Del Shores' Festival Smash SOUTHERN BAPTIST SISSIES Begins National Release

Award-winning writer/director Del Shores (Sordid Lives, Blues For Willadean, "Queer As Folk") is releasing his latest film, Southern Baptist Sissies, in a limited theatrical run beginning February 21, 2014.

The film stars original play cast members Emmy winner Leslie Jordan ("Will & Grace", "American Horror Story: Coven"), Dale Dickey (Winter's Bone, "True Blood", Blues For Willadean), Rosemary Alexander (Sordid Lives), Ann Walker (Sordid Lives), Newell Alexander (August: Osage County, Sordid Lives) and Joe Patrick Ward (composer for Blues For Willadean and "Sordid Lives: The Series"). The four sissies are portrayed by Emerson Collins ("Sordid Lives: The Series"), Matthew Scott Montgomery (So Random), Luke Stratte-McClure (Yellow) and Willam Belli ("RuPaul's Drag Race", "Nip/Tuck").

Southern Baptist Sissies is a unique hybrid of stage and film funded through an enormously successful crowd-sourcing campaign with Indiegogo. Filmed in ten days in front of four live theatre audiences and completed with a film shoot on the theatrical stage, Southern Baptist Sissies tells the hysterical and heart-wrenching story of four boys growing up gay in the Southern Baptist church and their individual struggles to reconcile their sexuality with the anti-gay teachings of the church.

Extended Runs:

Palm Springs--Camelot Theatres (February 21st)

Los Angeles--Downtown Independent (March 7th)

Detroit--Cinema Detroit (March 21st)

New Orleans--Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center (April 4th)

Special Engagements:

Philadelphia--PhilaMOCA (March 13th)

Portland--Clinton Street Theater (March 28th)

Sioux Falls--Club David (May 4th)

More dates and engagements will be announced.

SOUTHERN BAPTIST SISSIES - Official Trailer (2013)

Southern Baptist Sissies had its world premiere at Outfest in Los Angeles followed by twenty-four film festival appearances with many sold-out screenings at straight and LGBT-focused film festivals across the country stirring conversation and controversy with last minute additional screenings added to allow larger audiences in many venues and a screening in Stillwater, Oklahoma that was shut down by a venue owner because of objections over the film's exploration of the gay experience inside dogma-driven religion. In spite of the close-minded reaction of the venue, the film went on to win Best Feature and Best Actor for star Emerson Collins at the Red Dirt International Film Festival in Stillwater.

Southern Baptist Sissies also won eight Audience Awards in Birmingham, Durham, Fresno, Palm Springs, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Shreveport and Atlanta as well as the Green Award for Best Feature and Best Director for Del Shores at the CineRocKom International Film Festival and Best Comedy at the Q Cinema Fort Worth International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.