Chicagoan Stephen Cone is off to a grand start in 2016.
The multi-hypenhate ( writer-director-actor-teacher ) has just finished wowing critics and audiences in the leading role in Le Switch, the latest gaythemed play from Philip Dawkins. Cone is also, no doubt, basking in the praise for his latest film, Henry Gamble's Birthday Party. The movie won an award at last fall's Chicago International Film Festival from the Out-Look jury ( of which this writer was a member ) and went on to prestigious film festival screenings across the country, including a memorable evening at BAM Cinema Fest ( a personal triumph for Cone ). Now Henry Gamble ( which made my top 10 list for 2015 ) is getting a theatrical run in Chicago ( at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St. ) beginning Friday, Feb. 26.
Cone's film, like his 2011 hit The Wise Kids, focuses on the uneasy intersection of human desire and religious conservatism. Henry ( played by out actor Cole Doman ) is celebrating his 17th birthday with a pool party to which both teens and adults have been invited. As the party goes on, a lot of secrets are brought to light. Henry's is that he's gay and has a silent crush on his straight best friend while another of the male attendees has a crush on him. That's for starters. Between performances, Cone chatted about the film with Windy City Times.
Windy City Times: How hard is it to get the money to do a movie with religious themes and queer themes? Those are two of the hardest things to get financed so that immediately comes to mind.
Stephen Cone: Not as hard as a movie like Black Box ( Cone's previous film, which focused on a group of actors putting on a college production ) which didn't have any overt, obvious niche. A movie dealing with largely LGBT themes is that it is its own genre. I would say my LGBT leaning movies have been less difficult than others to get financed.
WCT: Okay, that's heartening to hear. What made you want to go back to these themes that you explored so beautifully in The Wise Kids? What else did you want to say?
SC: It was just deciding what to make next and I'd written this other screenplay that wasn't very good ( laughs ) about two ministers who share the gospel with the adult-entertainment industry. I thought it would be this entertaining romp of a thing and it ended up not being very interesting but it culminated back home in suburbia with a pool party and when I was thinking about what to make next I thought, "Oh, this is interesting. What if the entire movie was this?" That's where it came back practically.
Also, Wise Kids didn't confront sexuality and desire very directly so I think the real answer to your questions is: yes, I wanted to go back and do something that confronted evangelical desire and evangelical hypocrisy a little more directly.
WCT: I love that the movie is centered on this quintessential American ritual: the pool party where you have all these half-naked people running around and all this unspoken desire. Here, of course, with all these nubile teens on display, the voyeurism is akin to … Hitchcock! [Laughs]
SC: That's the irony of these Christian pool parties. You have these deeply devout, faithful people who are probably members of the abstinence club ( laughs ) and yet, there are these occasional moments where everyone gathers and removes the majority of their clothing. I find that an absolutely fascinating thing and it's a reminder that even Christians live in bodies and that single phrase could sum up the last 10 years of my work.
WCT: I don't know a lot about your background, Stephen. Are you delving into your past, I'm guessing?
SC: [Laughs] Only in the sense that I'm interested in personal work and I'm interested in mining the emotional experiences that I encountered whether directly or indirectly in a semi-autobiographical way. I would be doing that probably whatever atmosphere I was raised in. If my dad was a Jewish firefighter, I would probably be making very different films but they would probably be personal. I'm just making movies about what I know. The sort of complicated, naughty, nuanced environment I grew up in.
WCT: Many of the adults in the film are emotionally closeted, while most of the teens are completely open with no gender biases. That was really refreshing to see on the screen.
SC: Thank you!
WCT: What's up next, Stephen?
SC: I don't want to say too much but I'm going to try and make a feature this summer down in South Carolina so it will be a similar situation to The Wise Kids where it's still partially Chicago in that we use Chicago actors and some crew but we'll probably join forces with some southern talent. This is about an older, southern photographer; an older female lead role. My top five ideas right now are all about women. So look for portraits of women from me for the next little while.
www.siskelfilmcenter.org/henrygamble .