Malia Obama - the eldest daughter of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama - stepped onto the red carpet for the very first time as a director at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
The 25-year-old made her red carpet debut on January 17 to celebrate the premiere of her directorial debut, a short film titled The Heart.
For her red carpet appearance, Malia chose a stylish ensemble, wearing a long grey coat paired with a blue-striped button-down shirt and black leggings. The occasion marked the unveiling of her short film, which tells the story of a grieving son left with an unusual request in his mother's will.
In a YouTube video released on January 17, Malia shared insights about her film, saying: "The film is about lost objects and lonely people and forgiveness and regret, but I also think it works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in these things."
Donald Glover, the creator of the popular TV show Atlanta and whose company Gilga produced the film, has previously praised Malia's talents.
While this marks Malia's directorial debut, she is not new to the world of writing. She served as a staff writer on Amazon Prime's Swarm. Co-creator Janine Nabers praised her contributions, saying, "Some of her pitches were wild as hell, and they were just so good and so funny. She's an incredible writer. She brought a lot to the table. She's really, really dedicated to her craft."
And it's not just Malia in the family who has taken an interest in the movie industry recently.
Netflix subscribers may have noticed that Barack and Michelle Obama - along with Tonia Davis, Daniel M. Stillman, and Nick Krishnamurthy - were credited as executive producers for the platform's movie Leave the World Behind, which amazed viewers in December.
Since the establishment of their production company, Higher Ground Productions, in 2018, the Obamas have produced projects such as Michael Keaton's Worth and Kevin Hart's Fatherhood.
In a recent interview with Collider, Leave the World Behind director Sam Esmail explained how the Obamas' input influenced his movie, which was a film adaptation of the former President's reading list favorite.
Esmail described Barack Obama's keen interest in cinema and how he focused on cinematically portraying the essence of the book.
Esmail said: "Because President Obama is such a movie lover, he really focused his notes on trying to cinematically portray what was in the book in a really interesting way." He added: "It was really across the board. And again, it was all in pursuit of making it into a good movie. That was his main focus."
Esmail also clarified misconceptions about the Obamas' involvement - particularly bizarre social media conspiracy theories - stating: "I think the silly thing about the whole thing is President Obama really came on a couple of months before we started shooting, so the script had basically been written and done. He obviously gave notes on the script, but the bones of the story and the sequences were already written.
"I would just say they're pretty wrong in terms of his signaling. It had nothing to do with that."
0 commentaires :