Girls’ Night Out in Hollywood

CHICK FLICK: The new film is intended fro female-only audiences.
Imagine a Hollywood premiere with all the glitz: red carpet, beautiful cast, photographers’ flashing lights, exhilarating buzz. Now, picture that same event with just one difference — only women may attend.

CHICK FLICK: The new film is intended fro female-only audiences.
Director Robin Garbose’s first feature film, “A Light for Greytowers,” will premiere in Los Angeles on December 29 at Paramount Studios’ Sherry Lansing Theater. Based on the novel of the same title, the film is set in Victorian England and tells the story of Miriam, a young girl who lands in an orphanage after fleeing the Cossack pogroms. The cruel matron forbids the girls to observe the Sabbath or to keep kosher, but Miriam fights for her faith.
Garbose, an Orthodox Jew, created the musical movie under rabbinic supervision. In accordance with the Orthodox law that does not permit women to perform in front of men, the film is intended to be viewed exclusively by girls and women. It will be distributed to female-only audiences and to women’s groups on college campuses.
Although the premiere will largely attract members of the local Orthodox community — many of whom usually don’t attend movies, surely not premieres — Garbose also expects many Hollywood industry women “who have a positive association with Judaism.”
Garbose sees her film as “radical” and “counter-cultural,” with its modesty and religious values.
“Most of Hollywood would say there’s nothing left if you take sexuality out,” Garbose said. “This is antithetical to that trend.”
She also plans to screen the film in Christian and Muslim communities. Garbose believes that the film has a universal message of faith and that it could “become a vehicle for tolerance and understanding.”
The director became Orthodox in the early 1990s, after co-writing a Jewish-themed screenplay that was developed at Sundance Institute. Eight years ago she created Kol Neshama, a performing arts conservatory for Orthodox girls in Los Angeles. A successful director of theater at The Juilliard School and at New York University, Garbose envisioned a “Jewish Juilliard.” She recruited many of the film’s young actresses from her program.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
- 4
Opinion Mike Huckabee said there’s ‘no such thing as a Palestinian.’ It’s worth thinking about what that means
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
-
Fast Forward Yarden Bibas says ‘I am here because of Trump’ and pleads with him to stop the Gaza war
-
Fast Forward Trump’s plan to enlist Elon Musk began at Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave
-
Film & TV In this Jewish family, everybody needs therapy — especially the therapists themselves
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.