pray or prey: the starling girl
In her white dancing costume, Jem says a prayer. Flapping fabrics, barefoot, a dance performance, alluding to freedom. A freedom that cuts short when the camera pans to the wider setting of a church. The Starling Girl, by Laurel Parmet, is a story about a girl crippling with the grip of her Christian community on her, and how as this dominance builds and builds, it comes crashing down. We follow our protagonist Jem, a 17-year-old girl living in a fundamentalist Christian community in Kentucky. Jem can be seen dancing with other dancers, wearing all white in front of everyone in the church, with sunlight penetrating through the glass windows; the scene itself seemed too pure and holy. After the dance, as everyone was socializing, Jem was introduced to the pastor's younger son, and the two, along with the parents, discussed marriage. A woman approached Jem and told her that her bra was visible through her shirt and that she should be more careful about it. Jem, eyes filled wit...
