Chocolate Babies

Chocolate Babies
Directed byStephen Winter
Produced byJason Kliot, Joana Vicente
Starring
  • Sean Barr
  • Suzanne Gregg Ferguson
  • Dudley Findlay Jr.
  • Jon Kit Lee
  • Michael Lynch
  • Claude E. Sloan
  • Bryan Webster
CinematographyChris Shaw
Edited byFrancisco Macias
Production
company
Release date
  • 1996 (1996)
Running time
83 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Chocolate Babies is a 1996 American film directed by Stephen Winter.[1] The film follows a group of queer activists of color in New York City that implemented actions against conservative politicians in response to the AIDS epidemic in the 1990s within African American communities.

Cast

  • Dudley Findlay Jr. - Larva
  • Bryan Webster - Councilman Melvin Freeman
  • Gregg Ferguson - Jamela
  • Michael Hyatt - Lauretta
  • Claude E. Sloan - Max
  • Jon Kit Lee - Sam
  • Michael Lynch - Lady Marmalade
  • Sean Barr - Red Haired Politician
  • Jon Kit Lee

Release

Director Stephen Winter presenting the film in 2023

The film premiered on 21 July 1996 at Outfest in Los Angeles.[2] The film's world premiere was at the 47th Berlin International Film Festival in the section Panorama.[3][4] Despite receiving praise and critical acclaim at festivals, the film didn't receive a wide distribution. Winters commented on this: "Unless some company gave it some kind of credence and distribution and allowed it to be seen by people, beyond here and there, it wasn’t going to be seen."[5]

In September 2021, the film was taken up as a Criterion Classic by the Criterion Channel.[6][5]

Critical reception

The film received the Honorable Mention for Narrative Feature in 1997 at the SXSW Film Festival as well as the award for best feature at New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival 1997.[2] The film also received a Honorable Mention at Urbanworld Film Festival.[4]

Film historian Elizabeth Purchell included the film in a selection of "underseen (or just plain forgotten)" queer films.[7]

References

  1. ^ Chocolate Babies (1996) - IMDb, retrieved 2021-08-14
  2. ^ a b Chocolate Babies, retrieved 2021-08-14
  3. ^ "Chocolate Babies". www.berlinale.de. Retrieved 2021-10-11.
  4. ^ a b "Chocolate Babies". Stephen Winter. Retrieved 2021-10-11.
  5. ^ a b "Stephen Winter's audacious 'Chocolate Babies' and 'Jason and Shirley' join Criterion's classics". Metro Weekly. 2021-09-20. Retrieved 2021-10-11.
  6. ^ "The Criterion Channel's September 2021 Lineup". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2021-10-11.
  7. ^ "A Most Unusual Film List: 50 Years of Radical Queer Cinema". Talk Film Society. 12 June 2018. Retrieved 2021-10-11.