Keep The Cameras Rolling is the moving story of HIV/AIDS educator and activist Pedro Zamora’s life and death. Pedro shot to the world’s attention in 1994 as the first person on weekly TV to be completely open about his HIV/AIDS status. Starring in season 3 of the then hugely popular MTV’s ground-breaking reality TV series, The Real World – the world’s first reality TV series – the very handsome, articulate Pedro did more to educate the world on living with HIV than anyone had done in the preceding decade of AIDS.
Directed by William Horner and Stacey Woelfel, Keep The Cameras Rolling combines archival footage of Pedro and his castmates in The Real World, contemporary interviews with his family, friends as well as other interviews and footage from the early days of the AIDS crisis. This results in a touching biopic of a unique person.
Pedro was diagnosed with HIV in Miami in the late 1980s when he was still a teenager. Back then there were few preventative options for the multitude of opportunistic infections that the virus can cause. However, rather than crumble with his diagnosis, Pedro embraced his situation and aged 17, became an HIV/AIDS educator, and traveled around to different US schools and colleges to educate young people. His charisma, easy-to-relate-to speech, and movie-star looks made him very popular and he loved his work. He realized that joining the cast of The Real World would expand his audience dramatically, and in early 1994, he joined the cast of season 3 of The Real World, which was filmed in San Francisco. San Francisco at the time was under heavy strain from the large numbers in its population suffering from HIV/AIDS and the MTV producers of The Real World were keen to have an HIV-positive member of the cast to reflect the city’s demographics as closely as possible.
The Real World followed Pedro and his castmates through all aspects of their lives for the six months season 3 aired. We see Pedro win over the housemate who had reservations about sharing a house with him. We watch him get tough news from his doctors, at work educating college students about HIV/AIDS, fall in love, and also get married to his partner Sean. The Real World significantly reduced the stigma for those living with HIV/AIDS, showing how people with HIV are just as normal as anyone else. For many viewers, Pedro was the only person they knew of who was openly gay, let alone open about their HIV-positive status. This was a time before the internet or social media. The press and TV networks were dominated by quite right-wing, homophobic attitudes, and HIV/AIDS education for the general population was heavily influenced by right-wing Christian fundamentalists. There were few mainstream outlets to learn about people living with HIV/AIDS. This was ground-breaking TV for 1994, with a big cultural and political impact, so much so that President Bill Clinton even got involved with Pedro’s story and Pedro testified about HIV in front of Congress. Clinton gives a good contribution to the documentary.
The series ended filming in August 1994. By this time Pedro was quite ill and sadly he passed away in November 1994, the news cameras still followed him, at his request, right up until he died – hours after the final episode of the series had aired.
Pedro’s legacy continues to this day. He really changed the conversation around HIV/AIDS in America. He achieved his aim of normalizing living with HIV and inspired many to action, including two of his former castmates who subsequently became HIV/AIDS researchers/activists. In 2019 Pedro was included in Stonewall’s National LGBTQ Wall of Honor dedicated to LGBTQ ‘pioneers, trailblazers and heros’.
A beautiful tear-jerking documentary, well worth your time.
(Keep The Cameras Rolling us being screened as part of Miami Film Festival )
Review: Ris Fatah Queerguru Contributing Editor Ris Fatah is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant (when he can be bothered) who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
