We Were Here

This U.S. documentary chronicles the severe effect of AIDS on San Francisco 's gay community from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.

The main structure of this film is interviews with four gay men and a lesbian who lived in San Francisco during the tumultuous period. One of the interviewees is HIV positive. All interviewees are very likeable and eloquent. There are moments of fighting back tears while recalling sad times. These moments were very genuine and did not seem manipulative by the filmmakers.

The recollections begin in the 1970s when sexual liberation brought many gay people to San Francisco . It continues with the disease of AIDS when its causes were unknown, the onslaught of illnesses and deaths, the changes within the community along with the prejudices of the extreme right, and a new activism followed by drug cocktails that could prolong lives of those living with HIV.

This documentary is blessed with great footage. There were several photographs and archived film footage of the past including those of the interviewees at much younger ages. This footage also included details of skin lesions and extreme thinness of AIDS patients before they died. A before-and-after image of a man who was vibrant and muscular before the disease is shocking as is a San Francisco magazine that listed several pages of photographs of those who died of AIDS in one particular year in the 1980s.

The film is not all grim despite its content. The interviewees show lightness and humour when appropriate. While the occurrence of AIDS deaths has significantly decreased since the 1990s, this film is a solid reminder of a very dark period in recent history. The bad memories return quickly. - dbamateurcritic

I saw this film as part of the Ghent filmfestival 2011. At the time of this story (the 80's) the AIDS epidemic was something we read about in newspapers and magazines, at a safe distance so to speak. What I remember most was the long time it took before the underlying causes became clear. There were several theories at first, because no one could find a common denominator for two target groups that suffered most: hard drugs addicts and homosexuals. Nowadays, it is easy for us to see the connection as being obvious.

What we easily overlooked at that time was the impact it had on people that were hit, in combination with the hopelessness of their situation in the absence of a cure. Two quotes I can't wipe from my mind: [1] "Can't go on like this" at a moment that many friends and acquaintances died, without any effective remedy in sight. And quote [2] "Don't want to come out of this war like my father came out of the war he fought in", as if wondering how the world would be after this bad interval was over, and whether residual trauma's were to be expected. Not only quotes like these, but also the honest stories told by survivors that were interviewed, certainly left an impression on us.

All in all, I could do nothing more than giving the maximum score (5 out of 5) for the audience award when leaving the theater. We saw a very comprehensive overview of how people (re)acted on the disease, presented by all sorts of people involved. It also makes us think about possible new diseases that may befall on us. For example bird flu (H5N1) springs to mind, due to a recent publication about related work in Rotterdam (NL). While imagining that such a virus breaks loose, either this one or a new one for that matter, it is difficult to suppress post-apocalyptic visions about what may happen.

I didn't know my eyes could produce this many tears. It's the most effective talking-heads documentary I've ever seen. Forget the cloying trash that they make today about the AIDS epidemic. This is the real deal.

Beautiful documentary gamely attempts to tread through the chaotic AIDS crisis of the 1980s using only a handful of survivors as commentators. Co-directors David Weissman and Bill Weber pull it off, however, and "We Were Here" is surprisingly absorbing and moving as a result. The celebration of sexual freedom for homosexual men in the 1970s ground to a halt at the end of the decade by what was initially being referred to on the street as the Gay Cancer. These wonderful men who survived to tell their individual, intimate stories are marvelous to listen to, painting a portrait of an era that was, by turns, frightening and challenging, yet one that brought out a number of true heroes. ***1/2 from ****

The AIDS Epidemic first reached San Francisco and its vibrant gay community in the late 1970s. A mystery to doctors, both in form and how it was being transmitted, the disease that would come to be termed the 'gay plague' spread rapidly. By the start of the 1980s, men were rapidly presenting with symptoms of both Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia. With treatments having little effect, nothing could be done but to help them die.

Weissman and Weber's 'We Were Here' is not an exploration of the impact of the AIDS epidemic per se, but of a chapter in American social history. Do not expect any reflection on the ongoing African epidemic for example, the focus is the effect on individuals and the community in San Francisco that went beyond that simply of illness and death. How does one retain moral strength when friends and loved ones are dying of an illness that is not only untreatable, but for a long time, simply unknown? In as much, the directors should be commended for finding a cast of people both so involved in the crisis, yet affected in such different ways by the devastation wrought. The inclusion of a lesbian nurse who worked in the city's first specific-AIDS ward and later helped organize a number of clinical trials is a notable touch given the hostility between the gay and lesbian communities at the time. The manner in which the epidemic brought the two communities together, with lesbians holding blood banks to exploit their immunity, is one of the film's most tender and poignant moments.

Ultimately, what all the voices share are lives so deeply intertwined with the period that it is impossible not to get emotional listening to their recounting. Given the added context of the isolation and ostracision of the gay community during the period, one's admiration for the strength and perseverance shown by the men and women (one of whom is indeed HIV-positive) cannot be overstated.

Do not fear a kitsch, overly-sentimental eulogy to those who died. 'We Were Here' is as much about life-affirmation as it is death. The many who died would be proud to see how their loved ones have managed to move on and enjoy fulfilling lives, without ever forgetting them.

Concluding Thought: How to even begin to comprehend life as a homosexual in San Francisco at the time? The interviewees do their best to describe it, but I think even they know there are limits to what they can put across in words.