Nanny Interview: Nikyatu Jusu Explains How She Got Her First Feature Off the Ground
57The Collider Ladies Night sub-series, Collider Ladies Night Pre-Party, was made for creators like Nikyatu Jusu. It’s designed to put the spotlight on promising filmmakers in the early stages of their careers who deliver so big with a new project that their star is bound to soar. Mark my words; that will happen for Jusu and this industry is better off for it.
After winning the HBO Short Film Competition at the American Black Film Festival with Flower, earning a Short Film Grand Jury Prize nomination at the Sundance Film Festival for Suicide by Sunlight, and finding other success in the short film format, Jusu finally got the go-ahead for her feature directorial debut, Nanny. Anna Diop leads as Aisha, a Senegalese woman in New York City who starts a new job caring for the daughter of Michelle Monaghan’s type-A working mom. The hope? That gig will give her the resources she needs to bring her own son, Lamine, to the US. However, the more Aisha works, the more she’s haunted by a violent presence threatening to destroy her American dream.
With Nanny now playing in theaters and due out on Prime Video on December 16th, Jusu took the time to follow up our 2022 Toronto International Film Festival conversation with an episode of Collider Ladies Night Pre-Party to offer additional insight into exactly what it took to get her first feature off the ground.
00:00 Introduction
00:41 Finding Her Love of Storytelling
03:23 Applying to NYU Film
04:16 Reassessing "Success"
05:55 Teaching Film at George Mason University
06:19 Useful NYU Lesson She Teaches Now
09:20 An NYU Lesson She's Trying to Evolve
13:38 Financing Your First Feature
#amazon #nanny #filmmaking
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