Documtery small town gay bars

‘Small Town Gay Bar’ director Malcolm Ingram heads back down South for ‘Southern Pride’

When Small Town Gay Bar arrived on my door, I feared that it would be a melodramatic soap opera kind of drama. Bar takes us to tiny Shannon, Mississippi to meet the folks who hang out at Rumors, the only gay bar gay the northeast part of the town. Bar starts with a general look at the area and some reflections on the bar and its inhabitants.

Matters broaden into darker issues when we hear about the July brutal murder of Scotty Weaver, a gay man apparently killed due to his lifestyle. We learn more about that and its aftermath. The film then visits defunct gay bar Crossroads and takes us on a tour of other former night spots. Eventually it returns to Rumors and shows the evolving status of gay bars in the area.

The film makes sure we know these concepts, as it beats us over the head with them through its short running time. Will any viewers feel enlightened by either premise? I doubt it, especially because Bar maintains a bar higher sense of identification with the first side than with the second.

The unfortunate inclusion of Phelps confirms that sentiment. Why does Bar give Phelps so much screen time? Because he helps establish the small antagonism toward gays and reminds us how nasty Southerners are. Hoo boy, if you want to subscribe to the inbred hick view of Southerners, give Bar a look.

Bar likes to reinforce negative stereotypes about heterosexual Southerners and never opens up any other notions. And why exactly does the film discuss Weaver at all? Go back to Educational Point 2. We hear about it to stir up more emotions about how horrible those damned Southerners are.

To succeed, Bar really should have concentrated on Rumors and left it at that. Bar could have become an interesting sociological portrait. Instead, Bar tries documtery too hard to work as propaganda. It provides a one-sided view of its topics without any remote form of depth or objectivity. It throws easy targets at us and feels more like an attempt to reinforce preconceived notions.

Why bother? I guarantee that straights who see it will already be sympathetic to the cause, and gays will just take it to heart as confirmation of their own biases. That feels hypocritical to me. The movie whines that straights view gays as a monolithic force of negativity but it rarely manages to portray heterosexuals as anything more than hate-filled bigots.

Wildmon, Phelps and their ilk are hateful and evil at worst and painfully misguided at best. Maybe Bar will prove enlightening or helpful to someone who views it.