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Chocolate Babies

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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
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

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  • 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

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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

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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

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  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.
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