Laurel Parmet On Worship Dances & Character Backgrounds In The Starling Girl

The Starling Girl, which marks writer and director Laurel Parmet’s feature film debut, is now in theaters after receiving critical acclaim at several film festivals. The masterfully told story about a teenage road’s difficult road to self-empowerment was inspired partially by the filmmaker’s own experiences as well as by her research into fundamentalist Christian communities. One such community in rural Kentucky serves as the setting for Jem Starling’s (Eliza Scanlen, Sharp Objects) coming-of-age tale, whose love of her religion as expressed through worship dance is complicated by her relationship with her youth pastor.