Filmmaker David Weissman, who first drew national attention for co-directing, with Bill Weber, the 2002 film on the outrageous and inspiring San Francisco performance troupe, "The Cockettes," could very well have been a subject in his documentary on living through the AIDS crisis.

He moved to San Francisco in the late '70s, and lived through the epidemic years of the '80s and '90s. He drove a food delivery truck for Project Open Hand and was politically involved. And, of course, Weissman endured the sickness and loss of friends.

But making a film about that painful time was something that he said he initially didn't want to do. "I had a boyfriend who had not lived through those years and we had so many conversations about my experiences," Weissman said, "At one point he said, you should make a film about this, and that triggered so much stuff."

"I thought, if this story is going to be told, I really want it to be told by someone who lived through it."

The resulting work, "We Were Here," is an emotional mediation on San Francisco, from the carefree '70s bathhouse years to the present day. Weissman opted not to put himself in the film, although he considered the idea, instead using interviews with four men and one woman, each with a unique perspective on the era. Guy Clark, for instance, had a flower stand on Castro Street; he had a street-level view on the changing atmosphere, where free love was replaced by fear and funeral arrangements. Eileen Glutzer was a nurse, working on some of the first AIDS trials and Daniel Goldstein, an artist with HIV, talks about losing two partners to the disease.

But it was also a defining and powerfully positive moment for the gay community: Paul Boneberg became an activist and Ed Wolf found meaning as a caretaker in those years. In the face of an unprecedented medical and political crisis, the gay community found its voice.

"I really wanted the gay San Francisco AIDS story to be told. It's both unique and universal," Weissman said, "It played out in very particular way that was both terrible and beautiful."

To further that conversation, The Bay Citizen has made an interactive featuring two people from "We Were Here" — Clark and Boneberg— as well as AIDS workers and members of the gay community in SF. The nature of the crisis has changed locally, as AIDS went global, but it's worth noting that in the Tenderloin especially, it's still a terrible force.

Starting tonight with a special appearance with Rufus Wainwright, "We Were Here" will be playing at the Castro Theater for a week. Go here for more information.