Of all the very worthy fundraising campaigns there are on Kickstarter, this one ranks way up there. Nearly halfway to his goal of $53,000, filmmaker Alfredo Salcedo has already, for the last year, been hard at work on There Was Magic, a documentary guaranteed to pull at your heartstrings — and hopefully wallet.

Held in 1986, at the panicky beginning of the AIDS crisis, a fashion show called AIDS Project Los Angeles’ Commitment to Life brought out the best and the brightest from fashion and Hollywood, two of the communities hit hardest by the disease. In many ways, the movement to research and prevent HIV/AIDS got its start here. In that year and the following nine years, models and designers — Thierry Mugler, Cindy Crawford, Lypsinka, Geoffrey Beene, Bob Mackie, Naomi Campbell, Gianni Versace, Calvin Klein — came together to support the cause with a high-energy, high-wattage runway show.

Afonso Salcedo, who hails from Pixar and Dreamworks, says, “After reading Heavenly Bodies: Remembering Hollywood and Fashion’s Favorite AIDS Benefit, written by Michael Anketell, who founded the event in 1986, I became enormously interested in the back story of all ten shows — how they came to be and the incredible talent that supported them…There Was Magic will provide a nostalgic, moving and entertaining look back at some of the most breathtaking and ambitious fashion shows ever mounted — magical moments in time caught on film and not seen since they were live shows.”

Visit There Was Magic on Kickstarter