We Were Here Review
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 12.09.2011
The history of San Francisco's struggle with AIDS is the focus of this documentary. But is it a great film that needs to be seen or does it fail to do the tale justice? 411's Jeremy Thomas checks in with his full review!
Directed by: David Weissman & Bill Weber
Starring:
Ed Wolf
Paul Boneberg
Daniel Goldstein
Guy Clark
Eileen Glutzer
Running Time: 90 minutes
It often seems like a bad dream in the twenty-first century, but there was a time when the entire world was gripped in the panic of a new epidemic from which there seemed to be no escape. That epidemic was known as AIDS, the immunodeficiency syndrome brought on by HIV that first found its way into the public consciousness in 1981 as a disease that was attacking the burgeoning homosexual community in the United States. Before long the disease became a full-blown pandemic that gripped the nation and the world into a new era of disease-related fear, leaving a community to struggle with how to deal with a new crisis that threatened everyone within it. That struggle is the focus of We Were Here, David Weissman and Bill Weber's documentary that hits Pay-Per-View and Video on Demand nationwide today--a week after World AIDS Awareness Day--as it sits on the shortlist of fifteen candidates for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
We Were Here tells the story of how AIDS struck San Francisco and its gay community from the late 1970s onward through the eyes of five people who were there to witness it firsthand. The film eschews the usual historical documentary format of interviewing multiple features interviews with a host of experts and well-known faces, instead focusing on extensive interviews with these five people. They take us through their personal recollections of San Francisco in the mid-1970s onward, describing the height of the famous Castro Street gay community and then the sudden and mysterious rise in the early 1980s of such diseases as Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia that spread through the community due to AIDS. The community's struggle with this catastrophic onslaught of death is covered, as well as the efforts of activists--including the interviewees--to bring awareness and understanding to the epidemic even as they lost friends and even had to fight the disease themselves.
Directors David Weissman and Bill Weber, previously known for their 2002 documentary The Cockettes, mix the interviews with archival footage and pictures that are well-chosen for their poignancy and relevance. Some of the images of the disease disturbing without a doubt; for those who didn't have close exposure to the disease and either saw the media's coverage of the epidemic or even were too young to remember what it was like at the time are likely to be stunned by the physical ravages that were inflicted in terms of lesions, wasting and more. These images, though shocking, are not the true power of the documentary; rather, the impact comes in the stories that hospice worker Ed Wolf, activist Paul Boneberg, artist Daniel Goldstein, florist Guy Clark and nurse Eileen Glutzer relate.
At one point it is noted that during Harvey Milk's posthumous birthday event that took place after the conviction of Dan White in 1979, an estimated 10% of the gay men of San Francisco were infected without the disease even being known. By 1981 when the disease was discovered, 20% were likely infected and by the time a test was concocted as many as 50% were infected. It's a chilling fact to consider, especially as one hears these five individuals recount how it affected them and those around them. The stories are very personal and moving, and the effect that it's had on the five is both obvious and wrenching. Clark notes with emotion that as the florist within the community he was often called upon to provide for the funerals, and you can see how raw the pain still is as he relates how he can't recall how many funerals he serviced. Goldstein's story is perhaps the most emotional, having contracted the disease and losing two partners to it. The first of those partners was an immunologist who worked on some of the early research into the disease; he passed away during a treatment study that went disastrously wrong and saw all the patients die except Goldstein, who likely only survived because he quit after a month due to the horrendous side effects. Each of the five has tales that are similarly personal and touching, allowing them to paint a very thorough picture of this one city's struggle with the epidemic.
Weissman, who himself lived through AIDS' ravaging of San Francisco, does touch on the national response to some degree. Mostly this is in reference to public reaction and the initial paranoia surrounding what was going on. But on the whole he focuses just on the city and the community. While there is plenty of tragedy (including the terrifying fact that there was a serious effort and support early on for quarantine and stigmatizing), this is not without its inspirational elements; the way that the different factions of the LGBTQ community came together to support each other is talked about at some level of detail as is the recovery of the community and the efforts of activists to persevere in the face of some pretty overwhelming odds. What makes it such an effective documentary isn't the tragedy or even the inspiration. Rather, the natural way that it unfolds provides the impact. Weissman and Weber go without any overriding narration and just let the stories and images speak for themselves, making the impact stronger than a more ham-fisted direction would have done. The tales that these people have to tell are powerful enough and they don't need dramatic scores or recreations to make them more so; Weissman and Weber are wise to get out of the way and let history speak for itself. The interview subjects are well-chosen for their different perspectives on the subject and none of them come across as fake or overly dramatic. This is history, simply told by the people who lived it and with a powerful message to deliver to a generation that could very probably use a bit of reminding lest they find a way to repeat it. The technical aspects are good--Holcombe Waller's score is a nice accompaniment without being overpowering and the footage is edited very effectively--but this is not a story about great music and camera work and in the end, it is left to speak for itself, with a message that needs to be heard.
The 411: Moving, harrowing and often difficult to watch, David Weissman & Bill Weber's We Were Here about the history San Francisco's struggle with AIDS is an incredibly powerful documentary that deserves to be seen. With five interview subjects relating highly personal perspectives on the subject and archival footage and images that bring the message home, this is easily one of the best films of the year.
