Stephen Cone is a Southern-raised, Chicago-based filmmaker. His film Henry Gamble's Birthday Party was selected as one of only 23 films to screen in the prestigious BAMcinemaFest at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and was featured in the New York Times as a part of it's "Anatomy of a Scene" series. The film was also the winner of the Chicago International Film Festival Silver Q Hugo Award and received rave reviews, with critic Sheila O'Malley of RogerEbert.com calling it a "dizzyingly confident ensemble film" and Time Out New York naming it "a coming out story for the ages." The film had it's European Premiere at the BFI (British Film Institute) Flare Film Festival and was released on DVD/VOD by Wolfe Releasing. Cone's prior film, the award-winning, critically-acclaimed The Wise Kids, which the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips called "one of the best coming-of-age pictures in a long time", was a New York Times Critics Pick, and screened at more than 60 festivals worldwide, won 8 awards, including the Outfest Grand Jury Prizes for Outstanding US Feature and Outstanding Screenwriting, received rave reviews and appeared on several Best of the year lists (including the Chicago Tribune's and Chicago Reader's) before being acquired for DVD/VOD by Wolfe Releasing. Other films include the full-length features In Memoriam (Gene Siskel Film Center, Big Muddy Film Festival) and Black Box (Programmers Award, Sidewalk Film Festival), the latter of which stars Josephine Decker and Austin Pendleton, as well as the medium-length features The Christians, This Afternoon and The Mystery of Life. As an actor, Cone has appeared in acclaimed Chicago stage productions of The Normal Heart, as well as the World Premieres of the Philip Dawkins plays The Homosexuals and Le Switch. He also starred in and produced Ellie Lumme, the film debut of film critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, and was featured on Season Four of Showtime's "Shameless". In addition to being a filmmaker and actor, Stephen teaches in the Department of Radio / Television / Film at Northwestern University. His sister Christina Cone is a singer/songwriter in Brooklyn, where she fronts the band Frances Cone. His parents, Frank and Judy, a minister and retired high school music teacher, respectively, reside in Charleston, SC. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Stephen Cone
Eager to escape life with her depressive single father, 16-year-old athlete Cyd Loughlin visits her novelist aunt in Chicago over the summer. While there, she falls for a girl in the neighborhood, even as she and her aunt gently challenge each other in the realms of sex and spirit.
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HENRY GAMBLE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY takes place over the course of 24 hours, at the 17th birthday pool party of preacher's kid Henry Gamble. As Henry treads through various sexual possibilities, seeking to come into his own, so too do the adults and teenagers of the party, all struggling to navigate the public and private, and their longing, despite themselves and their faith, for earthly love.
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