As Roe v. Wade fell, teenage girls formed a mock government in ‘Girls State’

By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — In the summer of 2022, days before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, some 500 high school girls gathered in Missouri for a weeklong mock government camp in which they elected their own governor and seated an all-female Supreme Court that would rule on their own bodies. Not everyone came from the same part of the political spectrum. But, for a handful of days, theirs were the voices that counted. It was during that week that documentary filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine filmed the follow-up to 2020’s “Boys State.” While there are many corollaries, “Girls State” is in compelling and illuminating ways not a twin to “Boys State.”