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The most obvious point of comparison for “Suzi Q,” a new documentary about the pioneering 1970s rocker Suzi Quatro, is “Bad Reputation,” a two-year-old doc about Joan Jett. That’s not least of all because Jett is a frequent on-camera presence in the new movie, and comes off as such an acolyte of the woman who broke glass ceilings slightly before her, that you can almost imagine there’s some kind of “All About Eve” story in the wings. There doesn’t seem to be, although Quatro does mention with a hint of rue that when the other singer’s smash “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” came out, people mistakenly congratulated her. In some sense, Quatro was Jett before Jett was really Jett — laying down the leather law when no female rocker had yet managed the combination of sex appeal and pure machisma.

Ultimately, though, Quatro comes off quite differently...

The bass-playing singer and songwriter, Suzi Quatro, is an icon. Maybe not so much in the U.S. where she is best known for her Happy Days role as Leather Tuscadero, backed up by The Suedes and playing sock hops in middle America. But to the rest of the world, Quatro was the first female face of the rock generation.

Directed by Australian filmmakers Liam Firmager and Tait Brady, the documentary Suzi Q shows Quatro as a true pioneer. She redefined the role of women in rock ‘n roll. There were female singers and musicians before Suzi, but she was the first to break through as lead vocalist who was also just part of the band. Female musicians took note and took notes, if not patterns. In the new documentary, Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads says Quatro was the reason she chose the bass.

Quatro was a British sensation...

“Suzi Q,” a documentary about Suzi Quatro, who preceded Joan Jett onto the scene in the early ’70s as a leather-clad rock pioneer, has been picked up for North America by Utopia. The company will give the rock doc a one-night theatrical release July 1, followed by digital and DVD distribution two days later.

A U.S. premiere has been set for the Sonoma International Film Festival on March 29, where Quatro will make an appearance. The film already opened last fall in the UK and Australia, two territories where Quatro, a Detroit native, had her biggest chart successes.

Besides interviewing Quatro herself, filmmakers Liam Firmager and Tait Brady also sought out contemporaries like Alice Cooper and female musicians who felt Quatro’s impact, including Deborah Harry, Joan Jett and Cherie Currie of the Runaways, Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s, Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Donita Sparks of L7.

“Over...