Malcolm Ingram’s BEAR NATION

Consider the common bear, with his large, heavy build, awkward gait and huge appetite. Hunted since prehistoric times for his meat and fur… precisely as he is today by many in the LGBT community.

Malcolm Ingram is fascinated by this.

The Toronto born-and-bred indie film director knows intuitively what it means to be a bear, that emerging subset of meatier, furrier gay men. Not only is he one; his latest film, BEAR NATION, examines the phenomenon in up-close and personal detail for a wider audience. We talked to Malcolm to learn more about these strong, cuddly creatures ahead of his movie’s Thursday debut at NewFest.

Fans of your earlier film Small Town Gay Bar will immediately see that this documentary is much lighter in tone…

It’s lighter, but it’s also a whole lot different. I went in like I was afraid it would turn out to be a lot more negative. Talking to folks within the community, well, people were so thankful that I was even there that, I don’t know, that Bear Nation turned out to be a love letter, a celebration, of what it means to be a bear.

That’s exactly one of the issues your movie examines. Would you be willing to pin yourself down and define ‘bear’ for us right now?

No! One of the biggest problems within the gay community in general is that everybody is so f–king quick to subcategorize us. The whole L-G-B-T-A-B-C thing is just so wrong. I like the word ‘queer.’ Hey, I’m totally queer, and I love that word. I don’t feel the need to narrow things down and say ‘I’m a bear with top tendencies, blah blah blah.’ In the end, I’m queer, and I like sucking d–k. I’m a dude who sucks c–k. I’m in that category… ultimately, there is a political element to our sexuality, but whatever.

So you consider yourself a bear.

Oh f–k yeah. If you saw me… I’m like 6’3″, 300 pounds (laughs) so I definitely am one. The bear community helped me come out of the closet; I didn’t come out until I was in my thirties. My introduction to gay culture was something I didn’t understand or fit into. Like, I would walk into a normal gay bar, and I didn’t fit into that whole world at all. I mean, it was like people were looking at a bus pass that nobody was waiting for. So the place I found my sexual identity, was at a bear bar (The Faultline in Los Angeles) where I suddenly realized, yeah, I have a sexual currency. It was kind of like when in The Wizard of Oz when everything went from black and white to color.

While making your movie, what other bear scenes did you find to be as welcoming?

The thing is, what’s so great about the bear community is that it’s welcoming everywhere you go. Period. The thing about it is, it’s global. Though there are bear clubs as far away as Japan, there’s a certain uniformity to the whole experience wherever you go. If you wanna go somewhere in the gay community where you know you’re going to be accepted just go the bear bar. Because at a bear bar, you’re going to find all kinds of different people where, essentially, if you don’t fit in, hey, that’s a great place to begin.

A guy you interviewed in Bear Nation says “being a bear is a state of mind.”

Yes. There are a lot of people who want to subcategorize everything, who feel the need to label everything. And I’m totally cool with it, but for me the bear community is the place for misfits, the people who don’t fit into any other rigid categories. It’s just a good place to hang your hat: It’s nonjudgmental, and the net is cast pretty wide. Ultimately, if you hang out in the bear community, you’re gonna eventually find someone who you want to f–k or someone who wants to f–k you!

GRRR! So what’s the best place for a bear lover to get his paws full of honey?

We shot at the XXL (Club) in London, and it’s one of the most amazing places I’ve ever seen. The club has at least five different staging areas, and they fill it every Wednesday and Saturday. They run a major bear event twice a week, and they fill the place up… and get this, they’ve been doing it there for ten years. And if you go there, you’ll see the hottest, most interesting, eclectic group of guys. That’s because London gay nightlife is strongly influenced by, if not completely centered around, bear events.

You sure don’t talk like a guy who didn’t come out of the closet until his 30s.

It’s not so much that I didn’t come out, it’s that I didn’t have any group to come out to. It would have been like coming out in a vacuum; I just didn’t feel any connection. You know, I was having gay sex kind of under the radar, sure, but I didn’t really even figure out I was gay until the bear community gave me my identity. I mean, I looked at the gay community, and I felt like I was some kind of impostor until I found my niche — bears.

I say this because that’s the story I heard told over and over again while making Bear Nation. When doing my interviews for it and for Small Town Gay Bar, they were of people who were all sort of finding out where they belonged.

People trying to find a place to connect.

Absolutely. Plus, the bear scene is very much a celebration of masculinity. The difference between the leather scene, which also emphasizes a pointed display of manhood, is that it feels like those guys are wearing their masculinity kind of like drag, do you know what I mean? It just doesn’t feel as natural as the bear scene. It’s manufactured… their hyper-awareness of masculinity. Bears celebrate maleness in a much more organic way. You know, we in society put so much pressure and so much attention on physical appearance. Ultimately, the only thing that f–king matters is what’s in your head. Period. Being a human being is not just about what you look like. It’s everything else, man, that makes you who you are.

Evans Forlidas

Malcolm Ingram, the director of “Small Town Gay Bar,” delivers an insightful yet comical exploration of bear identity, body image, and community, featuring bears of all ages and types. From Kevin Smith appearing on the cover of “A Bear’s Life” to behind the scenes of a Chicago circuit party called Bear Run, this documentary is for not only for members but also the aspiring and the bear-curious.