Former President and First Lady of the United States, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have announced their new project with Netflix that aims to educate and inform audiences about the government, its processes, and civic lessons. Obamas
The duo have produced ‘We The People’, a series of animated and educational music videos which will be used to mark the 4th July Independence Day celebrations. Even though ‘We The People’ is set to stream on Netflix on July 4, it will first premiere at a free screening in the ‘DOCS Talks’ section of the AFI DOCS film festival on Thursday, June 24.
According to a press release, the series is described as “an exuberant call to action for everyone to rethink civics as a living, breathing thing and to reframe their understanding of what government and citizenship mean in a modern world”.
A-list artists featured in the series
That notwithstanding, various A-list musicians like Andra Day, Bebe Rexha, Adam Lambert, Lin-Manuel Miranda, H.E.R., Cordea, Kyle, Brandi Carlile, Janelle Monáe, Daveed Diggs, Brittany Howard, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and Robert Lopez have contributed their talents to the program as they are featured in the series and are also mentioned in the trailer of the series.
Also, it is worth mentioning that American poet and activist, Amanda Gorman is featured in this animation series.
Several of the artists involved in the project have expressed;interest in political music lately, with H.E.R. winning song of the year at the Grammys;for the politically charged song, ‘I Can’t Breathe’. She also won an Oscar for the song ‘Fight For You’ from ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’, which has similar political undertones.
More so, Monáe provided the song ‘Turntables’ to the documentary ‘All In: The Fight for Democracy’, which examines voter oppression. Additionally, Miranda and Diggs are also known for the historical musical ‘Hamilton’.
Nevertheless, the topics of the songs and accompanying videos include taxes, voting, citizenship rights, activism, Congress, and more.
Watch trailer
The Obamas serve as executive producers alongside Tonia Davis, Priya Swaminathan, and TV personality, Kenya Barris. The show was created by Chris Nee and the directors of the show include Peter Ramsey, Trisha;Gum, Victoria Vincent, Benjy Brooke, Mabel Yea, among others.
It can be recalled that Netflix announced earlier this year that Higher;Ground Productions- the production company of the Obamas, was at work on an animated series;for young children, and a scripted series adapted from the Michael Lewis book ‘The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy’.
Aside from that, the Obamas also announced working on six other projects including;‘Exit West’, ‘Satellite’, ‘Tenzing’, ‘Fire keeper’s daughter’ among others which will be streamed on Netflix.
It is worth mentioning that the Obamas signed a multi-year production deal;with Netflix in 2018 to produce television series, movies, and documentaries. Three years into their deal, Mr. and Mrs. Obama’s efforts have mostly been focused on documentaries. Their production company in 2019 produced their first film, ‘American Factory’, which later won the Oscar for best documentary. They also have produced the documentaries ‘Crip Camp’, which is about the origins of the disability rights;movement, and ‘Becoming’, which is a film about Mrs. Obama.
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