THE STARLING GIRL
Premiering in competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
SYNOPSIS: 17-year-old Jem Starling struggles with her place within her Christian fundamentalist community. But everything changes when her magnetic youth pastor Owen returns to their church.
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: Laurel Parmet (Tisch Grad Film ’20)
Laurel Parmet is a 2019 Sundance Screenwriters Intensive Fellow, and has written and directed several award-winning short films; the latest, “Kira Burning” premiered at SXSW in 2018 and screened at MoMA as part of the Future of Film is Female series. Her previous short film, “Spring,” screened at SXSW, Outfest, and Palm Springs, and continues to play around the world. She’s a 2019 fellow in Ryan Murphy’s TV Director Mentorship Program and her music videos put her on the shortlist for the Young Director Awards at the Cannes Lions Festival. She’s based in Los Angeles and she really loves chips.
PRODUCED BY: Kara Durrett (Tisch Drama ’10)
Kara Durrett is an independent producer who has had multiple features and shorts play in over 200 festivals worldwide, including Sundance, SXSW, Telluride and Cannes Official Selection. Her award-winning short film Caroline was shortlisted for the 2018 Oscars. Her recent features include Celine Held and Logan George’s Topside (SXSW, Special Jury Award for Directing; Venice Film Festival, Special Jury Award for Technical Contribution), and Alex Fischer and Eleanor Wilson’s Save Yourselves! (Sundance 2020, distributed by Bleecker Street). Durrett was awarded the 2019 Sundance Producing Fellowship for her project Starling Girl, directed by Laurel Parmet and starring Eliza Scanlen.