RATING: A

Tribeca Films presents a Museum and Crane production in association with The Harnisch Foundation, The deNovo Institute, The Institute, the InMaat Foundation, and Impact Partners. Directed by Rowan Haber. Produced by Caryn Capotosto and Rowan Haber. Written by Rowan Haber and Hannah Buck. Cinematography by Mego Lin and Christine Ng. Edited by Hannah Buck.

Stars Rowan Haber, Julia Sweeney, Kevin Nealon, River Butcher, Pink Foxx, River Gallo, Molly Kearney, Nori Reed, Robin Tran, and Joey Soloway. 

Julia Sweeney’s iconic Saturday Night Live character takes center stage again in this riveting documentary about the genesis of the character and the impact they had made on the LGBTQ community over the past three decades. 

In December of 1990, the first appearance of Pat O’Neill Reilly, an androgynous character created by Saturday Night Live cast member Julia Sweeney, was a major hit and for four years, the character was always asked the same question. Is Pat male or female? To this day, the answer has never been revealed, and that’s completely okay. After the 1994 movie adaptation, Pat had virtually disappeared.

However, the character would be an icon within the LGBTQ community, specifically among non-binary and transgender people. Many comedians who identify as trans or non-binary have been influenced to be proud of who they are thanks to Pat’s impact. When a filmmaker aspires to bring the character to today’s generation, he looks towards a group of friends and also the one and only Julia Sweeney herself. 

Rowan Haber does something ingenious with this documentary around the famous Saturday Night Live icon character Pat, created and played by Julia Sweeney in the early 1990s. They attempt to not only give viewers an insight on the character’s positive impact to the LGBTQ community, but also attempt to recreate the character if they were brought to today’s world with the help of friends at first, but soon meets Sweeney herself, who explains the character’s genesis.

It is quite fascinating to learn that Sweeney came up with the character as a way to overcome the somewhat shaming she dealt with from her mother. Sweeney also created the character as a means to go against type in a male-dominated writing world for the show and crafted the character as androgynous. To this day, Pat has never been revealed to be male or female and thus, has been seen through the eyes of many as non-binary or even possibly transgendered. 

We get to meet many non-binary and transgender people who see Pat as the inspiration to not be afraid to show their true identity and like Sweeney, some have become stand-up comedians. However, despite their out and proud, there are times when there is that negativity surrounding the community, with them not allowed to perform in certain places or even the fear of how people will react. We even get a first-hand look at Haber’s attempt to “reboot” Pat for the modern generation with the help of some close friends. 

It is when we see Sweeney talk about her post-Pat career and realizing how much the character means not just to the community, but even at one point, gained national recognition that she not only continues that she has embraced the character, but may have let slip a little secret about the character or a possibly theory about the character that she has agreed to. She also joins Haber’s friends during their meetings for the “reboot” and is overjoyed to see how much the character means to them. 

We Are Pat is a fantastic look at how one character from Saturday Night Live not only was iconic, but helped inspire the non-binary and transgender community in a way that perhaps not even Julia Sweeney expected. However, the character has helped changed the world in a positive way and that’s something no one can ever take away! Definitely a must-see documentary.

The film will be released on Digital on June 23rd from Tribeca Films.