Watch a short documentary on hi-NRG pioneer Patrick Cowley’s friendship with Lily Bartels

A short documentary on hi-NRG and disco pioneer Patrick Cowley’s bond with close friend Lily Bartels is available to watch online.

Directed by New York-based filmmaker, writer and editor Jennifer Bartels, Dear Lily, Love Patrick was originally envisioned as a more general overview of Cowley’s career, but after travel and interview plans were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the film gradually unfurled into “an intimate portrait” of her mother’s friendship with Cowley. 

Cowley met Bartels at college during the ’60s and forged a friendship that remained “impervious to time and distance”. Bartels, who describes the film as “a poignant look at the power of true connection”, took her source material from “a manila envelope of keepsakes” of her mother’s, which included personal correspondence between the pair. “I recognised them for the treasures that they are and made them the backbone of the film”. 

Watch a trailer of Dear Lily, Love Patrick below and visit WMHT’s website to watch the full documentary.

Before his untimely death in 1982 from what was later recognised as AIDS, Cowley was at the forefront of San Francisco’s gay disco underground, powering dancefloors with his chart-topping disco and radical club tracks that soundtracked gay liberation in the ’70s and ’80s. Learn more about his life and work, and listen to a mix of his tracks recorded by Dark Entries’ Josh Cheon, here.

Take a deep dive into the efforts being made to preserve the ephemera of San Francisco’s  pioneering gay disco scene.