WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR, YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE…
Canadian filmmaker Charlie David has been exploring the LBBTQI2S experience and reveals to us Pat Rocco (1934-2018) who lived in those days when police made raids against the ‘notorious’ members of the queer community in the United States of America and when the act of tender touching in a film was a revolutionary one, especially for the audience sitting in a movie theater.
Rocco was born in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to Los Angeles, California. Camera in hand or with the help of a cameraman, he recorded gatherings, encounters, and situations of his interest or sensitivity. He used his films as a platform for activism. The documentary presents David while visiting Pat for a weekend in Hawaii; where he lived with David Ghee, his soulmate for 45 years in their cozy home. During the visit an interview takes place, allowing us to watch and learn about Pat, who passed away months later.
Rocco with his unusual display of queer presence, affectionate male nudity, and erotic, but not pornographic movies, invented the history of gay sharing. He took to the screen something untouched by homophobia or transphobia that homosexuals have not seen or found before. His visual narrative provides a free world in which unusual things get to happen; he was confident about himself and he puts that into his films.
Visual artist and activist Syrus Marcus Ware gives testimony and remarks that with his romantic affirmative films as political interventions, Rocco shaped the queer erotic expression and opened the way for our place of privilege nowadays.
The film aesthetics may be corny or cheesy, no doubt about it, a camp sensibility at its best; they also are perfect pictures of its time. Pat, a guerrilla filmmaker, shot nude males walking and running in an L.A freeway and he also projected gay men kissing on the big screen. His inspiration came from the silent cinema naivieté, in contrast to the avant-garde style of Andy Warhol.
Hundreds of his movies have been donated, after his death, to enrich the archives of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; to name a few: Dusk Glow (1968), Blue Prelude (1969), Groovy Guy (1969), The Game (1970) -a living scuplture-, A Breath of Love (1969), Discovery (1969) the first gay love tale filmed in location at Disneyland and Griffith Park; Changes (1970) an early documentation of trans people and an active encouragement to tell their stories; Boy on the Run (1971), Gender is a Pretender, tells the story of a trans woman defining her life in her own terms, with joy. Special mention deserves Silent No More (1977) a super 8 film ahead of its time, that portraits those awkward situations with the parents and shows other parents that is possible to love their kids.
The documentary is an educational one, it shows how Christopher Street West, the organization in Los Angeles, on June 28, 1970, was responsible of the first gay pride parade in the world, LA Pride a carnivalesque celebration, unlike the march in New York City. They took Hollywood Boulevard and expected riots, but it was just the opposite.
Rocco´s legacy as a photographer, filmmaker, and activist, is a precise documentation of a world-changing in terms of sexuality, race, and politics. He founded the first shelter for gay and lesbians and provided opportunities for LGTB people in California and Hawaii.
Rocco´s audacious and thought challenging life has been a revelation to me. Lucky times we are living to get to know about him and other pioneers like Harvey Milk, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and Larry Kramer to name a few, that have opened the way.
Directed by Morris Chapdelaine and Bob Christie
P.S. 'Pat Rocco Dared' will be screening in person and online at OUTSHINE, Miami's LGBTQ+ Festival
Review by José Mayorga Guatemala, Central America Lawyer and notary public, visual artist and editor of
El Azar Cultural. Lives and works in Guatemala City. Cinema lover, curious about the possibilities life brings and eager
to live the experience.
