History on Film

A film about how San Francisco responded to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s will be screened in Tucson.

By Laura Latzko

Tucson theater to screen film about San Francisco during AIDS crisis

Filmmaker David Weissman

Filmmaker David Weissman says his film, We Were Here, explores how the San Francisco gay community was affected by HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and how it responded to the disease.

The film will be screened Oct. 12 at the Loft Cinema in Tucson.

Weissman is known for earlier directing the documentary The Cockettes about a theatrical gender performance troupe in San Francisco in the 1970s.

He said he moved to the San Francisco in 1976 because the city served as a social and political haven where he could be around like-minded individuals.

Weissman said that at first he couldn't imagine doing a film about such an emotional topic, but he felt it was important for someone who had been in San Francisco during that time to tell the story.

"I was coming at it as someone who had lived through it and knew the history," Weissman said.

He said that during the editing process and during interviews, he and co-director Bill Weber were openly crying. "We were crying at the beauty, not the sadness," Weissman said. "Very quickly, we realized how powerful this thing we created was."

We Are Here, AIDS Poster Boy

The film gives a broad perspective of how HIV/AIDS affected a community centered around political progressiveness and freedom. It looks at the topic from the perspective of different people, including a nurse, a dancer who sold flowers in the Castro district, a political activist and an artist who lost friends and partners to AIDS.

Weissman said that when he was selecting subjects he wanted people with warmth and humor who had lived in San Francisco before the AIDS crisis and whose lives were profoundly affected.

Weissman said he started making the film two years ago after he thought enough time had passed that people would be more open to telling about their experiences.

We Are Here

"I knew we who might survive might benefit from sharing our stories," Weissman said. "It's important that different generations know how we got this way."

Jeff Yanc, program director at Loft Cinema, said that while the movie deals with a serious topic it has a positive message.

"This movie is emotional, but it's pretty uplifting at the end of the film," Yanc said. "The best documentaries about heavy subjects like this leave it with something positive. If not, it's too emotionally heavy." -E

VITAL STATISTICS
We Were Here
7:30 p.m. Oct. 12
Loft Cinema
3233 E. Speedway Blvd., Tucson
Tickets: $9, with discounts for students, seniors and children
520-795-7777; www.loftcinema.com