MTV.com recently posted the trailer for Pedro an MTV original movie that dramatizes the story of the late Pedro Zamora, the Real World season 3 cast member who was both openly-gay and HIV-positive. (It’s set to premiere on MTV and Logo on April 1.)
I haven’t seen the movie, which was written by Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black (Milk), so I don’t want to knock it yet, but I have to say the trailer looks pretty weak. Partly, it’s redundant: An excellent telling of Pedro’s story already exists — season 3 of The Real World. I’ve always thought that the 1994 season was the long-running reality series’ high point, and an example of what great TV can accomplish. During those early years of The Real World, the producers were making up the language of reality television as they went along. And in season 3, everything gelled, from the location (San Francisco looked like Oz), to the cast (every reality s— stirrer since owes his or her career to Puck), to Pedro himself. He was charismatic and beautiful and 22 years old, and he had a disease that was going to kill him. I was a faithful viewer at the time, but I don’t think I appreciated then how revolutionary he was: He chose to spend what little time he had promoting AIDS prevention, and he was openly and proudly gay at a moment when thousands of gay men were dying with no end in sight. He even married his boyfriend on air. (In 1994!) He died on Nov. 11 of that year only months after the show stopped filming. (If you really want to start bawling, watch the MTV special that aired shortly after his death.)
So I ask you: Is a fictionalized version of a reality show really the best tribute to Pedro? How about just releasing season 3 on DVD? (Really, I’ve been waiting.) What do you think about the trailer, and are you looking forward to the movie?
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I have to agree with everything you said. But most of the people watching MTV now are too young to remember Real World SF. If anything it will be a good history lesson, and maybe teach somepeople that HIV should be something that is to be avoided and not something that you can just live with.
hey kerrie,
shoot me an email with your address and i’ll make sure you get a copy of the film. hopefully, you’ll have a change of heart.
ariana urbont/mtv communications
ariana.urbont@mtvstaff.com
i have to agree – it seems to cheapen his story. we all saw it on the real world. we saw the real man, fighting the battles and his illness.
i think with stories like harvey milk, it makes sense to make it into a movie. because he wasn’t in everyone’s living room around the nation. times have changed. pedro was able to bring his message to the public on his own, thanks to the real world. that was when the real world was actually interesting and the people on it weren’t just blatant famewhores looking for their 15 minutes by acting as scandalously as they could. i miss those days.
I was just thinking of Pedro today! I was walking down Lombard street in San Francisco and I remembered how he was happy living on the most crooked street in the world, because he didn’t want anything straight in his life. His birthday was just a week ago. I hope the movie does his life and work justice.
I am 38 and let go of MTv quite some time ago. I think its a wonderful tribute for the next generation.
A nice tribute but a little superfulous. They should re-run highlights (lowlights) of season three with commentary on how far we’ve come (in fighting the disease) and how far we still have to go (bigotary hiding behind sanctimonious rightousness and homophobia)
I have to agree with you that it seems a little redundant since season 3 was pretty amazing (one more reason: trying to spot the romantic undercurrent between Judd and Pam), but Judd also proved that there’s so much more to the story than just season 3. Did you ever read “Pedro and Me,” the graphic novel Judd wrote a few years ago? Took the story to a whole new level (and makes me cry every time I read it), so I’m gonna continue to have high hopes for the movie. There’s so much more to Pedro’s story than we just saw on the show and hope MTV does a great job in showing what they didn’t show us on the show. And Ariana, feel free to send me a copy of it. I wanna see it too!
oops… read the headline wrong. I was hoping for a Pia Zadora biopic.
Wow–15 years later and as soon as I started reading this post, I was taken back IMMEDIATELY to the SF Real World season. It truly was amazing. Honestly, I was only 14 at the time, but I still touched by Pedro and his life. I have hopes for the movie–please don’t mess it up, MTV. Pedro deserves a fantastic biopic. He was responsible for one of the BEST things to come out of the network. EVER.
Random question: What happened to Muhammed? Brother got shafted that season.
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I agree, why not release Season 3. I remember being 14 in a small Colorado town watching RW and being shocked and amazed. It’s sad that that type of TV is over and reality tv is about skanks not stories.
I am 31 and a former MTV viewer. I happened to catch the latest Real World and heard about this movie. I think it’s a wonderful tribute to Pedro but agree that I’d rather have the Real World Season 3 on DVD. An actor cannot capture the true essence of who Pedro Zamora was. I would’ve much rather preferred a documentary style movie. I will watch the movie and I hope to see updates on Pedro’s family and partner Shawn.
Saw PEDRO at the Toronto International Film Festival last September. It’s wonderful!
I liked it so much that we’ve programmed a special event around it in Dayton, Ohio…about a week before the MTV premiere…with all the proceeds going to AIDS Resource Center Ohio. Hoping that Pedro’s message (via this touching film) gets to the right audience. The number of new infections of HIV are sky-rocketing again in the 18-24 gay male population.
Review: http://southfloridablade.com/2009/3-26/arts/film/5674.cfm