The earliest public screening took place at the Goethe-Institut in Montreal on October 24, 1989, as part of the Montreal World Film Festival. It had three screenings from May 57 at the 1990 San Francisco International Film Festival, marking its premiere in the United States. It also premiered later that year in New York at the Museum of Modern Art, on October 22 with Merhige introducing the film, followed by a post-screening discussion with the audience. New York City's Film Forum would also screen the film on June 5, 1991. It was exhibited at the Stadtkino Theater in Vienna in 1992, as a part of a retrospective of American independent cinema titled "Unknown Territories".