''Small Town Gay Bar'' is a 2006

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by Malcolm Ingram that focuses on two gay bars in the rural deep

Southeast United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...

, one in

Shannon, Mississippi Shannon is a town in Lee County, Mississippi. The population was 1,496 at the 2020 Census. Shannon is located on Mississippi Highway 145, west of U.S. Route 45. Chiwapa Creek flows south of the town. History The town is named for Samuel Shan ...

, and one in

Meridian, Mississippi Meridian is the seventh largest city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 41,148 at the 2010 census and an estimated population in 2018 of 36,347. It is the county seat of Lauderdale County and the principal city of the Merid ...

. The documentary was produced by

View Askew Productions View Askew Productions is an American film and television production company founded by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier in 1994. Actors Ben Affleck, Jeff Anderson, Matt Damon, Chris Rock, Walter Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, B ...

with

Kevin Smith Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American filmmaker, actor, comedian, comic book writer, author, YouTuber, and podcaster. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy buddy film '' Clerks'' (1994), which he wrote, directed, ...

serving as

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights ...

Synopsis

The story of community in the Deep South that is forced to deal with the struggles of ignorance, hypocrisy and oppression, Malcolm Ingram's ''Small Town Gay Bar'' visits two Mississippi communities and bases those visits around two small gay bars, Rumors in

, and Different Seasons/Crossroads in

. Additionally the film visits

Bay Minette, Alabama Bay Minette is a city in and the county seat of Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 8,044. History In the first days of Baldwin County, the town of McIntosh Bluff (now in Mobile Coun ...

, to look at the brutal

hate crime A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...

murder of Scotty Joe Weaver. The film focuses on a group of folks who are less concerned with the national debate over

gay marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constitutin ...

than they are with the life risks they take being

openly gay Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

in small Southern towns.

Cast

*Jim Bishop as Himself *Bill Curtis as Himself *Rick Gladish as Himself *

Fred Phelps Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. (November 13, 1929 – March 19, 2014) was an American minister who served as the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, worked as a civil rights attorney, and ran for statewide election in Kansas. He gained nation ...

as Himself *Charles Smith as Himself *Justin Williams as Himself

Quotes

, executive producer of ''Small Town Gay Bar'' and also of "Silent Bob" fame: "It's a film that is a portrait of small-town gay bars in rural Mississippi," Smith said, straightening up. "Which is probably the hardest place in the world to be gay. It's a portrait of how people will create their own community, even in the middle of a community that ostracizes them and wants nothing to do with them. They can still collectively come together and create an oasis for themselves to just chill out and be themselves and be who they can't be in this particular buckle of the

Bible Belt The Bible Belt is a region of the Southern United States in which socially conservative Protestant Christianity plays a strong role in society and politics, and church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's a ...

." *David Rooney of Daily Variety Magazine: "Ingram illustrates how gay bars function as oases of acceptance and alternative families for his good-humored, enduring subjects." *Philip Martin of ''Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'': "Ingram's movie not only makes it clear that people can be brave and resourceful in the face of intolerance, they can also throw a great party."

Soundtrack

# "Rollin' and Tumblin'" by R. L. Burnside # "Tired Hands" by K.C. Accidental # "'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel" by

Cowboy Junkies Cowboy Junkies are an alternative country and folk rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1985 by Alan Anton (bassist), Michael Timmins (songwriter, guitarist), Peter Timmins (drummer) and Margo Timmins (vocalist). The three Timminses ...

# "Mosquito" by Jake Fairley # "Anthems for a 17-Year-Old Girl" by

Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed by Kevin Drew (vocals, guitar) and Brendan Canning (vocals, bass) in 1999. Alongside Drew and Canning, the oth ...

# "Love Is a Place" by

Metric Metric or metrical may refer to: * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics In mathe ...

# "A Million Dead End Jobs" by

FemBots FemBots are a Canadian indie rock band from Toronto formed in 1998. FemBots are known for their unique sound of combining instrumental everyday items, junk instruments, and traditional instruments in their music. Background The band's core membe ...

# "The Rainbow" by

Ween Ween is an American Rock music, rock band from New Hope, Pennsylvania, formed in 1984 by Gene Ween, Aaron Freeman and Dean Ween, Mickey Melchiondo, better known by their respective stage names, Gene and Dean Ween. Generally categorized as an al ...

# "The Transit Song" by FemBots # "What Comes After One" by FemBots # "Animals of Prey" by

The Hidden Cameras The Hidden Cameras are a Canadian indie pop band. Fronted by singer-songwriter Joel Gibb, the band consists of a varying roster of musicians who play what Gibb once described as " gay church folk music". Their live performances have been elabora ...

# "At Night" by Jake Fairley # "We Oh We" by The Hidden Cameras # "Gay Bar" by

Electric Six Electric Six is a six-piece American rock band formed in 1996 in Detroit, Michigan. Their music was described by AllMusic as a combination of garage, disco, punk rock, new wave, and metal. The band achieved recognition in 2003 with the sin ...

# "The Fear Is On" by The Hidden Cameras # "Small Town Murder Scene" by FemBots # "Broken and Blue" by FemBots # "I'm Still Your Fag" by Broken Social Scene # "Ban Marriage" by The Hidden Cameras

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

lists five total reviews, and all of them are positive, giving the film a 100% fresh rating.

Awards

*2006 Grand Jury Award winner at the Outfest: The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival for Best Documentary *2006 Grand Jury Award winner at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival for Best Documentary *2006 Nominated for Grand Jury Prize at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

*2006 Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival *2006 Official Selection at the

SXSW Film Festival South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, T ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

GLAAD Media Award The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by GLAAD to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their liv ...

nomination for Best Documentary

References

External links

Small Town Gay Bar
on Myspace
Different Seasons official web site
archived 2009 February 25 by Internet Archive's Wayback Machine * {{Malcolm Ingram 2006 films American LGBT-related films Documentary films about LGBT topics View Askew Productions films American documentary films Films shot in Mississippi Films directed by Malcolm Ingram LGBT in Alabama LGBT in Mississippi Documentary films about Mississippi Documentary films about Alabama 2000s English-language films 2000s American films