Last night MTV premiered Pedro, coinciding with the finale of The Real World: Brooklyn. It was also a chance to kick off MTV’s “GYT: Get Yourself Tested” campaign. Re-telling the story of AIDS activist Pedro Zamora, who appeared on the third season of RW where he shared his story of Cuban immigration and being diagnosed at age 17, Pedro paints a more accurate description of the fella than they could have. Filmmakers didn’t shy away from his always-on-message approach to advocacy (i.e. when MTV’s cameras were rolling, so was he), and they were explicit in explaining how Zamora contracted HIV: unprotected sex. But it’s a little strange to see MTV casting actors to re-enact its own reality show, of which it owns the footage, in some sort of meta-reality experiment bridging the 1990s version of reality TV with whatever era of the niche we’re in now.
For those of you who tuned in: Thoughts? Was this an accurate depiction of Pedro’s life? Did anything about the film infuriate you?
WTF
I’m disappointed with the film.
From my perspective, it seemed too much of a puff peice for the show The Real World, which showcased Pedro Zamora.
I watched the premier, and the scheduling of the airing seems to implicate the intend of the production company that produced the film. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the movie preceded airing of the current season of the real world. I might be off base, but I think it’s a tactic on part of the producers because the show hasn’t seen as much viewers in the more recent seasons. I guess the reality genre ‘they created’ was the proverbial monster that bit it’s creator back. The show seems less of a standout as it was when the San Francisco season aired; especially because of all the other ‘competition’ in existence today. Now a days, you can’t flip though a channel without running into the “reality tv” glut. Unfortunately, it appears the cultural significance of The Real World’s ‘social experiment’ is lost among the many of the trash tv shows that reality tv provides.
Anyways, the film was written by the same writer of Milk. I do see where this came into play, as the movie focused not just on Pedro’s short time spent the the RW house, but the Commitment Ceremony aired during the conclusion of San Francisco Season. It guess this was an attempt on behalf of the writer to illustrate the importance of gay marriage and the significance of that ground breaking episode of the season. I must commend his efforts in doing this. But I feel the film’s focus seemed scattered and primarily was reenacting events from the series. You have phone conversations and confrontations recreated and as a result of the San Francisco season not airing those scenes aren’t going to be recognized by younger generations. But again, what was the point of producing this film when you have the actual San Francisco season to air instead? I don’t understand the point when you could just re-air that season to demonstrate the impact Pedro had. Even the in memoriam show following Pedro’s death, (which aired a short time after his season ended) had more autobiographical elements than this movie. You had a clearer sense of what the significance of Pedro was. (You Tube has this online)
I assume from reading articles and interviews of both Sean Sasser and Pedro, that the importance of AIDS activism is still relevant today. This movie really didn’t try to honor Pedro by not examining his AIDS activism further.
The producers could of easily created an actual documentary on Pedro from the news clips, audio, home video in conjunction with aired and also unaired material from Pedro’s Real World season. They also have the in memoriam special to work with, as it reflected more of what I’m interested in seeing then this Docudrama. It seems it would have been more beneficial to portray his life in ‘more real’ format then just the Docudrama and it’s based on San Francisco season alone. It’s a shame to see Pedro’s legacy in this fashion, as his last moments in his life were dedicated to preventing the spread of AIDS and promoting ’emotional intelligence’ about the disease and other related issues that included gay rights. Not being a pop culture icon.
I think the intent of the script writer and the producers were in conflict and this didn’t seem to mutually benefit each other for the films impact.
I also feel the airing of the film was an a ‘throw back’ to the Real World’s heyday when it’s producers were claiming it was a ‘social experiment’ rather than it current format of slutty, whinny, twenty something roommates. The irony is that even in the Real World’s heyday any of the ‘archetypes’ cast to address stereotypes ended up just being in reality common roommate issues: “Hey dumb ass, I’m not cleaning your dishes!”
Or even as Pedro put it: “Did you stick your finger in my peanut butter, Puck? That’s disgusting!”
Geoff
I had a different take on it.
I usually have extraordinarily low expectations for this kind of program but I thought they did exceptionally well given it was a ‘reenactment’. The Producers didn’t fudge on Pedro’s life or message, and if anything they answered some questions I remember having when the series originally aired– the most important being how did Pedro’s family treat Shawn when he was close to dying.
Yeah the reenactment was cheesy, and I expected that…although the actor who portrayed Puck (while not as vicious or disgusting as the real life person) was spot on as far as they let him go. And it was a nice surprise to catch the cameo by Judd and Pam.
I also thought the actor who portrayed Pedro was exceptionally good toward the end when showing the angst and desperation Pedro must have felt when he was so helpless and his family was keeping his partner at bay.
If any kids today watched this, I hope it helped to reiterate Pedros original message.
cooper
if pedro wasnt as attractive, no on would have cared.