Defining Homosexual Love Stories: Pat Rocco, Categorization, and the Legitimation of Gay Narrative Film

Pat Rocco contributed to a burgeoning public gay film culture in the United States when his films were exhibited at the Park Theatre in Los Angeles from 1968 to 1971. This essay interrogates this moment’s complex legacy by analyzing the discursive processes informing how his work has been understood contemporaneously and historically. Drawing from primary archival materials, accounts of this moment’s impact, and the films themselves, I examine the relationship of Rocco’s oeuvre to categories like pornography and narrative fiction and argue that his films’ context and framing were as vital as their content in legitimizing gay narrative film.