World AIDS Day screening
Acclaimed doc on San Francisco epidemic screening Thursday, Dec. 1
by Staff
Thursday, Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. Join us at The Revue to mark the occasion with a 7 p.m. screening of the critically acclaimed 2011 documentary We Were Here.
Filmmakers David Weissman and Bill Weber have taken a profoundly moving look at the arrival of AIDS in San Francisco during the early 1980s, exploring how the mysterious epidemic affected the gay community and how it responded.
Following the film, there will be a candlelit vigil, a walk through Roncesvalles Village, to honour those who have died and those who continue to fight the disease.
We Were Here focuses on five individuals, all San Francisco residents who witnessed the arrival of this terrible plague. They share their personal stories as caregivers, activists, researchers, as friends and lovers of the afflicted and as people with AIDS themselves.
Filmmaker Weissman, who arrived in San Francisco in 1976, brings his personal understanding to this history.
This year, 2011, also marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.
The documentary has a 100 per cent positive rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website, and a 94 per cent rating on Metacritic, apparently the highest ratings of any other film this year.
What the Critics Say:
Throughout “We Were Here” there is not a hint of mawkishness, self-pity or self-congratulation. The humility, wisdom and cumulative sorrow expressed lend the film a glow of spirituality and infuse it with grace. -- Stephen Holden, The New York Times
An extraordinarily moving examination of how the AIDS epidemic both devastated and transformed San Francisco's gay community, this clear-eyed and soulful documentary brings us inside the contagion in a way that is so intimate, so personal, you feel like you're hearing about these catastrophic events for the first time. -- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
With the addition of sometimes-haunting archival images, We Were Here takes us back to a terrible but remarkable time in human history. It is both a testament to the fallen and a series of life lessons from five brave survivors, lessons about finding the best in ourselves in the worst of times. -- Bruce DeMara, Toronto Star
The most gripping war movie you'll see this year, We Were Here tells first-hand the story of how AIDS attacked San Francisco, killing more than 15,000. Whole peer groups were happy, healthy, and then dead in months. -- Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail