Red Flag Releasing Claims that ‘We Were Here’

Red Flag Releasing, a global distribution upstart helmed by Paul Federbush, Laura Kim, both former Warner Independent Picture executives, and Ron Stein, a financier and producer on The Kids Are All Right, have picked up We Were Here for their second theatrical release after last year’s 8: The Mormon Proposition. An official Sundance selection this year, We Were Here takes a somber, but hopeful look back at the AIDS epidemic that broke out within the homosexual community in San Francisco during the 1980s by following the remembrances of five people who lived through it. The film will grace US theaters this September.

Gist: In the early 1980s, AIDS was known as the “Gay Plague” when hundreds of homosexual people started dying of a then unknown immune deficiency disease. Thanks to San Francisco’s unique progressive gay community, its heart found in the Castro Street neighborhood, helped the majority of the public not respond with revolt and disgust, but with compassion and empathy. Faced with a deadly disease, people came out to show their support, whether it be to help those lacking in affordable health care, or to rally against homophobia in its darkest hour.

Worth Noting: Directors David Weissman and Bill Weber helmed the 2002 Sundance Jury Prize nominee The Cockettes, another film tackling San Francisco’s gay culture through the story of the gender bending performance group of the same name, garnering rave reviews along the way. Weissman was also behind the camera during the production of the Terry Zwigoff favorite, Crumb.

Do We Care?: It’s hard to believe that only 30 years ago the very first documented death caused by the AIDS virus occurred in the U.S., and since then an estimated 617,025 people have followed. A personal look into its origins within the U.S. sounds like a tear jerking eye opener if I’ve ever heard one. There have been documentaries made on the subject before, but I doubt any with such close ties to the community in which the outbreak started, and an intimate focus on the people involved with the San Francisco scene.