• “Small Town Gay Bar” is an outstanding documentary achievement for Ingram, and the audience digs it. The film focuses on not one but three gay bars in small towns in Mississippi: Rumors, Crossroads, and Different Seasons. However, it’s not the bars, but the people that are the stars of this one — Topics range from the bars themselves to such issues as hate crimes, tolerance, and gay rights. Ingram interviews both sides and the opinions are sometimes sad, sometimes shocking, and sometimes funny. The film presents an excellent picture of this small part of the world, though one gets the impression that this could take place in any town, USA.

At 2:15, director Malcolm Ingram takes the stage to bunches of appluase. Malc fields questions ranging from coming out to tolerance to his thoughts on filming and interviewing the Reverend Fred Phelps. He reveals that STGB will continue on the festival circuit, even celebrating a screening at the old “Crossroads” site, followed by a bow on Showtime sometime in 2007. Regardless of your sexual orientation or opinions, “Small Town” is a recommended watch, and a true portrait of a segment of this country that many folks ignore, or just misunderstand.

Kudos to Malc on a well filmed and well assembled flick. We’re happy to have finally seen it. At tomorrow’s event, Malc will be debuting a newly cut version of the flick which he says is radically different. He also promises that the eventual DVD release of the film will be loaded with extras, as there’s tons of extra footage around.