Tonya Mosley

that created that legend.

And I actually want to play a clip from the film.

In this scene, Billy Burke, played by Coleman Domingo, lives in what was once the Cabrini-Green housing project in Chicago.

And he's telling Anthony a story of the Candyman.

Let's listen.

That was a scene from the 2021 film Candyman, directed by my guest today, Nia DaCosta.

What was it about the original Candyman, and specifically about what you could bring to it that made you know you wanted to direct it?

I also want to talk with you about your aesthetic because I'm starting to see it.

Like with every movie, it becomes clear.

There's a moment in Candyman, actually there's several, and actually in Hedda as well, where you are holding on to these long, unbroken shots.

So we're locked

into the character.

We're moving through space and you just don't cut it.

There's like no tight, medium, wide shots of these different spaces.

Where does that come from?

What are you trying to make us feel when you are refusing to cut away?

Candyman opened at number one, and it made you, as I mentioned before, the first Black woman to debut at number one at the box office.

Do those titles, like first Black woman or youngest director in the case of the Marvels movie, do those titles mean anything to you?

Ava DuVernay.

Is that what it is?