Arts & Entertainment

Movie Based on Chelsea Author's Novel Premieres at 2014 Sundance Film Festival

"White Bird in a Blizzard," which premieres Jan. 20 at the Sundance Film Festival, is based on the 1999 novel written by acclaimed author and poet Laura Kasischke of Chelsea.

You’d better believe that Laura Kasischke will be watching how audiences respond to Gregg Araki’s “White Bird in a Blizzard” when the Sundance Film Festival gets under way in Park City, Utah, later this week.

The acclaimed Chelsea author and poet wrote the novel that inspired the movie, the Chelsea Standard reports.

The story centers on Katrina Connors (Shailene Woodley), who finds herself "becoming 16” — physically maturing and blossoming as a sexual individual — as her mother, Eve ( Eva Green), slowly cuts herself off from the world. When Eve walks out on her family, Katrina is left to fend for herself, unearthing revelations in an unlikely place: her dreams, according to story on Hollywood Reporter, which gives the film strong early reviews.

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Kasischke said she was intrigued by the relationship between mothers and their daughters after hearing a news account in the 1980s that became the inspiration for her novel.

“For me, one of the things that was so interesting about that was the strange separation but closeness between teenage daughters and their mothers,” Kasischke told the newspaper. “There is some other sensational stuff in the novel, like sex scenes, mystery and some violence, but my main focus was to explore the bonds and rifts between a mother and daughter. I would hope that is still a focus of the movie.”

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"White Bird in a Blizzard" was produced by Why Not Productions & Desperate Pictures. Supporting cast members include Christopher Meloni and Gabourey Sidibe.

The first of four screenings of the movie will be at 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 20. It is being offered in the non-competition “premieres” section of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

Kasischke has written two other novels that have been adapted for the big screen.  

A film starring Molly Parker was based her first novel, “Suspicious River,” the story of a young, married woman living in a small town working first as a motel receptionist and then as a prostitute. “The Life Before Her Eyes,” which was inspired by the Columbine High School massacre, stars Uma Thurman.

Kasischke has published eight novels and eight collections of poetry.

>>>  Read more about the author here.

>>> Watch the movie trailer.


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