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In an interview, Onashile described this climate of violence against women as \u201can epidemic.\u201d Her film, \u201cGirl,\u201d centers on a young immigrant mother, Grace (D\u00e9borah Lukumuena), and her 11 year-old daughter, who live in a Glasgow tower block. Grace\u2019s erratic behavior implies a traumatic past, but Onashile doesn\u2019t make this explicit. As part of her research for the film, Onashile said she learned from social workers that you can spot sexual assault survivors by their body language, which gives the \u201csense that something is held, and tight, and wound up.\u201d In the film, Lukumuena plays Grace with stooped shoulders and a downcast gaze.<\/p>\n
Abrahams said that the act of recording her family members gave her the courage to ask difficult questions about long-hidden abuse. With \u201cThe Taste of Mango,\u201d she was seeking to heal divisions between her mother, Rozana, in England, and her maternal grandmother, Jean, in Sri Lanka, but along the way she learned that Rozana is suspected to have suffered at the hands of her stepfather.<\/p>\n
The movie pairs audio of her mother\u2019s testimony with poetic images, including the moon and a road rushing by, glimpsed from a car window. Its meditative pacing was designed to allow the audience \u201cto breathe, and not get sucked down by the heaviness of it,\u201d Abrahams said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But equally, she added, she wanted to show how her mother \u201cfinds joy in life\u201d \u2014 including in country music and manicures \u2014 so Rozana isn\u2019t defined by the things that were done to her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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All three filmmakers considered the impact of the subject matter on the people making their movies and had support on hand from therapists during production. Manning-Walker, who also works as a cinematographer, recalled filming an assault scene for someone else\u2019s film, in which there was no acknowledgment of the toll it might take on the person behind the camera. On her film, she said, her team could stop filming if they felt uncomfortable, which they did several times.<\/p>\n
Manning-Walker said she didn\u2019t want the character of Tara, who goes on vacation intending to lose her virginity and flirts her way into an unwanted scenario, to be a helpless <\/strong>victim. At the end of \u201cHow to Have Sex,\u201d she picks herself up and carries on. But that doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s not affected by what happened, Manning-Walker added.<\/p>\nSexual assault \u201chappens everywhere, and in all situations,\u201d she said. By making a film that confronted it, she said she hoped to challenge a culture of shame and silence around a common experience. All three filmmakers described tearful, post-screening encounters with male and female audience members who saw elements of their lives reflected onscreen.<\/p>\n
After one screening, Manning-Walker recalled, a woman in her 70s had told her that watching \u201cHow to Have Sex\u201d had made her reconsider a teenage sexual encounter: \u201c\u2018I just realized that I\u2019ve been assaulted, from watching your film,\u2019\u201d Manning-Walker remembered the woman saying.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n