“Southern Baptist Sissies” Punches Hard
Genre：Drama
Director：Del Shores
Cast：Emerson Collins、Leslie Jordan、Dale Dickey、Willam Belli、Luke Stratte-McClure
Viola's Rating：6.6
At 2019 Taiwan International Queer Film Festival (TIQFF), there’s Director Del Shores’ special present, featuring “Sordid Lives”, “Southern Baptist Sissies” and the opening feature film, “A Very Sordid Wedding”. “Southern Baptist Sissies” was released in the US on Nov. 18, 2013, right before Thanksgiving, to tell the story of four struggling boys.
In the form of a filmed version of a performance of play, this drama film is the story of four boys growing up in the Southern Baptist Church who are gay and how they each deal differently with the conflict between their sexuality and the teachings of the church.
Unlike Shores’ “Sordid” series, “Southern Baptist Sissies” is much bitterer, and therefore, it conveys the story through two different storylines, one comedy, and the other tragedy, to balance the emotions. When the rather relaxing scene shows up, the audience gets to ease a little bit, and when two lines sometimes overlap, the moviegoer can enjoy the conversation between these two unrelated circumstances. That’s exactly the magic of a play.
First starred in Shores’ TV series “Sordid Lives”, actor/producer Emerson Collins was cast as the lead actor in “Southern Baptist Sissies”. The then 29-year-old Collins had no problem depicting a 14-year-old, and his monologue from time to time precisely demonstrates how a teenager might react under such scenario. Collins and Shore later cooperated with each other and produced more LGBTQ flicks together.
Four boys represent different struggles gays experience while exploring and realizing their sexuality, especially with those who grow up in churches. Some doubt themselves, some follow the secular rules, get married and live the so-called “normal life”, but some seek extreme solutions such as committing suicide, and “Southern Baptist Sissies” even includes drag queen into the plot, providing more aspects to the issue and hoping that more struggling youngsters can find comfort in the motion picture.
Considering its comedy attributes, Shores’ “Sordid” series is super suitable for LGBTQ community to share with their family and friends who are not so familiar with the topic, while “Southern Baptist Sissies” is very deep and sad. Therefore, the target audience is a little bit different. In more than two hours of time, people with similar experiences can truly feel the pain, and burst into tears along with the characters.
Although “Southern Baptist Sissies” was released six years ago, and the hatred towards LGBTQ community has decreased a lot, as long as there are still youngsters suffering in the closet and shadow, movies like this shouldn’t be forgotten.
Picture Credit: TIQFF
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