue with the Romeo and Juliet theme that was originally suggested for "Lonesome Cowboys," particularly because the cast was very much the same.