2011 marked 30 years since AIDS descended. Though thousands are still living with HIV, and new infections continue at an alarming rate, the relentless suffering of the 80s and 90s has given way to a kind of calm, and, understandably, a degree of willful forgetfulness.

We Were Here focuses on 5 individuals who lived in San Francisco prior to the epidemic. The film documents the epidemic through a powerful combination of first-hand testimony, archival photography and TV news footage.

From their different vantage points as caregivers, activists, researchers, as friends and lovers of the afflicted, and as people with AIDS themselves, the interviewees share stories which are not only intensely personal, but which also illuminate the much larger themes of that era: the political and sexual complexities, the terrible emotional toll, and  the role of women – particularly lesbians – in caring for and fighting for their gay brothers. Directed by David Weissman.