Wade on Birmingham

Shout: Hosts of Mississippi

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Whether it’s a (fictional) neighborhood bar in Boston or a gay bar in rural Mississippi, sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name.

That’s the refrain of “Small Town Gay Bar,” a documentary that premiered in January at Sundance. The film looks at such bars past and present, and the colorful characters who frequent these joints. Heart and humor carry the story, as we witness the challenges from indifferent — and often intolerant — Southern communities.

The movie kicked off Birmingham Shout Friday night to a sold-out house at WorkPlay.

small town gay bar

A scene from the 2006 documentary, “Small Town Gay Bar.”

The 81-minute doc features two present-day establishments: Rumors, a run-of-the-mill bar in Shannon, and Crossroads, an anything-goes (and usually does) shack just outside Meridian. Both are hubs of social life for gay and lesbian communities within small towns.

While not all of the regulars are out to their families or co-workers, they’re free to be themselves within the safe confines of Friday night fun at the watering hole. The typical entertainment ranges from dancing and drinks to drag queens and strippers.

We meet Rick, the longtime (well, six years) owner of Rumors, who hasn’t come out to his parents or told them exactly what kind of bar he operates. And we meet Butch, who runs Crossroads, which features everything from refurbished buses as crash pads to amateur boxing to a taco stand run by American Indians.

And we meet a wide spectrum of gay and lesbian patrons who would have to drive hours to other cities if they didn’t have their hangouts. No surprises: They meet, they hook up, they sometimes fall in love.

It’s their escape from the name calling and bullying from fellow townspeople. But their after-work sanctuaries aren’t immune from problems. Conservative religious groups with anti-gay agendas write down car tags in the parking lot to broadcast over the radio. Police officers look for any excuse to crack down on the owners.

Director Malcolm Ingram presents an intimate look at the everyday life of these bars. He allows the regulars to talk about why they’re drawn back week after week, whether to fend off loneliness or celebrate a culture among clubbers.

The film veers off-course in singling out the murder of Scotty Joe Weaver, a gay teenager in the south Alabama town of Bay Minette. Although deplorable, the crime is no more heinous than Matthew Shepard’s fatal beating in Wyoming or Brandon Teena’s slaying in Nebraska — and no more indicative of the South having a lock on hate crimes.

It seems Weaver’s case is mentioned only to trot out notorious anti-gay activist, the Rev. Fred Phelps. The more relevant antagonist in the movie is the conservative American Family Association, based in Tupelo. AFA head Tim Wildmon professes no targeting of individuals at the bars, something disputed by those who witnessed him and others taking down license plate information.

Straight people make for convenient villains in the movie, whether as wary rednecks, religious bigots or murderous thugs. Is it so difficult for the movie to be gay-positive without being utterly heterophobic?

But “Small Town Gay Bar” mostly gets it right. It’s a potent cocktail of social message and slice-of-Southern-life meaning. And we’ll certainly drink to that.

Birmingham Shout continues today with more films at WorkPlay.

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