Nia DaCosta

So it was one, me really believing in it and also just having the help that I needed to bring it all to life.

Yeah, that was like the age of the new American cinema.

And I just, I mean, the audacity of it all is for me what I really responded to.

I mean, I remember the first time I saw Apocalypse Now.

I was like, what do you mean?

Like, what?

You recreated this?

And it's a brilliant film, but it's also like this...

managed chaos and i was just so in awe of it and i think also with apocalypse now actually i was the reason why i watched it was because i was studying um joseph conrad's heart of darkness in ap english and my teacher said oh there's an adaptation of it a loose adaptation called apocalypse now and we happen to have it in my dorm because i was at boarding school at the time and i

Actually, now that I think about it, I wonder if that's why I'm so loosey-goosey with adaptation and feel like I can do anything because, you know, that's from the heart of Africa to the Vietnam War.

That transliteration was very, it's a very different world than his adaptation.

And so, yeah, it really made me feel brave watching those men be audacious.

And I didn't really think about their maleness, their whiteness, you know, their privilege.

I was just like, oh, movies, great.

Because at the same time, I was watching Casey Lemon's film, I was watching Yves Bayou, Lemon Basketball.

And so I took for granted that I could make movies too.

Yeah, I think it was between the ages of 11 and 13, I think.

my mom and I were talking a lot about film and what I wanted to do with my life.

And I was always writing, and I was always saying, I'm going to be a writer, I'm going to write some stuff.

And my mom was like, yeah, you are, I can see that for sure.