Review of We Were Here (2011) by John S — 19 Sep 2011

This isn't a documentary about the devastation and horror of AIDS, though it plays against the tragedy. "We Were Here" is about the extraordinary way humans come together, the way compassion rises to the fore. It reminded me, oddly, of a moment from the 1984 Jeff Bridges film "Starman," in which the alien says, "You are at your very best when things are worst.".

A virus has no political leanings, but AIDS became politicized from the start -- in the U.S., the virus indiscriminately attacked an ostracized minority, many of whom lived in the physically tiny Castro neighborhood. Confined by geography and sociology, they did the only thing they could, short of ignoring it: they helped each other. The strength of their community, the awareness of how this decade of unimaginable illness changed their Iives -- and took the lives of so many more -- is at the big, warm, bursting heart in the center of this outstanding documentary.

Hate and fear can be eradicated by two things only: love, or more hate. Build hate upon hate, pile greed upon greed, and we are living through the consequences even now. Turn love toward hate (the hardest thing to do), approach the enemy with passion and understanding (even as it attacks) ... these are the tactics that work.

The "We" in "We Were Here" were all impacted in one way or another. There is a nurse, there is an epidemiological scientist, there is a man who sells flowers on the corner, there is an office worker. Maybe they knew each other, maybe they didn't. But they do know this connection, they do know they watched as others live, helpless to do only what they could. So they did. Small things grew into big things. Big things led to major things, major things les to this morning's repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell.".

There was changed caused not out of anger, but out of anguish. Those who survived, and there were many, know their lives are testaments to others who subjected themselves to shocking experimental treatments, who donated their body parts so that others might live. Why not, they reasoned, I will die. Let me be a soldier who marches in death.

"We Are Here" is a film about the survival of gay men, but it is not a gay film (lest you be put off) -- it is about the utmost faith we have that even as we are increasingly fractured and then rejoined tenuously by fiber-optic and DSL lines, we still share common needs. In a disaster, who will help us? Only each other. With love. With the belief that somehow there must be a way out, even if we don't all make it.

Stunning in its simplicity and beautiful in its generous use of photographic stills and the unyielding candor by its interview subjects, "We Were Here" offers a counterpoint to our outsider's view of what it "must have been like." There was fear and despair, there were rallies and political scuffles, but always there were people. They tell us not how it must have been, but for how them it really was.

I pray we never again see an epidemic like this, one that also seems to single out a type of population. But if it happens, "We Were Here" (which is also edited and compiled very, very well) reminds us the first response isn't to mobilize corporations and movie stars ... it's to look to the person next to you, the one suffering, and say, "Let's do something to help.".

As a reminder of the early days of the AIDS epidemic, it's a sobering look at how it came to pass. For the far too many of us who believe that it has passed, at least the "worst of it," it offers this up: when it mattered, "We Were Here" to help our friends, get answers, and do what we needed to do without endlessly debating the pros and cons on cable TV. They just did it. They were here. Without them, how many might not have survived?

"We Were Here" is more insightful, illuminating (and occasionally funny) than almost any other film I've seen on 2011. And it's the only one that makes me question whether I live the very best life I can.

"We Were Here" is beyond extraordinary.

It is essential viewing, in every possible way.