We Were Here

We Were Here does not move behind the scope of San Francisco, which I considered a benefit. It allows the viewer to fully immerse themselves in the story.

Weissman documents the ingenuity, generosity and optimism of a community that fell victim to a horrible disease that, with astonishing speed, turned the world inside out.

Even if, understandably, it's a little inward-looking (the ongoing disaster in Africa gets barely a mention), as a slice of social history, We Were Here takes an invigoratingly positive position on a very gloomy time.

This documentary illuminates the profound personal and community issues raised by the AIDS epidemic as well as the broad political and social upheavals it unleashed.