We Were Here

This is a really fine piece of work.

The BBC screened it on BBC4 in Febrary 2012 and made it available via i-Player also.

Anyone who lived in the Bay Area during the eighties will be moved, informed and educated by this documentary. As a young gay geek in San Francisco in those years, I was overwhelmed by the deaths and suffering I saw and often could not make sense of it. This documentary really helps.

The tales of the attacks on civil liberties by the bigots, and the personal tales were emotive and powerful.

Now I salute those survivors and hope their stories will stimulate others in future onslaughts.

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 ****

An amazing work. I just saw this with a friend who was too young to really remember what was going on in the late 80's and 90's. We both cried throughout the film, a good thing. It was a healing response for me, having lost too many friends and acquaintances. I am plenty grateful for this opportunity to hear the "survivors'" share in hindsight with such clarity. I knew what was going on in San Francisco proper through others' experiences, but nothing nearly as comprehensive as this film. My experience was in the military and my friends' being sent home when they tested positive ('86-'88), which was a death sentence at that time and then in the Montrose in Houston after the military. Thank you so very much for making this difficult but vital film. It will stand as a powerful reminder of what was and teach generations to come.

I was 18 years old when I went to Greenwich Village in 1985 to attend school at NYU. Before that, I had never been acquainted with the gay community and only knew closeted and frustrated gay people. My eyes were opened when I got there, in a wonderful way. But AIDS had beat me there and I remember the profound fear and controversy that was unfolding at the time.

This movie made me think of those days like I hadn't for years. It is an incredible, moving story which shows how much of a Holocaust the epidemic was. It is heartbreaking and poignant, with personal stories and compassion shown by the individuals involved which are heroic and inspiring.

I found this movie to be an important contribution to a period of American History that musn't be forgotten. I found myself shocked all over again by how widespread and devastating the epidemic was, how it was ignored and feared by a homophobic nation. I wonder how different our world might be today if we hadn't lost so many wonderful, creative young people to this plague?

AIDS survival has come a long way, but the disease is not gone. People really should rent this movie, it's like lighting a memorial candle of sorts. You will remember someone who is gone that touched your life in a special way.