Nearly every shot is a money shot, yet Rocco and David unpack the fine line between erotica and pornography. There are shots of men prancing nude in the fields, cruising the streets, and cuddling between the sheets. The doc lets Rocco walk David through his filmography, offering something of a film school seminar on the history of breaking taboos-and barriers-through underground art movies. Rocco argues that his films are not pornography and it seems that Chapdelaine, Christie, and David agree. The film makes extensive use of Rocco’s archive as David and the director revisit the motherlode of gay erotica. Moreover, the doc attributes Rocco’s artistic focus on intimacy, rather than hard-core smut, helped these lusty men heat up the screens in theatres from New York City to Podunk, USA. They explore how Rocco’s oeuvre let men who like men see themselves reflected. The film, directed by Morris Chapdelaine and Bob Christie, follows Toronto filmmaker Charlie David as he visits Rocco in Hawaii. This celebration of the filmmaker’s life, work, and legacy salutes the power of seeing oneself on the big screen. However, the documentary Pat Rocco Dared makes a fair case that the so-called “cock danglers” had a power that many Hollywood heavyweights lacked. Pat Rocco admits that the well-endowed gentlemen who performed in his films were not actors, but “cock danglers.” The boys of Rocco’s arty skin flicks truly weren’t budding Brandos.
