Toronto filmmaker points her lens at assumptions made about young black men
HERstory in Black: The Next Generation profiles seven young black women making a mark in their communities
Ever since she was a child Jual DaCosta has been fascinated by film and television.
"The media industry as a whole, not just film, is my passion," explained the 25-year-old.
But it wasn't until high school that she started to chart a course for a career in film. She enrolled in a high school media program at Stephen Leacock Collegiate. She then went on to study Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University, earning her masters degree.
This year, the young filmmaker took a big step towards realizing her goals. She wrote, produced and directed a short film that recently premiered at the Toronto Black Film Festival.
"I've done other pieces of work throughout my school and my masters and everything but I felt like "Tagged" was the biggest part of me...I feel like this is my baby completely," DaCosta described.
Tagged is based on the true story of the shooting death of a young black man and the aftermath his family faces.
"The mother had a very difficult time grieving her son," explained DaCosta. "She had to dispel stereotypes about her son being in a gang or being a thug, which was not the case."
"He was an outstanding young man who had scholarships for music and basketball and people that knew him forgot about that and just saw what they were seeing on the news."
Dreaming of making it big with few role models
Dacosta made the film because she wanted to show another side of gun violence in Toronto.
"Even while I was creating this film, a lot of mothers, fathers, siblings, people came to me and they had their own stories of how they were very happy to have this film out there because a lot of people don't understand how hard it is to lose someone and how hard it is to grieve them," she said.
"People feel like you shouldn't because they feel like they're the bad guy or the villain."
DaCosta's dream is to join the ranks of successful television and film producers, but she knows it's a challenge.
African-American producer Shonda Rhimes is one of her role models. Rhimes is the creator and producer of the hit television shows Grey's Anatomy and Scandal.
"There needs to be more women of colour in these positions," DaCosta said.
"Stories are told differently through those eyes sometimes. And you know people identify differently while watching themselves or someone that looks like them on television or that's telling the story."
Telling a story and changing perceptions
"What if we just gave a young black man a chance?"
Her first film not only tells a story, it also carries a definite message. "I want {viewers} to think. I want them to think 'what if we just gave a young black man a chance? What if we allowed them to show how outstanding they are and how great they can be instead of kind of keeping them down and putting a cap on their life?'"
The film premiere of Tagged at the Toronto Black Film Festival has given DaCosta the encouragement to continue learning and perfecting her passion.
"I just felt like if this is what I really want to do, I have to go for it," she said. "It's gonna be really hard but I have to do it no matter what it takes."
