We Were Here

They were there when all their friends were dying. They were the lovers, friends, co-workers, and counselors of the stricken, or even the stricken themselves. They survived the HIV/AIDS scourge of the 1980s, and they lived to tell about it. WE WERE HERE is a hugely affecting piece of filmmaking. Five individuals, all of whom lived in San Francisco prior to the epidemic, relate their harrowing experiences on the front lines. In the late 70s the city was a hotbed of sexual freedom and social experimentation. Soon, of course, mass tragedy struck. With thousands dying of the mysterious “gay plague,” the queer community huddled together to shelter and comfort their own. The interviewees' stories are not only intensely personal, but also illuminate the much larger themes of that era: the political and sexual complexities, the terrible emotional toll, the role of women – particularly lesbians – in caring for and fighting for their gay brothers. Archival imagery conveys a sense of San Francisco in the pre-AIDS years and a very visceral sense of the horrors of the disease itself. –B.B.