'We Were Here' a chronicle of AIDS' earliest victims

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The people interviewed by directors David Weissman and Bill Weber in the moving documentary "We Were Here" are survivors who lived through the onset of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco's gay community in the early 1980s.

They tell of loved ones whom they watched get sick, wither away and die. They tell of the fear within the community, and the fear from the outside world that brought the gay community together in solidarity. Some tell of the heartbreak of treating dying patients, and one recalls (in one of the few light moments in the film) the surreptitious opportunities for romance.

The interviews, coupled with period photos, create a fond tribute to the lives lost to AIDS and paint portraits of those left behind as people of quiet courage. If the movie feels incomplete, it's because of the holes left behind by those who can no longer speak for themselves. —

HHH

'We Were Here'

Opens Friday, Nov. 18 at the Tower Theatre; not rated, but probably R for language and sexual content; 90 minutes.