Marcelo Gomes Steps Into Television to Tackle HIV Epidemic in Brazil With HBO’s ‘Oxygen Masks Will (Not) Drop Automatically’

variety.com:

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Three decades into his career, lauded Brazilian director Marcelo Gomes (“Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures”) is finally stepping into television with the HBO/Max series “Oxygen Masks Will (Not) Drop Automatically.” The five-episode drama, based on the true story of a group of Brazilian flight attendants who set up a scheme to smuggle HIV treatment from the US in the 1980s, will have its first bow as part of this year’s Berlinale Series Market Selects.

Set in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1980s, “Oxygen Masks Will (not) Drop Automatically” stars Johnny Massaro (“Hidden Truths”) as Nando, a gay flight attendant who, after being diagnosed with HIV at the height of the epidemic, begins smuggling the groundbreaking treatment AZT into his home country despite the drug not being yet approved by local health authorities.

Bruna Linzmeyer, who was in Berlin last year with Juliana Rojas “Cidade’ Campo,” co-stars as Nando’s best friend, Léa, dealing with not only her confidante’s diagnosis but an unexpected pregnancy resulting from an affair with a married man.

Speaking with Variety ahead of the Berlinale, Gomes says he had been invited to direct several other series before, but they “weren’t aligned” with his interests.