We Were Here

This 2011 documentary, co-directed by David Weissman and Bill Weber, tells of the arrival of AIDS in San Francisco and the first years of the crisis through the testimony of five people: a nurse, a florist, an artist and volunteers, all of whom lived in the Castro and watched their friends die. Instead of statistics and politics, the film centres those five voices. Its strength is placing organising beside mourning: how people looked after each other when nothing was known about the disease, how volunteer networks formed, and what they did against the silence of the state. Weissman lived through those years there himself. The distance between the archive footage and the testimony given now creates the film's emotional effect. Who it's for: viewers interested in queer history, the AIDS crisis and stories of community organising. Who it's not for: anyone unprepared for the weight of illness and mass death, or wanting political and medical analysis.