The maverick filmmaker and pioneer of the docudrama, whose anti-establishment works redefined political cinema and challenged the very language of mass media, has died aged 90.

DaCosta’s film updates the setting from 1890s Norway to 1950s England, and makes Hedda a biracial, queer woman. (In the original play, Eileen is actually a man named Eilert.) “I really felt that Nia ...