**Expected to attend: Director Stephen Cone
USA/86 Minutes - REGIONAL PREMIERE
HENRY GAMBLE’S BIRTHDAY PARTY spans the 24 hours containing the birthday pool party of 17-year-old preacher’s kid Henry Gamble.
The night before the party, Henry and his friend Gabe, have a sleepover. Typical teenage boy chat quickly turns sexual, and it’s silently implied that Henry, on a search for identity, has a crush on Gabe.
As dawn arrives on the day of the party, Henry’s mom Kat wakes in a state of limbo, middle-aged, with a secret. A little while later, Pastor Bob is making breakfast, and they are joined by Henry’s 19-year-old sister Autumn, home from college for the party. Later that afternoon, guests begin to arrive – the assistant pastor, youth minister, husbands and wives; sons and daughters trapped between youth and adulthood, as well as Henry’s own teenaged church and “secular” friends, including the closeted young Logan, who has eyes for Henry.
As day turns to night and clothes come off, Henry & Co. carefully navigate the religious strictures and sexual secrets held within the community, all struggling to tread the public and private, and their longing, despite themselves and their faith, for earthly love.
