Small Town Gay Bar (Documentary)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: B- Film: B-
In
wondering when Kevin Smith was going to take the next step forward in feature
releases, he decided to back Malcolm Ingram’s documentary Small Town Gay Bar (2006) about a bar called Rumors literally in
the middle of nowhere, better know as The Bible Belt. It turns out to be an oasis for gays and
lesbians in the middle of an ideological desert of hate, ignorance and boredom. This documentary covers its rise, fall and
rebirth as a more lesbian establishment.
In
between, it makes the bar almost a character in the story (the title of the
piece after all) and becomes a microcosm examination of repressive, regressive
living and thinking in the Bush II Era as well as why that era cannot come to a
close soon enough. It is more
entertaining and interesting than expected and the non-Gay thing that works is
the theme of privacy and personal freedom, which has never been under greater
attack in maybe the entire history of the U.S. as this mom-and-pop institution
somehow avoids being crushed. It also
tells yet another tale of a young gay man conned, trapped, tortured and killed
for no good reason because of hateful reactions to the bar’s very existence and
the climate of hate that returned in the 1980s.
A few
years from now, Small Town Gay Bar will
be a record of the end of an era where hate hits a permanent drought and often
because of the resilience of a small number of people, no matter who they are,
what they do, believe, represent or what kind of legal business they run.
The
letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image was shot on low-def digital video of some kind and
has detail issues, limited depth and is soft overall. The Dolby 2.0 Stereo is better, but has
variation from the location taping. Both
are edited well considering the low budget.
Extras include deleted scenes, an introduction, five featurettes and
director’s audio commentary.
- Nicholas Sheffo
