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Writer-director Molly Manning Walker was sitting on a stool at Bushwick’s Mood Ring bar the other night, trying to talk herself out of doing karaoke. “I’m not a singer,” she said apologetically, after her waiter encouraged her to try. “I’m pretty deaf.” Growing up in London in the year 2000, she had filmed her brother’s punk band from the pit; Finding a way to get involved without playing an instrument, she said, had been a matter of urgency: “I was like, ‘Fuck, give me a camera, quick!’ “
The camera worked. Manning Walker filmed music videos for artists like A$AP Rocky, became director of photography for the Sundance Award-winning film “Scrapper,” and last year won the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes for her debut feature, “How to Have Sex.” ” The film, which premiered this week, follows a trio of British girls through a Dionysian rite of passage: the post-exam holiday. In 2010, Manning Walker took his in the Majorcan town of Magaluf; years more He later returned to conduct research for the film, this time taking notes about his nights out. “I was constantly writing down what people said,” he recalled. The plot, ultimately set in Crete, traces the complicated bonds between teenagers, shaped due to petty jealousy, easy intimacy and difficult postures, at a crucial moment.
Manning Walker, now thirty years old, has short, bleached blonde hair and an understated friendliness. She filmed “How to Have Sex” during the winter, when tourists flee Crete in search of warmer climates. The important club scenes required hundreds of extras (“We had buses of teenagers coming from all over the island”), and found himself having to convince his icy leading lady, Mia McKenna-Bruce, to return to the pool for additional takes. The team built camaraderie through soccer games, barbecues, and songs. “The whole movie was supposed to be designed in two halves,” Manning Walker said. “The first part is like Disneyland: fun, all the colors are pretty clean and not messy. And then slowly it disintegrates.”
She had experienced this darker side of the scene herself. When she was a teenager, she was attacked on a night out in London. “It affected me a lot, but I was also confused by the fact that no one wanted to talk about it,” she said. She turned the incident into a short film and stopped drinking for six years. (“I was still partying,” she clarified, “but that made me stop going to parties that were bad.”) Sobriety and distance put things in perspective. “I went to a wedding with a group of friends and I thought: Do you remember in Magaluf when we were in a bar and they called two guys on stage and gave them blowjobs?” They all did it. “I was like, Oh“I thought I emphasized that in my head.” Shooting the film, she said, “redefined that space for me: coming back to the party city and being in control of how I lived within it.”
Although “How to Have Sex” addresses issues of consent (and has sparked debate in the post-screening Q&A), it is neither moralistic nor bleak. On the festival circuit, Manning Walker and her team have become known for her commitment to partying. “I guess it’s a good reputation,” she said. “I love the dance floor, especially for industry parties, because that way you avoid the chatter. ‘I’ll be by the speakers if anyone needs me!’ “
A group of friends walked into Mood Ring and the waiter perked up: more potential singers. Manning Walker talked about her next project. She had just finished a treatment for a film dealing with climate change. “I’m really interested in the decisions we make as human beings while the world is on fire,” she said. “I’m surprised that everyone is like, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, while in the background…” she imitated the sound of an explosion. She confided in me another dream: “I would like to do big car accidents. Stunts! I want to make an action movie! My agent keeps saying, “Stop.” saying that.”
The waiter made one last plea: “We will do karaoke, it doesn’t cost anything. Cold vibes! Judgment-free zone! Finally, a man stood up. “She’s going to pick something for me,” he said, pointing to his companion. He started a Bad Bunny song and the boy fought valiantly to rap in Spanish.
Manning Walker focused his attention on the couple, with an anthropological brilliance. “First or second date?” She whispered. “I think first.” The performance was not going well, but the woman clapped to the rhythm in a show of support. Manning Walker revised her estimate: “Okay, maybe it’s the third.” She watched as the groom-to-be returned to her seat, shy but triumphant. She smiled and said, “To be fair, it’s a pretty good scene.” ♦