Feminists Around the World: Nia DaCosta

Nia DaCosta is a record-breaking filmmaker. We highlight her story and accomplishments.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I come to stuff
I've never told you, protection of iHeartRadio and this month,
which I actually think this is coming out, not in
the month that we are recording. I think this is

(00:25):
coming out in twenty twenty four, but right now we're
doing one of our big final recording sessions of the year.
It is still December twenty twenty three, and Samantha and
I did a bit of a switch for the holidays,
So Samantha did the fictional women around the World this month,
and it was really fun for me to be on

(00:47):
the other side. Won't tell me more.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I don't having so much fun with it and being
a two parter because I was like, let me tell
you about the entirety.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
It was great. I loved it, and a lot of
you have already written it have been like that was
very funny here they were talking about because I don't
think that's come out as we recorded it, but they
were talking about the Frozen episode, where I was like,
what are you talking about? Where we did talk about Yes,
Once upon a Time, which I don't feel bad spoiling
because this does come out after that, even though it

(01:17):
hasn't come out yet. That's the fun of publishing in
the world of Sminty. Yes, but I am taking one
of the feminists around the world segments in this exchange. Yeah,
so welcome, And I am cheating because I'm doing an
American woman, which we typically try to avoid. Look, look,

(01:40):
you did a two parter. Cheat. Yes, we do try
to avoid that usually. But I have been meaning to
talk about this and this person ever since his marvel
came out. The marvels came out excuse me, which we
saw together and enjoyed, me and Samantha. Yes, yes, so
today we are talking about American filmmaker Nia DaCosta, who

(02:02):
was born in Brooklyn in nineteen eighty nine. Oh. Also,
timestamp on this December nineteenth, twenty twenty three is when
recording it. I only say that because there's a lot
of things have changing very quickly in the story that
I will talk about a little bit at the end.
But anyway, Yes, I was born in Brooklyn in nineteen
eighty nine. Her mom had moved to the US from
Jamaica and was one of the founding vocalists of Oral

(02:25):
a Girl. As a kid, Tacosta wanted to become a poet,
but as she got older in her teenage years, she
really fell in love with film, and so to that end,
she enrolled at New York University Tish School of the Arts,
and she had a lot of hard experiences there. Once
she graduated, she started working as a production assistant for television,

(02:48):
working with directors like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. She
went on to write the script for Little Woods, which
I'm sure some of you have seen heard of. It
was one of twelve projects selected for twenty fifteen's sun
Dance Screenwriters and Director's Labs. DaCosta met and befriended Tessa Thompson,
who was later cast in Littlewoods, and through Kickstarter, DaCosta

(03:11):
was able to fund and film Little Woods, and that
made it her first feature film. When it premiered at
Tribeca in twenty eighteen, it was awarded the Nora Efron
Award for quote Excellence in Storytelling by a Female Writer
or Director. The movie debuted in theaters in twenty nineteen,
and then interviews from around that time, DaCosta spoke about

(03:31):
the importance to her around telling stories about women who
were active and not passive. Okay, So, after finishing Little Woods,
she directed two episodes of Top Boy, and in twenty eighteen,
she co wrote and directed Candy Man The New One. Obviously.
When it came out in twenty twenty one and earned

(03:52):
the top box office spot, she became the first black
woman director to have a film debut at that spot.
She was hired to direct The Marvels in twenty twenty,
only the fourth woman to direct a Marvel movie and
the youngest director and the first Black woman to direct
a Marvel movie. When The Marvels came out, it made

(04:12):
forty six point one million dollars, which was the best
opening box office ever for a black woman director. Here
is a quote from Variety. DaCosta also wanted to satisfy
the blurred black nerd in her who'd grown up absorbed
in comic book culture. The Brooklyn born filmmaker was especially
keen to tell Kamala's story because she was a huge

(04:34):
fan of the Miss Marvel comics, which debuted when she
was in her teens. Usually, I'm not like, I like
this person because I see myself a Tri State area
nerd who loves superhero and comic stuff and writes fan fiction,
DaCosta says. But she's a great street level hero in
Air to Spider Man, and here's a continuing quote. Monica

(04:55):
is wrestling with the grief of losing her mother Maria
and feeling like Carol them why Kamala must learn that
her idol is just another person. Carol's journey is about
learning that the fate of the world doesn't rest wholly
on her shoulders. Because Carol has been on her own
for so long, it was important to show what it
is actually like for this woman to live a life
where she thinks she's the only thing holding everything together,

(05:19):
which is a story that a lot of women can
relate to. And yes, through her work, she has received
Mini Awards nominations, and she has been She's on so
many upcoming projects. She's very, very busy, which is a
part of what I want to talk about next. But
I really don't want to focus on this because I
want to celebrate this and not bring it down. But

(05:41):
we should. One of the reasons it was on my
mind was because when this movie came out, there was
the unfortunately expected sexist, racist response, like the cast is
mostly women, it's a diverse cast, there's this black woman director.
And then even though it made a lot of money,
and there's been a lot of conversation about how we
frame like movies made by men who don't make a

(06:05):
lot of money versus movies made by women who don't
make as much money as you're expecting. But it's kind
of the same that there has been a lot of
conversation around it, and around Disney's response around it. If
they give money to the difficulty of working in such
a big machine came up a lot, and apparently it's

(06:26):
kind of understood that you don't get final editing. Say
so Dicosa did speak about this, and this is from
that Variety article. There are pockets where you go because
you're like, I'm a super fan. I want to exist
in the space of just adoration, which includes civilized critique.
She explains, Then there are pockets that are really virluent

(06:46):
and violent and racist and sexist and homophobic and all
those awful things. And I choose the side of the light.
That's the part of fandom I'm most obtracted to. So
she said this, which to me totally makes sense, but
then a lot of people purposely misinterpreted it or like choose, Oh,
Marvel fans are horrible. Look what she's done. She literally
is like, no, that's good, right.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
I don't understand how they misinterpreted that.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, well they did.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
They just took out the word pockets and then saw it.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
They left it in there perfectly, but they okay, yes,
I mean, proving the point pretty much. Also, friend of
the Joe Bridgett did a whole episode on this if
you want to know more about it. And I do

(07:40):
think there's a lot of things going on right now.
There's there's Marvel fatigue. I think there's franchise fatigue in general.
It's kind of uncertain territory Disney is panicking and yeah,
I mean it's it's weird because it's always like we
had fun watching it. I thought it was a good time.
I thought it was different, it was unique. Yeah, and
that doesn't mean it's perfect. Like I don't know, we

(08:00):
have to be on this ground where it's like it
has flaws. Therefore, see, I think it was better than
some of the more recent Marvels. So it's just I
feel like we're having this conversation in a way that
is not consistent. I also think, like I know DaCosta

(08:20):
has spoken about this. Here's a quote from her growth
has to stop at some point. As you make more
and more films, you want those films to be more interesting,
more dynamic, and to appeal to different audiences. But that
requires risk, and there's a conundrum where you're so big
that you can't take risk. I think that's what the
audience is feeling. They're like, I've seen it before, and

(08:41):
I liked it the first time. And here's a quote
from ap But it's also a big budget attempt to
try some new things. It's the first Marvel movie to
feature not just all female leads, but a female villain
as well. DaCosta thirty three, is the youngest filmmaker to
Helm and MCU release. More importantly, she's the first black
woman to direct Marvel movie thirty three. I know, I

(09:03):
don't think about it too hard. Some happen, Okay, I mean, no,
you're amazing, get it.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
I'm proud of you.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
Can you do you? But damn quick? Congratulations? Yes? And
another thing, And I was thinking about this when we
were doing our wrap up episodes at the end of
twenty twenty three. This came out like literally the day
the strikes ended, so they couldn't advertise it, and so
I think that's also been a problem, both in like
what Disney does, but also yes, they couldn't advertise during

(09:33):
the strikes, and I feel like a lot of movies now,
and I'm a Marvel fan, I just don't know what's
coming out anymore necessarily or when it's coming out, which
used to be I would know. But a lot of
articles have also said things like in Kanto came out,
wasn't number one, did pretty well, but was like, you know,

(09:53):
not what it became through streaming. Like I think there's
also just a shift in how we watch things right
going on, honestly, but there has been a lot of
drama about this, and I'm just gonna skim over it
because I've but basically people are sort of like, what's
going on with Disney. We're pretty much trying to blame
her and throw her under the bus, and like maybe

(10:14):
saying some quotes you shouldn't be saying about like she
went and did filmed another thing from a different country
when we were in post, but that's like normal people do.
That she had told them she was going to do
it and they agreed. Recently at like Disney's big what
are we going to Do? Meeting at the end of
the year, bob By Group was like there wasn't enough
supervision on set. But here's a quote from Gizmoto as

(10:38):
that aforementioned Variety report lobbied and has been a frequent
criticism of the Marvel machine even at the height of
its influence in Hollywood. Marvel Studios is known for heavy
executive involvement in its films, even when working with directors
seemingly hired for their own unique visions and approaches, and
to fix it in post attitude that the studio is
at least apparently trying to turn away from. But still

(11:00):
it's also a wild thing to say when the Marvels
itself still ultimately feels like a product of the studio's
preponderance for metaling and poking. No matter what you ultimately
think about the Marvels itself, positively or negatively, Disney's increasingly
public critiques of DeCosta are just starting to feel weird
and weirder the higher up the food chain that they
start coming from. The studio is so concerned as to

(11:21):
why this specific film among a series of underperformers in
twenty twenty three didn't work, There has to be a
better way of approaching that concern than throwing its director
under the bus YEP. Yeah, so there's a lot going
on with it. That's why I want to put the
date at the top. But yes, it is part of
a larger, separate issue conversation. I'm sure we'll have. I

(11:43):
have a lot of thoughts about it, but yeah, DaCosta
is by no means done. She's currently filming something with
Tessa Thompson right now, Like I think she's gonna be get.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's so absurd. Like I actually really enjoyed it. There
are things that I'm like, Okay, don't love that part.
Singing a whole singing planet spoiler alert was was interesting esus.
So when I saw it was like a Korean drama. Dude,
it was like, wait, but like that, but it was funny.
But the entire thing was like as many like heavy
handed things that Marvel tries to do. It was fun

(12:18):
It was both of those things, and it was good
to see that nuanced level with the three very different
people bringing in some amazing characters and like character qualities.
And I love Kamala. I think she's a wonderful edition.
And I really hope the next generation of Marvel's Avengers,
whatever they're gonna be called. I know you and Joey

(12:40):
had killed me and I already forgot, so I can't
wait wherever relearn. But like, I think that's like those
two are really great characters, if I say, most of y'all,
y'all don't know if you haven't seen this, so we
might need to do a spoiler Saturday for this one.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yeah, I love Miss Marvel was one of my favorite
comics well when I went my second wave of comics
when I was in like right after college, Miss Marvel
was one of my favorites.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
I think they've built a great backstory for her. She
might be one of my favorites. Like, and I don't
love Marvel like that, Like I watched all of them.
I watch all of them, all of them, I watched
most of them, but like, I think Miss Marvel was
one of the most the better, like well rounded developed characters.
Thus far, of course they're going to go back and

(13:30):
ruin things, I'm sure, but thus far, I like it.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yeah, well, yeah, no, she's great, And I'm the actress
is great because she is a Marvel fan and that's
kind of how she got the role, and so she
has one and they're interesting to read. But yes, yes
we will come back and talk about it more. But
thank you for letting me do this, swapperoo, even though
I cheated.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
And we still came back to marvel I love it.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
I know you know I'm going to don't act surprise.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
But I enjoyed every bit of it.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Good job. Yes, thank you and listeners hopefully that you
have enjoyed You have enjoyed our little or switcher as well.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
You.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
If you have any topic ideas people we should talk about,
fictional or otherwise, you can let us know. You can
email U at Stephanie mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast,
or on Instagram and TikTok at steff I never told you.
We have a tea public store and a book where's
Marvelous discussed. Yes, you can get it wherever you get
your books. Thanks as always to our super producer Christina,

(14:35):
executive producer Maya, and your contributor Joey. Thank you and
thanks to you for listening. Stephan Ever Told You is
production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts on my heart Radio,
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