Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is a 2002 American comedy-drama film

Comedy-drama

Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...

 starring Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock

Sandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...

 and Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd is an American television and film actress, who has played lead roles in films including Ruby in Paradise, Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy, Where the Heart Is and High Crimes...

, directed and written by Callie Khouri

Callie Khouri

Callie Khouri is an American screenwriter and film director. In 1992 she won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for the film, Thelma & Louise.-Biography:...

. It is based on Rebecca Wells

Rebecca Wells

Rebecca Wells is an American author and theatre director, who wrote the Ya-Ya Sisterhood series of books, which includes Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Little Altars Everywhere, and Ya-Yas in Bloom.-Background:...

' novel of the same name

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is a novel written by Rebecca Wells. Is follows the novel Little Altars Everywhere. In 2005, Wells wrote Ya-Yas in Bloom and then The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder...

 and its prequel

Prequel

A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...

 collection of short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

, Little Altars Everywhere

Little Altars Everywhere

Little Altars Everywhere chronicles the adventures of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood - four eccentric women - and their children, affectionately called the Petites Ya-Yas.-Plot introduction:...

.
The film opens in 1937 Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 with four little girls out in the woods at night, each wearing a home-made headdress. The leader, Viviane Abbott, initiates them into a secret order she dubs the "Ya-Ya Sisterhood," which they seal by cutting their palms and taking a blood oath

Blood brother

Blood brother can refer to one of two things: two males related by birth, or two or more men not related by birth who have sworn loyalty to each other. This is usually done in a ceremony, known as a blood oath, where the blood of each man is mingled together...

 of undying loyalty.

Then we switch to 2002 New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where Viviane's daughter, playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 Siddalee Walker (Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock

Sandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...

), while overseeing production of her newest release, gives an interview with a Time Magazine

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

reporter, mentioning her unhappy childhood as a major source of inspiration for her work.