Pat Rocco Dared

In the 1970’s Playboy magazine dubbed Pat Rocco the King of the Nudies, but he is much more than an erotic filmmaker. He’s the whole Hollywood package, with one more story to tell: his own. By seventeen he knew he was gay, had moved away from home, and was living out of the closet. 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.

In A Very Special Friend Rocco dared to screen the first kiss between two men ever seen on a big theatre screen. 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. 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. Rocco’s film collection is held in the UCLA archives and the producers of this documentary have worked with UCLA to have many of the films digitized and restored. Rocco’s films are a vital record of the early LGBTQ rights movement in Los Angeles, which would otherwise be largely undocumented because the mainstream press rarely covered it. Audiences will be amazed and inspired by the things that Rocco dared to do.

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