the general
barbarism of us culture
by Douglas Messerli
Pat Rocco (director) Changes
/ 1970
Pat Rocco (1934-2018) was born as
Pasquale Vincent Serrapica to an Italian-American family in Brooklyn, who as a
singer and performer in televised talent shows because well-known in Southern
California.
Beginning in the 1960s, after working as a photographer of male nudes,
he began making his own male erotic films, one of the earliest along with Bob
Mizer who began selling gay nude films, often with erotic narratives at about
this same time. But soon, as he films began to create attention for their
positive portrayal of the gay community, he gradually began making documentaries
about the Los Angeles gay community, including pride marches, gay protests, and
some Hollywood figures, gradually becoming a gay activist who ultimately left
his vast archive to the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Among his early documentaries was the 1970 filming by his Bizarre
Productions company of Changes, an interview and open discussion of a
transgender woman (described as “transsexual” in this broadcast) Jimmie
Michaels before her later total transition into Jennifer Michaels.
Although there is still something a little exploitative and approaching
the tone of “Mono Cane”—the title of Rocco’s production company alone hints of
the latter—and the use of the slightly overweight, sweaty William King as
interviewer doesn’t always make for non-confrontational tone. Nonetheless, King
asks basically straight-forward questions, particularly given how little was
known about transgender behavior during this period, at a time where I still
have older friends who insist that
except perhaps for Christine Jorgensen, they had never even heard someone transitioning from one gender to
another, and certainly had never encountered such a person in their lives.
Most importantly, Jimmie/Jennifer is an intelligent, soft-spoken woman
who clearly can answer for herself and does most ably. She explains in a few
quick sentences precisely what a “transsexual” being is (“A transsexual is one
who desires to be the opposite sex, either a female to male or a male to a female”),
and how she herself felt feminine even as a very young child, and by age six
was recognized in her household as being more like a girl than a boy.
Unfortunately, King keeps addressing her with the male pronouns. But his
very next question gets right to the issue: “Tell me, do you consider yourself
as a male or female?”
Michaels is almost painfully honest: “Well, that’s pretty hard to say.”
The majority of the time, she explains, she feels as a female and acts like a
female, but there are times when, caught off guard or depressed, she doesn’t
know what to do accept to attempt to gain societal acceptance by trying to be a
little more masculine.
Asked if she is going for the “full operation,” she posits that is her
intention.
The next question moves closer to
the issues of sexuality as opposed to gender: “Which do you prefer most, the
company of men or of women.” Without missing a beat, Jimmie/Jennifer makes
clear that most of the time he seeks out to company of women to share their
perspective and interests, but she makes it quite clear she is not romantically
interested in women, but in men, so she also likes the company of men when they
are accepting of her difference. It might have been interesting to have her
elaborate further on that, simply how she does master approaching men to whom
she might be attracted who wouldn’t be so accepting of her. She does make clear
that outside of her closest friends, the hecklers on the street usually say “What
is this?” or they become obscene. She also talks about the cruelty of school
children and the general barbarianism of US culture.
Asked a rather stupid question, given her comments, whether she
considers herself a homosexual, she quickly squelches that subject by
suggesting that would be beside the point, since homosexuals love the same sex,
whereas she, who sees herself a as woman, is attracted to men.
One of the most interesting series of questions and answers helps us to
perceive just how intelligent this transgender woman is. We recognize her
clearly as a woman of true independence when she is asked, rather coarsely by
Williams, “Tell me, do you prefer wearing women’s clothes?” He soon after
specifies his query by asking “Dresses, bras, panties, the silk hose, or nylon
hose? Girdles?”
Refreshingly, at least from my point of view, Michaels answers: “I hate
nylons. I hate girdles. I do not like to wear bras. I don’t necessarily like to
wear dresses except now and then, I get this mad urge to do the town….But I
really have no craving to flaunt, you know, with the makeup. I don’t like makeup.
Or spending two hours in a beauty salon which is a complete waste of time.”
Regarding the hormones she is already taking, she wittily comments: "If
you think LSD is a trip, you should try taking hormones."
Asked where her eventual goals might lead her, she answers that she,
like so many other women, would like to get married, and although she cannot
have children, they could adopt. This is, one must remember still the 1970s,
and she imagines she might like to live in the suburbs, precisely the world
where young gay men like myself wanted to escape.
The big difference in this film is that once the interview is finished,
the film doesn’t stop, but continues in a kind of idyll as Jimme/Jennifer walks
down the Los Angeles streets almost literally “smelling the roses,” in this case
the carnations from a flower vendor. She picks our a few and meanders, like all
somewhat sentimental LGBTQ love stories, off into a local park. Stopping at a
small stream, she even unbuttons her blouse and in semi-nudeness feels her
breasts, welcoming her new gender with joy. Few films have been as generous and
open-minded about a subject which even day is still highly controversial in conversative
USA and is now an anathema even among some liberals. Why transgender
individuals, who have already suffered so much from their sense of displacement
of their bodies, taunted by their peers, lectured to and ignored by adults
should be met with such complete cultural dismissal and horror by a large part
of the population stymies the imagination.
There would not be a movie as sympathetic to transsexual behavior until Doris
Wishman.s 1977 movie, Let Me Die as a Woman.
Los Angeles, April 16, 2026
Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog
(April 2026)
