The Film: Pat Rocco Dared
In the 1970s, Playboy magazine dubbed Pat Rocco the King of the Nudies, but he is much more than an erotic filmmaker – Rocco is an activist, artist, filmmaker, and entertainer. He’s the whole Hollywood package, with one more story to tell: his own.
He arrived in Hollywood with his parents at the age of eleven. By seventeen he knew he was gay, had moved away from home, and was living as an out, gay, young man. It was 1951.
Artistic, erotic, and highly romanticized, his films were controversial not due to how explicit they were but rather their bold political and artistic expression. In A Very Special Friend, Rocco dared to screen the first kiss between two men ever seen on a big theatre screen.
Without Pat’s films, much of the early LGBTQ rights movement would be undocumented as mainstream press was not covering it. Pat Rocco documented the early queer rights movements in Los Angeles and San Francisco at a time when it was legally and physically precarious to do so. There is a record of Harvey Milk’s historic speech and attendance at the Los Angeles Pride Parade shortly before his murder because Pat Rocco was there with his camera.
In addition to his work as an activist and artist, Pat Rocco was the International Grand Marshall for Vancouver Pride in 2011, and the parade makes a brief appearance in the film.
Told through candid personal interviews with Charlie David at Pat’s home in Hawaii, as well as with friends such as Phyllis Diller, Reverend Troy Perry and film historian Whitney Strub, discover the prolific life of Pat Rocco.
PANELISTS
- Bob Christie – Co-Director
- Morris Chapdelaine – Co-Director
- Michelle Fortin – Co-Chair, Vancouver Pride Society
- Brendan Lucas – Former Legacy Project Manager with Outfest LA
- Moderator: Ritesh Matlani
