Pat Rocco’s Signs of Queer Life

Pat Rocco’s Signs of Queer Life

Trailblazing Los Angeles-based filmmaker and gay rights advocate Pat Rocco (1934–2018) began his moviemaking efforts as a creator of queer male erotica in the late 1960s. When the public’s appetite shifted to hardcore, Rocco pivoted to documenting moments of LGBTQ protest and collective joy in his adopted city, often appearing on camera as an always gracious (and meticulously coiffed) interviewer of his many subjects. Whether out in the streets capturing a demonstration of Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood against their defamatory anti-gay signage (Signs of Protest), on the scene of an escalating situation with law enforcement at a gay bar (Meat Market Arrest), or capturing LA’s energetic early Pride parades (We Were There), Rocco’s films always culminate in moments of hope and a spirit of liberation that feel akin to Varda’s own joyful yet always inquisitive Weltanschauung.

All films directed by Pat Rocco. Digital presentation courtesy of the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Please note: this program contains nudity.
Sign of Protest
1970. 21 min. USA. Color. English. DCP. Please note: this film contains culturally offensive slurs and language.
Meat Market Arrest
1970. 21 min. USA. Color. English. DCP.
We Were There
1976. 21 min. USA. Color. English. DCP.
Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.

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