Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party

March 9, 2016 · Scruffy City Hall · 8:00 p.m.

An exhilarating ensemble drama that takes place on the seventeenth birthday of Henry Gamble, the son of a megachurch preacher. The film is at once a poignant coming-of-age tale, a provocative portrait of community, a riotous party movie, and a deeply moving family drama. At the center of this world lies the confident, music-loving Henry, who floats in a world of sexual possibility; his sister Autumn, caught between the spiritual and physical; preacher’s wife Kat, reeling from an affair with an older man and aching for her own identity; and, finally, Bob, an evangelical star on the rise, who is optimistic despite sensing his family drifting away.

Providing humorous and heartbreaking counterpoint to the Gambles story is a cast of characters from church and school, all trying to wade their way through the messiness of spirituality and identity in the 21st century. Inspired by films as diverse as Rachel Getting Married, Risky Business, and The Ice Storm, and bursting at the seams with music, Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party is an overwhelming and remarkable experience.

“The acting is so naturalistic and the various subplots are so well balanced that the confused piety of the characters gradually begins to feel like anyone else’s everyday problems. Such nuanced filmmaking demonstrates a lack of condescension or sanctimony that’s rare in contemporary cinema’s treatment of Christianity.” — Tal Rosenberg, The Chicago Reader

About the Filmmaker

Stephen Cone is a Chicago-based filmmaker, educator and actor. His films earlier include the Outfest-winning, New York Times Critics Pick The Wise Kids, and Black Box, the latter of which starred Josephine Decker and Austin Pendleton. Stephen starred in and produced Ignatiy Vishnevetsky’s Ellie Lumme and was recently featured on Showtime’s Shameless. He teaches film acting at Northwestern University and Acting Studio Chicago.