South By Southwest also holds a film festival, and some of the biggest buzz surrounded a little film called Small Town Gay Bar, a documentary about gay life in rural Mississippi. Rooting for the underdog is a way of life in the gay South, and watching the various communities highlighted in the documentary is a celebration of tough skin and unfaltering glamour. And there’s a touch of kink and raunch thrown in just for kicks.
This is a bare-bones indendent film, of course, and little issues like editing and “structure” and whatnot abound–you can fast-forward through the Fred Phelps segment, when the movie comes out on DVD–but no matter. When you’re filming a documentary about the lives of drag queens in the middle of Mississippi, you expect things to be rough around the edges. Those edges are still sprinkled with gold with sequins and glamour and a little bit of sass. Just sit there and watch the movie and like it.
