Bear Nation A funny, insightful "body image" doc from Toronto director Malcolm Ingram (Small Town Gay Bar) about the subculture of men who prefer hairy "bears" over the groomed, smooth and buffed stereotypes of the gay culture.
Who knew that Kevin Smith is considered a hottie in the bear community?
The brief interview with the hirsute and husky director (who’s also an exec producer on the film) is one of the unexpected highlights of Bear Nation, an informative and revealing look at this subculture thought by some to be a reaction to the prevalent images of gay men as hairless, soulless twinks.
"There's a fantastic film we have featured as part of our Canadian content called Bear Nation"
"A border guard asked me what my film was about and I said, 'Bears.' He was like, 'Grizzly bears, polar bears, black bears?' And I said, 'No, it's about big, hairy gay guys and their admirers.' All he could say was, 'Ohh,'" recounts filmmaker Malcolm Ingram, highlighting one of the many amusing moments involved in promoting his new documentary, Bear Nation.
One look at big, beefy, burly Malcolm Ingram, and it's clear why he made Bear Nation, an examination into the subculture of big, beefy, burly men and the often big, beefy, burly men who love them. "The bear community gave me so many gifts," he says. "It gave me a place to belong, and I didn't have to change anything."
Listen, if you're under the impression that the gay bear is a furry woodland creature with a fondness for honey, salmon, and same-sex members of its own species, you are totally mistaken. Go buy tickets to the new documentary Bear Nation, which will screen tonight as part of the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Produced by Kevin Smith and directed by Malcolm Ingram, this doc will teach you tons of stuff on the subject, such as (1) bears are actually human; (2) bears don't always live in the woods, they often live in the city; and (3) bears aren't necessarily gay.
Malcolm Ingram is a Bear. No, he doesn’t maul people or steal picnic baskets, he isn’t that kind of bear. A Bear is a homosexual male, who is very big and covered in hair. Big doesn’t necessarily have to mean fat (you wouldn’t be wrong in that assumption though), it can mean many things. There are Muscle Bears too. In short, someone who is into Bears wants a man who is the embodiment of manliness. This brings me to BEAR NATION.
A splinter group of a colorful, outspoken subculture is wonderful subject material for any documentary feature.
"Bear Nation," a documentary about the movement of larger, hairier gay men (adorably nicknamed "bears") within the community, premiered this weekend at SXSW.
Documentaries have long been a popular and important part of South by Southwest’s film programming. This year covered a broad variety of subjects, from life after prostitution (Cameron Yates’s "Canal Street Madam") to life as a parking lot attendant (Meghan Eckman's "Parking Lot Movie"). Some pulled together footage submitted by the Web community to help build their narratives ("11/4/08" and "The People vs. George Lucas"), while others illuminated the unique stories of minority groups across the spectrum ("Bear Nation" and "Thunder Soul"). Four of this year’s documentary directors spoke about their films and the motivation behind making them
Malcolm Ingram has issues and he doesn't care how many F-bombs he has to drop to tell you about them.
Ingram has toiled away as a journalist, then as a narrative filmmaker (both in the straight world) before the one-two punch of coming out and making gay-themed documentaries. His first, Small Town Gay Bar, was produced by hetero filmmaker Kevin Smith, as is his follow-up, Bear Nation, which plays this weekend at the Dallas International Film Festival.
Ask someone familiar with modern American slang who a “bear” is and they will probably give you a definition that goes something like this- an anti-Twink, masculine, chubby, hairy gay male. After viewing Malcolm Ingram’s new documentary Bear Nation, one comes out with an entirely different point of view about this outcast subculture of the modern gay life.
