The Sisterhood of the Night

In Post Production

Based on the short story by Steven Millhauser
Screenwriter: Marilyn Fu
Director: Caryn Waechter

A small New Jersey town is plunged into controversy when a teenage girl exposes a secret society of high school girls. Members of The Sisterhood hold their vow of silence, even as the community begins to believe the worst. Why are these girls willing to risk so much just for a nighttime gathering in the woods? The Sisterhood of Night chronicles three girls' unique and provocative alternative to the loneliness of adolescence and the digital abyss — unprecedented in an Internet age that is here to stay, and timeless in its resounding echoes of betrayal and friendship.

The suburban town of Fairview, New Jersey is as ordinary as can be, inhabited by church-going all-American families whose idea of a scandal is an ill-trimmed lawn. But even the most immaculate of towns has its share of secrets, and in Fairview, it involves a group of girls who go “off the grid” of internet social networking and sneak out after sunset to meet in a forest on the edge of town. One morning at church, Emily Parris, the school’s needy gossip girl, exposes a secret society of girls called “The Sisterhood of Night,” accusing them of deviant activities unimaginable to those living behind white picket fences.

The allegations throw Fairview into the public eye and blogosphere. The mystery only deepens when each of the accused refuses to explain herself and an on-line investigation yields…nothing. Frenzied and perturbed, the Parent-Teacher Association asks Gordy Milliken, the well-meaning guidance counselor to interview each of the girls to get to the bottom of the matter. Three of the girls are particularly suspicious: Mary Warren, the alleged leader of The Sisterhood who is covertly hooking up with a boy from school; Catherine Huang, who has a crush on David Beckham and hides her fear of losing her mom to cancer; and Lavinia Hall, a child prodigy pianist who doubts she’ll ever get kissed.

Though pressure mounts and the investigation turns invasive, Mary, Catherine, Lavinia and the other members of The Sisterhood hold their vow of silence, even as their classmates begin to assume things of them that may not be true. Why are these girls willing to risk so much, just for a nighttime gathering in the woods? What, then, are the girls’ deepest secrets? "The Sisterhood of Night" chronicles three girls’ unique and provocative alternative to the loneliness of adolescence and the digital abyss, along the way revealing the tragedy and humor of growing up — unprecedented in an internet age that is here to stay, and timeless in its resounding echoes of betrayal and friendship.

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