BU Research Blog

3 October – 5pm – W240 Screening Room – Weymouth House Talbot Campus – held by Christopher Pullen

Researchers, students and staff at BU are invited to the UK book launch of the first biography of Pedro Zamora, an openly gay AIDS activist of Cuban descent, who became a worldwide media phenomenon for health education in the 1990s.  While he passed away in 1994 just a few months after his participation in The Real World television documentary series (set in San Francisco) his life story continues to offer an important contribution to debates on AIDS education, particularly with regards to cultural diversity and the need to address youth audiences.

Following on from the US book launch of Pedro Zamora, Sexuality and AIDS Education: The Autobiographical Self, Activism and The Real World which took place over summer in San Francisco and was reported on in The Bay Area Reporter and The Advocate, Dr Christopher Pullen will not only offer an intimate talk about the book including its methodological focus on self-reflexivity, but also the moving (yet rarely screened documentary) ‘A Tribute to Pedro Zamora’ will be presented (duration 50 mins approx.).

Christopher Pullen celebrates Zamora’s life, offering new insight into his story, his political goals, and his ability to reach audiences through his performance of the “mutable self,” where vulnerability, intimacy and strength are significant factors.  Zamora encouraged us to share our stories, stimulating the notion of a shared autobiographical project, in the dissemination of HIV/AIDS education.

Emeritus Professor Bill Nichols of the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University and The Documentary Film Institute affirms: “Christopher Pullen gives Pedro Zamora’s extraordinary life compelling form in this illuminating account. He urges to rethink our notions of self and identity. Our lives depend on them, and this book makes clear how very true that is.”

Please come along for the discussion and screening, including afternoon tea and refreshments.  A discounted price will be available for the book at the event.

Dr. Pullen who teaches in the faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University is the author of a number of books focusing on sexuality and the media. His recent books include Straight Girls and Queer Guys: The Hetero Media Gaze in Film and Television, Gay Identity, New Storytelling and the Media, and Documenting Gay Men: Identity and Performance in Reality Television and Documentary Film, and the edited collections Queer Youth and Media Cultures, LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media, LGBT Identity and Online New Media, and Queer Love in Television and Film.