Father of Modern Black Queer Cinema, Stephen Winter, will attend
On Saturday, June 6th, the Community Film Workshop of Chicago (CFWC) will host a free screening of CHOCOLATE BABIES and discussion with award-winning writer/director and CFWC alum, Stephen Winter, at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 East 60th Street from 3-6pm.
It was June 28, 1970—the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising—that the first Pride March was held in New York City. It was 1981 when the Centers for Disease Control published its first official report on AIDS. It was in 1996—while in his twenties—Chicago native Winter penned and filmed his critically-acclaimed piece, CHOCOLATE BABIES, a comedy-drama about a group of HIV-positive Black and Asian militant queer activists of color in New York City, who used tactics to inform the public, empower the weak and strike terror and trepidation in the hearts of politicians whose legislative crimes against those afflicted with HIV/AIDS.
Self-described as the ‘heartbeat of queer cinema in New York City,’ Winter, is an alum of Chicago’s Kenwood Academy, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been based in New York for the past 30 years. He penned CHOCOLATE BABIES in two weeks and filmed in three weeks, using his own apartment and relying on friends to act as crew members. Two of his characters are based on friends from his time in Chicago.
“Friendship was everything. Everything. The way I understood how you make films is you bring your friends and your community together, you follow a dream, and you support each and love each other and have as many laughs as possible,” Winter shared with fellow filmmaker, Lee Daniels, in a 2021 interview from INTERVIEW Magazine.
Though it received limited distribution, CHOCOLATE BABIES was featured in the Berlin Film Festival, on the Criterion Channel and cited in multiple ‘Best Of’ lists, including Indiewire. Additionally, Winter was awarded the Rockefeller Fellowship in Film and Video, which he used to research the life of Sylvester—the disco star—and wrote a screenplay that led to meeting Daniels in 1996.
Within the film ecosystem, there is an obvious void of Black gay cinema. “When we were foraging in the 90s, people would always make it clear: White guys are the directors, Black people are supporting actors. Black people do not belong in the director’s chair, the producer’s chair, or the DP’s chair,” explains Winter. To fill the void, Winter returned to directing in 2015 delving into issues of race, power and representation in cinema with his film, ‘Jason and Shirley,’ a reimagined portrayal of the making of Shirley Clarke’s 1967 documentary, ‘Portrait of Jason.’
“Jim (Taylor) always taught students the importance of collaboration and authentic storytelling. Stephen captured Jim’s philosophy with CHOCOLATE BABIES and ‘Jason and Shirley.’ In our 55 years of the Workshop, it is a true pleasure to see alumni, like Stephen, continuing to excel,” expresses CFWC’s Executive Director Margaret Caples.
Winter has worked on films with Allan Hughes, Xan Cassavetes, John Cameron Mitchell, Soledad O’Brien, and Daniels on multiple projects, including ‘Precious,’ ‘The Paperboy,’ and ‘The Butler.’ In 2025, he began directing ‘A Brief History of Silence: Marlon James Rewrites Jamaica’s Story—And His Own,’ a feature documentary about the history of LGBTQIA human rights in the island nation of Jamaica.
The free screening of CHOCOLATE BABIES and discussion with Stephen Winter is sponsored with the generosity from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, IFF’s Chicago Cultural Treasures and the Illinois Arts Council.
To RSVP for the CHOCOLATE BABIES screening/discussion or more information on the Community Film Workshop of Chicago, go to: https://www.cfwchicago.org/.
Due to the mature nature of the subject matter, parental discretion is advised.
