top of page

ANSEHEN • MIETEN • KAUFEN

prime-logo-gelb.png
Vudu.png
vimeo-logo-gelb.png

DOKUMENTARFILM

Pat Rocco Dared_poster_24x36_Whistler.jpg
B2B-Symbole-03.png

CREDITS

INSPIRIERT VON
Pat Rocco

GELEITET VON
Bob Christie & Morris Chapdelaine

PRODUKTION
Bob Christie

Morris Chapdelaine

Associate Producer

Nickolaos Stagias

AUSFÜHRENDE PRODUZENTEN

Charlie David

Jay Beechinor

BESTE REGIE - Louisiana Rainbow LGBT Film Festival - 2022.png
BESTER DOKUMENTARFILM - Louisiana Rainbow LGBT Film Festival - 2022.png
CinDiv_FF22.png
MIAMI 2022_BESTDOC-ARU-BLACK.png
Bester Queer-Dokumentarfilm - Merced Queer Film Festival - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL – Festival Mix Cine y Diversidad Sexueller Film Sexuelle Vielfalt – 2023.p
Gewinner – Bester Spielfilm – PRIDEFILM.online – UKRAINE 2023.png

Pat Rocco wagte es

Logline: Canadian LGBTQ documentary filmmaker Charlie David explores the life and film work of Pat Rocco, the man who dared to put the first same sex kiss on the big screen.

 

Synopsis: In the 1970’s 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.

 

Having sung in choirs as a youth, he managed to find gigs in radio, nightclubs, theatres, and church basements. With his true talent and undeniable charisma, he made his way to television variety shows, starring alongside legends like Phyllis Diller.

 

Rocco began selling his erotic, playful and romantic nude male films in the backs of local magazines and in 1968, he was offered his own festival at Los Angeles’ Park Theatre – the first of its kind. It was an instant hit and Rocco continued to pump out more films as fast as he could, pushing new boundaries with each one. In A Very Special Friend, Rocco dared to screen the first kiss between two men ever seen on a big theatre screen. Artistic, erotic, and highly romanticized, his films were controversial not due to how explicit they were but rather their bold political and artistic expression.

 

Rocco was an activist on the front lines of the sexual liberation movement,

documenting many protests in the sixties and seventies, and campaigning with Harvey Milk. He was the first President of Christopher Street West (producers of LA Pride), and in 1974, the first to organize a Pride festival following the annual sexual liberation march. Love and romance were his political weapons, and just when things on screen began to heat up, Rocco fades to black, and stops making films... why?

In his early 80s, Pat Rocco still had the air of a classic Hollywood showman, and remained passionate and active in civic politics. He is officially recognized by the United States government as an “Outstanding Older American.” Rocco's film collection is held in the UCLA archives and the producers have worked with UCLA to have many of the films digitized and restored. The Canadian LGBTQ ArQuives is also championing the project with the hope to eventually house the completed film as an important part of queer history.

 

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.

 

Without Pat's films, much of the early LGBTQ rights movement would be

undocumented as mainstream press was not covering it. Pat Rocco's life story will be 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.

 

"Don't ask, don't tell, just do it," Rocco advises Charlie in one of their final exchanges. It is of great importance that contributions from change-makers like Pat Rocco are woven into the larger narrative of our collective human rights history. Audiences will be amazed and inspired by the things that Pat Rocco dared to do.

  IMDB  

B2B-Symbole-01.png

BEWERTUNGEN

Stern.png
Stern.png
Stern.png
Stern.png

Dies ist ein sorgfältig gestalteter Dokumentarfilm, der sich mit wichtigen Teilen der Queer- und Stadtgeschichte befasst.

Stern.png
Stern.png
Stern.png
Stern.png
Stern.png

Ich liebe Dokumentationen über exzentrische Charaktere. Ohne solche Spinner wäre Pride überhaupt möglich gewesen...?

Stern.png
Stern.png
Stern.png
Stern.png

Sowohl unterhaltsam als auch informativ. Als heterosexuelle, weiße Cis-Frau habe ich ein besseres Verständnis dafür entwickelt, wie mutig und wichtig es ist, sich zu outen. Mir hat auch seine Sichtweise auf seine Filme sehr gefallen – dass sie rein liebevoller Natur waren und das Etikett „Pornografie“ ablehnten.

AUSZEICHNUNGEN

OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - XIX OutfestPer Film Festival LGBTI - 2022.png
BESTE REGIE - Louisiana Rainbow LGBT Film Festival - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Geelong Pride Film Festival - 2022.png
BESTER DOKUMENTARFILM - Louisiana Rainbow LGBT Film Festival - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Pride Film Festival Perth - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Muskoka Pride Film Festival - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Whistler Film Festival - 2021.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - qFLIX Philadelphia 2022 Das LGBTQ-Filmfestival - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Out On Film Atlantas LGBTQ Film Festival - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Damn These Heels Queer Film Festival - 2022.png
offizielle_auswahl_-_reel_affirmations_washington_dcs_international_lgbtq_film_festival_-_
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - OUTshine Film Festival Miami - 2022.png
MIAMI 2022_BESTDOC-ARU-BLACK.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Frameline Film Festival - 2022.png
OFFICIAL SELECTION - Merlinka Film Festival Serbia - 2021.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL-DepthofFieldInternationalFilmFestival-2022.png
PRD IO_Laurels_2022_Official Selection_Black.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Out On Film Atlantas LGBTQ Film Festival - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Dreamanila International Film Festival - 2022.png
Bester Queer-Dokumentarfilm - Merced Queer Film Festival - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Merced Queer Film Festival - 2022.png
CinDiv_FF22.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - The Cherry Grove Archives Collection Film Festival - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Inside Out Film Festival Toronto - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - qFLIX Philadelphia - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Mexiko LGBTQ Internationales Filmfestival Goya Queer - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Tampa Bay International Gay Lesbian Film Festival - 2022.png
OFFIZIELLE AUSWAHL - Baltimore Next Media Web Fest - 2022.png
laurel.png

Wir machen Liebesgeschichten .

Border2Border Entertainment ist ein zertifizierter Lieferant der Canadian Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, Mitglied der Canadian Media Producers Association, von Webseries Canada und der Canadian Academy of Film & Television.


1173 Dundas Street East Studio 137
Toronto, Kanada M4M 3P1

E-Mail: info@border2border.ca

NEWSLETTER
Melden Sie sich für unseren Newsletter an und erhalten Sie einen kostenlosen Screener

Thanks for submitting!

  • Instagram
  • FB
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo

©2025 Border2Border Entertainment

bottom of page