Financing your first film with credit cards isn't new, but nachwuchs director Stephen Winter found a new wrinkle: student loans. The Chicago native received a full scholarship to the NYU film school, so to back his first feature Chocolate Babies, a Panorama selection, he took advantage of the US's generous student loan policies and borrowed to the limit. 'I'll probably be in debt for the rest of my life,' he joked, flashing red-lacquered fingernails and sporting multi-hued dreadlocks.
The university provided equipment, the crew and actors worked for deferred salaries and, with the help of his sister Donna Winter, who acted as producer, they were able to get some catering and other bartered services.
Inspired by visits to drag clubs as a 16-year-old runaway, his zany story about a bunch of terrorist transvestites is one of the first Aids comedies. He gets his serious message across with tongue-in-cheek humour. 'I saw all these people living on the fringe who were being loved,' he said. 'I thought: they could be political revolutionaries.' Owen Levy
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