A bear hug of sorts.
A bear is…
By Don Simpson
Bear Nation takes us inside two distinct camps of bears: the doughy and scruffy camp and the burly body-builder camp. Though some of these bears are black, some are brown, some are white, and quite a few are grizzly, I should probably clarify that director Malcolm Ingram’s (Small Town Gay Bar) documentary concerns the bear sub-culture of gay men.
Ingram interviews a slew of bears, all of whom discuss their love for bear culture all the while purposefully differentiating themselves from the other unique subsets of gay society (particularly the ultra-feminine “twinks”). Though many of the interviews are entertaining (as in humorous), it seems as though most of the talking head interviews are saying the exact same things over and over again as if they are reading from the same page of a script. The true highlights of Bear Nation are Kevin Smith (Clerks; Chasing Amy) and Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü, Sugar). I was initially put off by Smith’s inclusion in the documentary, but his perspective is so different than everyone else’s that -- for once in his career! -- he is a breath of fresh air (rather than a whole lot of hot air). Mould also has a little something different to offer to Ingram’s camera.
As much as I enjoyed and appreciated Bear Nation, I really felt as though it was missing something. Bear Nation is a great overview of the two differing perspectives of “what is a bear?” As an outsider I find this debate quite intriguing, mainly because I am curious about why the two camps – which are quite the opposite in philosophy and appearance – can’t just agree to disagree? Why do they both have to be called bears? (That right there is the exact question that I really wanted Ingram to discuss.) I understand that both camps are of the opinion that they were bears first, but maybe they can have some sort of meeting of the minds and compromise. Maybe there can be two different categories of bears -- like grizzly bears and teddy bears?
(Bear Nation screens July 17, 9:30 p.m., DGA Theatre 2)
