We Were Here is a stunning documentary cronicling the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco.
Director David Weissman was kind enough to give me some of his time for the following interview.
The majority of the film is told through personal interviews with people that were on the front lines of the AIDS crisis. How did you go about choosing the people to interview?
You know, this question comes up all the time and the more I answer it the more I’m sort of amazed. So many people have said to me, you picked the perfect five people. It was really chance and intuition. I didn’t really know how to search for people because the qualities that I was looking for were somewhat ephemeral. I was looking for people who lived in San Francisco prior to the epidemic. I was looking for people who were emotionally open and willing to be introspect and deal with difficult subject matter on camera. All of them, who wound up in the film, were people who I somewhat knew. I happened to bump into them somewhere and it occurred to me that they might give good interviews. It was sort of an intuitive choice.
Did you know in the beginning that so much of the film would be from the personal perspectives or did you just interview those people and then in the editing process realize that those personal stories were what were really driving the film.
My intention from the beginning was to capture the personal experience of the epidemic. It was never intended it to be an encyclopedic fact book history. I wanted to capture what the community and what the individuals experienced. Which I don’t think has really ever been captured before.
That’s what really made it so different and what made it stand out; because it was so personal.
Yeah, and I also initially thought that there would be more interviewees. I realized very quickly that the movie would work better with depth of interviews rather than breadth of interviewees. These people could speak cumulatively to a much bigger picture rather than simply tell their own personal stories.
What made you focus on the AIDS years in San Francisco, in particular? Was it something you have been thinking about a long time?
No, I never really thought about doing a documentary on it. But that’s sort of in my nature that I’m never really sure what I’m going to do until it bites me on the butt. The idea was suggested by a younger boyfriend who had heard me talk about it. When the subject came up it quickly became obvious to me that it would be the next project that it would be appropriate for me to be working on.
On a personal note, I grew up in San Francisco during this period myself and I’ve noticed trying to talk to younger people that they just don’t understand the impact that this crisis had on the city and the community as a whole, which is another reason why I thought this documentary is great because it’s letting a whole new generation understand what the country was going though and in particular San Francisco.
The reaction from all the audiences has been absolutely incredible. So many people have said to me. “I had no idea at all.” It generated all this conversation particularly with young men but young people in general who lost Dads and Uncles and Grandfathers to AIDS. There are so many different people who are finding the film really impacting.
Did you discover anything new or surprising when making the film? Something you didn’t know about?
I think I remembered things that I’d forgotten about. And I think that’s true for a lot of people who see the film. There’s a lot that we’ve forgotten. I think part of what continues to intrigue me is how incredibly insane it was and yet how life went on somewhat normal at the same time. The juxtaposition of the madness, the horror of the epidemic, and people continued… to live. It’s a very interesting juxtaposition.
What is your hope for the film now? Would you like to see it become part of a school curriculum or continue on the festival circuit as long as it can?
Oh, the film is getting a very broad release. It’s opening in Los Angeles and New York this weekend and then opening in a number of cities. It’s going to be on public television next year. I have an excellent educational distributor so I think it’s going to be very widely distributed and widely watched.
We Were Here will be screening in Los Angeles and Pasadena beginning on Sept 16. Click here for all screening information.
To read a review of the film click here.
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