Above: Nia DaCosta and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II on the set of Candyman. Below: Writer/director Darnell Martin (left) and filmmaker Julie Dash.
THIS AUGUST, NIA DaCosta’s Candyman became the first film by a Black female director ever to open at number one at the US box office. It’s a milestone — but also one that should have come sooner. As well as being something to celebrate, it shows how few Black women get to make major films, and how many roadblocks they still face.
It’s an issue that deprives cinemagoers of talented filmmakers. Look at Julie Dash, whose 1991 film D aughters Of The Dust is hugely influential but whose second feature, an Angela Davis biopic, wasn’t announced until 2 019. (It is ye but also one that sooner. As well as o celebrate, it ck women get to and how many ll face. at deprives ented at Julie Dash, aughters Of influential eature, an c, wasn’t 019. (It is yet office. I genuinely can just make a to emerge.) Or Darnell Martin, director of 1994’s I Like It Like That, who was blacklisted by studios for talking about racism and misogyny. “You think, ‘It’s okay — you’re like every other filmmaker,’” Martin told the New York Times.
“But then you realise, ‘No.’ It’s like they set us up to fail — all they wanted was to be able to pat themselves on the back like they did something.”