By the time Nia DaCosta was in 12th grade, she had seen the world — or at least, that’s how it felt. In reality she hadn’t much left her boarding school common room in Dobbs Ferry, NY, but through the power of television DaCosta had been given access to far-flung places like Korea and New Zealand. “I’d become a bit of a tourist in media,” she said in a video call from her home. Television shows and films on DVD and VHS tapes were portals into different cultures, most of them brought into her orbit by her school’s international students. She remembers watching a copy of Bong Joon Ho’s 2006 movie, “The Host,” belonging to one of her Korean classmates, in her dorm room. “That’s how I discovered him as a director,” she said. “I really treasure those moments, man. When you fall in love with an artform.”
Two decades on, it’s DaCosta’s films being devoured by an international audience. At 36, the born-and-raised New Yorker, who is currently living in London, has directed a small stack of blockbusters — amassing some impressive credits along the way. Her second film, “Candyman,” a part-sequel, part-retelling of the 1992 horror classic, was co-written and produced by Jordan Peele and debuted at number one at the US box offic
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