After spending half an hour examining Rumors, a gay bar located outside Tupelo, Mississippi, SMALL TOWN GAY BAR shifts focus to the murder of Scotty Weaver in Bay Minette in order to demonstrate the risks run by the interview subjects. But there is a problem here. Bay Minette isn't near Tupelo, as the film implies. It isn't even in the same state. It is actually about three hundred miles away in coastal Alabama.

Director Malcom Ingram doesn't exactly rush to point out this fact, nor does he bother to mention that while Bay Minette itself is little more than a wide spot in the road, it is actually about two deep breaths away from the major metro area of Mobile, Alabama--which has a noticeable gay community, quite a few gay bars, and even a congregation of Metropolitan Community Church. If Ingram is disingenuous on these points, one has to ask if he is on others as well.

Speaking as someone who was born, raised, and continues to live in Mississippi, I have to say that I find most of SMALL TOWN GAY BAR a lot of hooey. Neither Meridian nor Tupelo, the communities upon which Ingram focuses, are as rural, small, or as isolated as he would have you imagine, and gay bars are indeed more common in the state than the film implies. That said, Ingram rather blithely ignores the fact that the absence of a gay bar does not mean an absence of a gay community, and in doing so he demonstrates a rather profound ignorance of southern culture, which tends to hold those who frequent bars--be they gay or straight--in low esteem.

SMALL TOWN GAY BAR is, in my opinion, an instance in which a film maker came to his subject with a personal agenda in hand and then proceeded to film the agenda. Do gays and lesbians living in rural Mississippi face major, sometimes frightening challenges? You bet they do--but that's no excuse for fiddling with reality to such a degree. The DVD includes a commentary track and a number of deleted scenes, but I found the feature film itself so ridiculous that I didn't waste any time on them.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Sure, STGB is not the definitive description of what the Community is like across the board, but it is a slice of "real" life and a true account of what it is like in this country for people who live in a place where the level of understanding and human compassion is so nonexistent that the personal lifestyle choices that these everyday people make can put them in such a dangerous, and deadly, position.

It is always a bit surprising to me that in a country so advanced, we still have such an intolerant streak in our nation.

The Reverend Fred Phelps statements are so inflammatory, ignorant, intolerant, cruel, uneducated and despicable that at first I felt immediately sickened by this man's blatant hypocrisy and stunned by his complete disregard for his role in the crimes against people who suffered from his ignorance. Wow.
Then I realized he was just bound and determined to look like an idiot by blasting such pathetic word-vomit.
Thankfully he showed that side completely on his own, without my having to spend too much time worrying about forming that opinion.

From tavern parking lots to churchyards, to the dark corners of the bars featured, this documentary gave me a fresh view on many things I had not thought about. As a straight person in a liberal city, I had so little reason to need to think about them. Watching this made me consider what it might be like to be persecuted with such vigor and hated so actively. It opened my mind a bit wider and my compassion grew deeper.

This is a true account of tragedy, triumph, hardship, lessons, truth. And not a very pretty truth. It's not perfect but I think it does it's job in highlighting the ugly facts about ugly-hearted people and, in contrast, the insanity that surrounds the need to be accepted, to find a place where you are accepted without question and also the odd human need to condemn in others what you don't believe in yourself.

Eye opening.

Director Malcolm Ingram and executive producer Kevin Smith - he who wrote and directed the 1997 straight man wants gay woman Ben Affleck vehicle "Chasing Amy" - have a well-put together, engrossing and very informative little documentary here. It tells of the difficulties faced by LGBT people living in north east Mississippi and the action focuses mainly on two bars; Rumors in Shannon and Crossroads in Meridien.

I don't want to give too much away but we are also introduced to the Reverend Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church, who runs a psychotic organisation called "God Hates Fags". I'd already met him and his cohorts via a BBC documentary I saw last year sometime. Maybe psychotic is too strong a word but his homophobia is definitely affecting his mental health. One of his theories, for instance is that God hates America because America is too tolerant of gays and this is why God punished America by inflicting on it the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I think people who've lost their grasp on reality are called psychotics but I'm not 100% sure.

Then there's Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association who manages to find the time with his band of merry men, to camp outside gay bars writing down car number plates and then broadcasting them over the radio.

We also get to hear, sadly and briefly, about 18 year old Scotty Weaver, who was murdered simply for being gay in July 2004.

So it would seem that even in this day and age and in certain parts of a country as ostensibly civilised at the United States of America, it's still incredibly difficult to be gay. This documentary is no barrel of laughs (the friend I was watching it with had to leave the room half way through) but it's not all doom and gloom and it does carry a powerful message. Personally, I was in awe at the strength and courage of the people featured. How they were able to get on with their lives in the face of such virulent homophobia with smiles, wry humour and a complete lack of malice towards their oppressors was completely beyond the realms of my comprehension. I never felt pity for these folks - that would just be insulting - but I have to admit that a few minutes into the movie, I was already feeling somewhat relieved that I didn't live where they did and that when the time came for me to live my life as a young gay man, I was able to do it in the relatively safe, secure, accepting and facilitating setting of a city like London, England.

But by the end of the movie, I actually envied them. As Lum Weaver, the brother of murdered Scotty lets us know, adversity does bring out strength in people. The situation faced by the LGBT folks of north east Mississippi has only succeeded in making them more determined to exercise their rights and live their lives the way they want to. Ultimately, the bars featured in this movie, some of them still running, others not, ended up providing the kind of spaces I wish I'd had the opportunity to experience - communities within communities where people are able to have fun, hang out with friends, have a drink, meet new people and find dates or whatever, but are able to do what they want to do in environments that are warm, welcoming, supportive and loving. In an odd and totally unexpected way, I ended up feeling like they were the lucky ones. This is a fantastic piece of documentary filmmaking. It has a great soundtrack too, by the way.

Bonus features include: A hilarious introduction with the director and executive producer (Kevin Smith is heterosexual but apparently has a fascination for all things homosexual), deleted scenes (including a really interesting one with a dude named Willie Washington) and conversations with the folks of Tupelo, Mississippi.

Most of us who come from a small town know the importance of that Someone who opens a bar for the homosexual men and women to gather. This flik reminded me of the times we had in central Calif. There was such a bar in Bakersfield , Ca. Merle Haggard , red neck oil fields country. The place was called "Lena's" and she was our mother away from home. Without that pressure relief I don't think I would have made it. So, this is an tribute to Lena who is long gone. This was in the mid to late 50'S and she had a small beer and wine place that had about 10 stools at the bar. It was located on an triangle outside of city limits , an old one time two pump gas station. It was 45 miles from Porterville, to Bksfld. And the highway was well used to get to Lenas' on a Sat. night. Even after last call we closed Lenas and she would let us gather at her place and continue the party. We all would drag ouselves home just in time to change and go to work at the State Hospital in Pville. I would do necessary work and then go lay down in the rag room to take a much needed nap. The place was so big that no one caught me, but would ask where have you been 'Oh cleaning out a room'. I salute you Lena , for having a place for us to gather in the bleak 1950's In a valley of REDNECKs . In 1959 I moved to San Francisco. Finally made the big time. Stopped in Bakersfield to look up Lena in the early 70's and she had moved into town. Still had a bar. She died in late 70s. Hears to all those great small-town hangouts for the homosexual , may they still flourish. **** yaaah69

I grew up in Chicago, but early in my journalism career I spent some time in the wilds of the Bible Belt, and so this film had resonance for me. It is about extraordinarily brave people who come together to be who they are even in an environment in which that can be a dangerous thing to do. It is also about the families and friends of these extraordinarily brave people, who sometimes have to have a real struggle with themselves before they remember that families love their own and that Christianity is not about hate. My blood pressure got some excellent exercise when the filmmakers showed a considerable amount of Fred Phelps, who is surely one of the most evil men in the world today. I had to restrain myself from throwing things at the television screen. The film is not as slickly produced as some, but it is an important contribution to visual and oral history for the GLBT community in America. I commend the filmmakers and recommend the film to others.