Stephen Winter

Stephen Winter is an award-winning filmmaker known for writing and directing “Jason and Shirley” and “Chocolate Babies.” In 2023 Stephen directed “The Space Within” the number one fiction podcast for Audible, produced and starring Jessica Chastain.

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Sarah Schulman in JASON AND SHIRLEY- Photo by Ricardo Nelson, courtesy of JaShirl LLC (1).jpg

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CHOCOLATE BABIES Q&A: Stephen Winter and Jeremy O. Harris

Stephen Winter is an award-winning filmmaker, producer and writer. His acclaimed 1996 debut feature film Chocolate Babies has been restored by UCLA/Outfest and twice featured on the Criterion Channel. Playwright Jeremy O. Harris has called Stephen “The father of modern Black Queer cinema.”

In 2023 Stephen directed the #1 fiction podcast for Audible: The Space Within, starring and produced by Jessica Chastain, also starring Michael Shannon and Ellen Burstyn, produced by Topic Studios.

Stephen’s 2015 feature film Jason and Shirley will be re-released in 2024 as an expanded edition. Richard Brody of The New Yorker called it “One of the year’s best films.”

Stephen produced Jonathan Caouette’s landmark 2004 documentary Tarnation, which premiered at Sundance, Cannes and NYFF. Other film collaborators include Lee Daniels Precious, Paperboy, The Butler), John Cameron Mitchell (Shortbus), Allan Hughes (New York: I Love You), Gus Van Sant (Tarnation), Patrik Ian Polk (Punks), Zoe Cassavetes (Kiss of the Damned) and Bridey Elliott (Clara’s Ghost). Stephen was story editor on the acclaimed documentaries The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2015) and How To Survive A Plague (2013), which earned an Oscar nomination for Outstanding Documentary.

Stephen co-created and directed the 2018-19 Afro-futuristic political satire podcast: Adventures in New America, which the New York Times compared to Boots Riley and Jordan Peele saying, “The Best New Social Thriller is a Podcast.”

NEWS

March 1, 2024
Stephen is featured in the magazine BODYELECTRIC, interviewed by Jordan Firstman

Summer 2023
Winters-helmed Space Within premieres on Audible.

July 13, 2022
Stephen Winter was head writer on the Spotify podcast series, Sound Barrier: Sylvester.
SOUND BARRIER: SYLVESTER - episode 4 “Giant Step”
Available now