Small Town Gay Bar

I've watched this film more than once. The only thing about it that is a "downer" is the discrimination and bigotry these people are forced to endure. They address a number of issues...the hostility toward homosexuals, the religious community that is against them, the fact that they have no sense of community with each other than within the walls of these bars.

Although they live under circumstances that are hostile to who they are, they seem like wonderful and delightful people. My favorite part is Jim Bishops speech in the limo. Now you have to watch it to know what I am referring to. You can find it on Netflix.

I saw this film at its premiere last year and I still long to see it in wide release... I was fortunate enough to meet Mr Ingram and tell him personally what a moving, beautiful film he created and I reiterate that thought here. This film is a brilliant piece of cinema - EVERYONE should have the chance to see this. It is important, relevant, and heartbreaking. KUDOS again to Malcolm and Kevin Smith (who was the most down-to-earth person I've been lucky enough to meet) for making such a fabulous film. In showing what it is like for a marginalized group in a marginalized region to struggle to survive, the director brings home the point about the fear and hatred that still exists. The soundtrack is perfect for the film. In a word - Outstanding.

I ended up watching this movie cause I saw that View Askew was a producer of this. I love Kevin Smith and I know he had mentioned that his brother was gay. I have a gay sister so I figured this would be a fun enlightening movie about gays being prosecuted in the bible belt.....and now Im not so sure these people didn't do it to themselves. Let me explain.

I don't want to give away a lot of this movie but Ill use a general basis for explaining this. Everyone knows that people hook up and there are crazy bad apples no matter what race, sexual orientation religion etc however......every single bar they talk about, except for the first one......is insane. I don't mean like ha ha people get naked when they are drunk or hook up in the parking lot occasionally......I mean this is a very common activity at the bars they talk about. I have done my fair share of partying and have had my fair share of "coke and hooker" nights. (Not really but you understand) but the stories at these gay bars are flat out batsh*t insane. The things they talk about don't even happen in filthy rat ass strip clubs. No lie. OK so how does this translate as a positive thing.

To be perfectly honest, it doesn't for me. To be perfectly frank, if this stuff happened in general straight or whatever, most normal people would not condone it at all. Personally, not being gay but, I feel that it presents them somewhat in a very dishonorable fashion and rather poorly. They try to use the bible belt lunatic radical Christians persecuting them as the focus of these poor folks but when the movie talks about all the crazy things that happen here....I cant blame them. It doesn't make them look responsible.

Again, obviously there are responsible people everywhere and there has been more than enough persecution amongst the gay population in the bible belt to address a ton of these but why focus on these insane clubs that are totally irresponsible in an attempt to make them look better than the people trying to ban them and intimidate these people?

If, in fact, ALL gay bars are like this, then F'ing hell there is something wrong with you GAYS!, but we know thats not the case. So does this get a solid point across without conflicting.....sadly no.

Sorry Kevin but b*tchslap Ingram.

I attended college in rural Missouri in the early 1990s and felt this film captured a lot of that environment. In rural settings, a gay bar is often the primary way to interact with other gay people. I do remember driving hours to get to a gay bar. It is not something I would ever do now, but it is a part of gay culture.

One reviewer writes about how the cities in the film are not as rural as portrayed and therefore pans the movie. I checked out a map. Several of the towns appear to be an hour or more from a major city. The most relevant viewpoint is that of the people in the film, who talk about the importance of the bars. I am glad that is not the case for me, but this is an important look at rural gay life. If a person has never been in rural America, this is one way to get a glimpse of reality for many people.

When I say Small Town Gay Bar is the story of community in the Deep South that is forced to deal with the struggles of ignorance, hypocrisy and oppression, I don't actually mean it's a story. It's more of a patchwork. It is entirely horizontal; no depth, no highs or lows; simply a sequence of documented people and places. This is not an innately bad thing. If that were the way to tell an unequivocal account with responsible objectivity, then the film would achieve great impact. But the film offers nothing we haven't seen before and nothing we don't know.

There is no doubt in anyone's mind that the South is the worst place in the country to be gay. Malcolm Ingram's documentary gives us nothing more or less to digest. We see two Mississippi communities and the film bases those visits around two small gay bars. As well, the film visits Bay Minette, Alabama, to look at the brutal hate murder of Scotty Joe Weaver. We focus on a group of folks who are less concerned with the national debate over gay marriage than they are with the life risks they take being openly gay in small Southern towns.

Absolutely. If I were gay, I would much rather live in Maine or California, where I would long to live the life that 60% of straight Americans can't seem to get right, but I would nevertheless be able to publicly hold hands with my partner. In Massachusetts, I may find myself using more discretion with public affection, but I could walk down the alter with my significant other just like my parents and siblings can. In the South, the only benefit of being openly gay would be the little hole-in-the-wall, whether it be 5 minutes away or 2 hours away, where I could unwind and get laid on the weekend. We watch as a community is disgusted by the debaucherous chaos erupting regularly at one gay bar, since they can never seem to get it into their heads that prohibition and repression naturally lead their victims to obsession and overindulgence. We watch, indeed, but we are never at any time surprised.

Various documentaries on homosexuality in America have been fascinating, staggering and moving. For the Bible Tells Me So, Family Fundamentals, Out of the Past and After Stonewall come to mind. They provide insight into the accustomed homophobia of largely decent Christian communities, the astonishing justifications of fundamentalist parents who refuse to accept their children's "choices," gay figures from history who made profound impacts on society despite their inner suffering and turmoil, and events that we must never forget in this uphill battle for equality. Small Town Gay Bar does no more than skim the surface. It doesn't even give us a voice of reason from the opposition; it gives us the psychotic, megalomaniacal ramblings of Fred Phelps, who no one listens to or likes, even FOX News.

Kevin Smith, a talented writer-director whose fanbase covers the vast majority of teenage and young adult people of this generation, is executive producer of this film. His films seem to always glean some insight into the gay community, whether played for crude laughs or for emotional drama. He is the farthest thing from a gay man himself, which is what the LGBT rights movement needs much more of. The gesture is noble, sincere and a mature departure for his body of work, but as he puts a bit too much faith in his fans, he does in his friend, Malcolm Ingram. Ingram also made an earlier narrative film for Smith's View Askew Productions, Drawing Flies. Had he made Small Town Gay Bar a dramatic narrative film as well, rather than a virtually redundant documentary, it would've likely been enormously impactful.