Meghan Markle introduces director of ‘Cookie Queens’ at Park City’s final Sundance

Photo: Director and girls of “Cookie Queens”

PARK CITY, Utah — Sunday morning Meghan Markle and Prince Harry attended the Park City premiere of Cookie Queens, for which they were executive producers. The Duchess of Sussex, a former girl scout herself, proceeded to introduce the movie and director, Alysa Nahmias with her incredible creative vision, “to show something modernized about the girlhood experience and all the layers and complexity that come with that. So, yes, it’s cute. And yes, these young ladies are fantastic and adorable, but they are also layered, beautiful girls, who are about to become very strong leaders and young women. So, thank you for supporting that.

This film is such a labor of love, they have worked on for a couple of years. And with all of the hundreds of hours of trusted fly on the wall material, they were able to catch with these families that let them in and allowed them to show and share their lives and their loves, this editorial is also something pretty outstanding, but that is all testament to the talent and expertise of the director Alysa Nahmias, who is here today.”

Cookie Queens follows four girl scouts, Ara, Olive and her friend, Nikki and Shannan Elizabeth and her two sisters through a cookie-selling season. The girls display remarkable entrepreneurial spirit and have big personalities and ambitions. The girls’ efforts keep the film interesting and Ara burrows into your heart as she determines she needs strength training so she can pull her cookie wagon.

The stories of the different families do show the ugly underbelly of the Girl Scout Organization. The financial sacrifices don’t seem to be aligned with reasonable expectations. While all seven of the girls stated that all the leadership skills they learned in girl scouts were worth the effort and benefited them as they applied for college, they did agree that the organization should make some changes.

Alysa Nahmias did an incredible job selecting her subjects for Cookie Queens. The film will be showing a few more times at the Sundance Film Festival.