It started with a cavalcade of nude muscle hunks before it hit the streets in protest! With playful films like SEX AND THE SINGLE GAY and RON AND CHUCK IN DISNEYLAND DISCOVERY, filmmaker Pat Rocco’s gay erotica made a splash in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. Soon after, the pioneer would refocus his radical vision beyond his artistic, sensual portraits of male bodies and onto queer liberation.

Through interviews with filmmaker and actor Charlie David (JUDAS KISS), PAT ROCCO DARED finds its subject as a retired octogenarian living in Hawaii, where he recounts his journey from prominent gay pornographer, co-founder of L.A. Pride, political activist alongside Harvey Milk, to frontline documentarian of the early LGBTQ+ liberation movement in America. With clips from his eye-popping early work and later reportage, PAT ROCCO DARED gives a long-overdue spotlight to one of the most unlikely figures in the histories of gay rights and Hollywood.

—  Joshua Ray

This film contains sexually explicit content.