After casting producers interviewed hundreds of Girl Scouts for the making of the Cookie Queens documentary and whittled down the list, director Alysa Nahmias interviewed dozens as potential subjects for what has turned out to be an enchanting upbeat story for Sundance audiences. “I asked the kids if they could sell cookies anywhere in the universe, real or imagined, where would it be and the incredible impromptu answers I got were wonderful,” Nahmias said in an interview with The Utah Review.
Undoubtedly, the four naturally entrepreneurial Girl Scouts in Cookie Queens — Ara, Shannon Elizabeth, Nikki and Olive — could sell boxes of cookies anywhere. Precocious and ambitious, these four Girl Scouts, ranging in age from five to 12, are articulate, thoughtful and highly imaginative.
The title originated in a 1985 Los Angeles Times feature about Elizabeth Brinton, who was 13 at the time and a Girl Scout in Falls Church, Virginia. She sold 11,200 boxes of cookies in less than two months and with her celebrity moment, she was dubbed the title. It took hold and as the article indicated she received mail addressed to “Elizabeth Brinton, Cookie Queen, Falls Church, Va.”
What Nahmias achieves so effectively in the film is that each of these Cookie Queens stand out, not as much for their individual volume of sales but for how they approach their goals (which are more than how many boxes of cookies they can move and the type of prize that comes with their efforts).
Explaining why she settled on these four Girl Scouts who came from different parts of the country with unique family features and parenting approaches, Nahmias explained, “They had such a sense of imagination and I needed them to play off each other in the final casting and differences in ages, where they lived and their sales approaches. She added that Cookie Queens became more than a sum of these four parts and the stories with each Girl Scout never felt repetitive, “so it felt like we were going through cookie season with all of them.”
From Charlotte, North Carolina, Olive, 12, already held the single-season sales record of 8,745 boxes for her regional Girl Scouts Council. Her parents, including her mom, who is co-leader of the local troop and cookie manager, assist Olive, who conceives an impressive promotional strategy that includes websites, signs and videos, which propel her to selling 12,801 boxes of cookies, a new state record. In the film, Olive says that her parents probably enjoy cookie season more than her.
Nikki, a nine-year-old Brownie Level Girl Scout living in Chino, California, is an independent with her own ‘troop.’ Her mother, who is a co-leader of a local troop, also signed up Nikki’s two older sisters, who are 14 and 16, as Girl Scouts, to create an uplifting space for her Black daughters in a majority-white community. As the sisters have aged out of participating in cookie season, Nikki hopes to match the previous success her sisters achieved, which included winning the prize for a trip to Europe and a trophy for outstanding sales.
Living in El Paso, Shannon Elizabeth, 8, is an only child whose mom (and troop co-leader), Amanda, raised her alone for the first few years. She is delighted to have Juan, her mother’s partner, help her sell enough cookies to win the prize of a free Girl Scouts summer camp. Connecting with roots in a family that is Latinx and Native American, Shannon Elizabeth also is as passionate about karate as she is with Girl Scouts, where she hopes to carve out opportunities to be a leader for her culturally and ethnically diverse local troop.
Finally, there is Ara, 5, who lives in San Diego with her parents and little brother. Described by Nahmias as a “firecracker in the best way,” Ara is in kindergarten and is in her second year of selling cookies. She sold five boxes in her first year, and sets her new goal for 55 boxes (and boosts it later when she realizes that she could qualify for a prize). She is diabetic so she can only taste the cookies in small amounts and later she is inspired to create her own sugar-free cookie. She is a natural at selling, managing money and promoting her cookies.This includes playing piano at a local market where she sells cookies next to her uncle’s bakery stall.
Nahmias, who is also a mother and a granddaughter of immigrants who worked in sales, said that she connected to each of the girls on a personal level. “Olive [who aspires to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice] is starting to think about identity and empowerment,” she said, adding that Olive wants that identity moment when she questions what she would be if she wasn’t a top seller.” Nahmias said that even adults think about how their identity is tied to something they do or if it is something that people see in them and what does it mean for me to continue to fulfill that expectation. Olive leverages her visibility by advocating for local Girl Scout troops to receive a larger share of the proceeds from per-box sales and eventually is named to a nonvoting advisory board for the organization. Likewise, Shannon Elizabeth, at her young age, demonstrates determination and ambition in everything she takes on, including karate as well as Girl Scouts.
The film is as much about what good parenting can be. “I could see myself in all of the parents and have so much compassion and admiration for them,” Nahmias said. Before she started filming, she and several key members of the production team, including producer Jennifer Sims and Antonio Cisneros, director of photography, crisscrossed the country to spend time with each family, talking with the girls and their parents, joining them in their playtime and accompanying the family on their daily routines.
Cookie Queens is the first film that is entirely present tense and observational for Nahmias, whose films include Art & Krimes by Krimes, The New Bauhaus and Unfinished Spaces. With no interviews and very few archival clips, the film focuses exclusively on cookie season from the perspective of the four girls. “There was no scaffolding and this allowed me to be bold and intentional in different ways,” she said.
“Antonio [Cisneros] did a great job staying close to the girls but not too close,” she explained, “and understood how to hold the camera at their perspective because I wanted the whole experience of Cookie Queens to feel like you’re in the perspective of the girls at their level. It’s not the parents’ point of view. The parents come into the girls’ world and that was something that helped the girls feel comfortable as well.”
The editing is excellent, as Nahmias weaves these four narratives into a cohesive thematic journey, with the expertise of editors Kim Roberts, Jeanne Applegate and Fátima de los Santos. “The edit was really joyful and even in the final quality control and digital cinema package stages, I was laughing and smiling throughout and it never got old,” she said. “The editors expressed those same feelings. They were so happy to work on a film that made them smile every day.”
Among the producers were Sundance veterans Michael Dweck and Greg Kershaw (Truffle Hunters and Gaucho Gaucho). Among executive producers are Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. The film also is one of three Sundance documentaries this year which are fiscally sponsored by the Utah Film Center, whose principal founder Geralyn Dreyfous also was an executive producer.