by Mary Rupert
An energetic 7-year-old girl from Kansas City, Kan., will star in a new independent movie to be shown Oct. 29 at the Glenwood Theater, 95th and Mission, Leawood, Kan.
Makayla Manning, who attends second grade at William Allen White Elementary School, is in her first movie, according to her parents.
“Makayla is 7 and pretty much the life of the party wherever she goes; she has an energetic spirit,” said her father, Grady Manning. “She loves to act, sing, dance, and plays drums, just like her father.”
The inspirational adventure movie is about a young girl who faces challenges in school when a character from a fictional children’s book arrives from another planet to help her. The character from another planet is chased by two villains, also from the fictional children’s book, who are trying to get her award-winning recipe. The point of the movie, according to Manning, is that help is always available when it is needed.
As Grady Manning tells it, Willis Hamilton, an independent filmmaker, wrote an inspirational and faith-based film called “Lord, Have Mercy!” Hamilton sought some actors where he went to church, the Evangelistic Center International Ministries, 1800 Washington Blvd., Kansas City, Kan. Makayla and her family go to church there, and are in the film, along with about 60 other church members.
“He came across our family, and said, ‘She would be perfect for this movie I’m making,’ ” Manning said.
“She has the energy, the spirit for this movie,” Hamilton told her parents. “We were like the first ones to act in this movie, to start off the first scene,” Manning said.
Makayla’s parents, Grady and Michelle, have a small role in the movie, playing the character’s parents. Also, Grady Manning does a rap-style segment at the end of the movie with Hamilton. Grady Manning is an amateur drummer who plays off and on at his church, he said. He works as a warehouse driver at Certainteed insulation.
Grady Manning said the movie took about a year and a half to complete, and the filmmaker got some good film tips from his son, a cameraman for CNN.
The movie was filmed around town, in downtown Kansas City, Mo., at the church in Kansas City, Kan., in homes and at other areas, he said.
The filmmaking experience was positive for him and his family, Manning said.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “The cast members are great and everyone gets along with each other. It’s great to be able to participate in a local movie.”
Makayla did well in her acting debut.
“She took to it naturally, and does a real good job,” Manning said about Makayla. “She loves being in front of the camera, loves to perform, entertain and sing.”
For a while, Makayla’s parents thought she might be a drummer when she grew up. Grady Manning said when she was 2 years old, she said she wanted a drum set, not a doll. She’s been playing drums since then.
“She just gravitated to the drums,” he said, “making up beats, emulating it on the drums. She took off from there, working on different pieces, she does really well now at 7 years old.”
Grady Manning is not too surprised about his daughter’s musical and acting talent; after all, he comes from a family with many musicians in it, including the Ray Manning Singers, a gospel group. One of the relatives was the late Marva Manning Whitney, a singer who toured with James Brown, who called her his “soul sister No. 1.”
But drums and acting may not be Makayla’s ultimate career goal.
“She has a talent to act, to play drums, to dance and sing, and she’s even trying to rap like her dad,” Grady Manning said. “She said when she grows up she wants to be an obstetrician and pediatrician.”
Admission is $10 to the movie. To see a movie trailer, visit https://www.facebook.com/lordhavemercymovie1?fref=ts.
