California: "We Were Here" -- Film Restarts Conversation on AIDS

Friday is opening night for a new documentary about AIDS in San Francisco as well as a benefit for two organizations that serve people with the disease, Project Inform and the Shanti Project. The film, "We Were Here," offers a retrospective on the toll of HIV/AIDS: the fears, the response of caregivers, the lobbying for improved medical treatment, and the galvanization of an often divided gay and lesbian community, said director David Weissman. It was created from archival footage and from interviews with five people with first-hand accounts of the arrival and impact of AIDS on the city. "I think slowly, over time, there has been a kind of creeping realization that there is a lot of unfinished grieving. And a lot of unvalidated experience," said Weissman. "In a way, my movie is an attempt to start that conversation between the people who have questions to ask and the people who need to start telling their stories." The unrated film was financed in part by a $22,500 grant from the San Francisco Foundation. The benefit, featuring special guest Rufus Wainwright, will be held at the Castro Theater. For more information, visit http://wewereherefilm.com/.

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