Nadia Hallgren

Tre’vell Anderson: How did you get this job of a lifetime?
Nadia Hallgren: I’m sitting at my kitchen table, and the phone rings. It’s Priya Swaminathan, who runs Higher Ground Productions. She says to me, “Michelle Obama is getting ready to go on this worldwide book tour, and we’re floating the idea of documenting it. We don’t know yet if it may be a film, or if the footage would be something that lives in Mrs. Obama’s archive — but is this something that you’re interested in?” I was like, “Absolutely!”

Then I get an email that says, “You have an appointment at the office of Michelle and Barack Obama.” I got really scared. How do you prepare to meet with the former first lady and figure out a way to land this job? I decided to go back and listen to every speech that I could find that Michelle Obama had done. I read every magazine feature. I read the president’s books again. I thought about what my connection point to Michelle Obama is. What is it that we can talk about? We both deeply believe in storytelling and the power of storytelling.

How would you say your prior work prepared you to tell this particular story?
NH: I have spent over 15 years as a documentary cinematographer. A huge reason why I was equipped to make this film was that there is an understanding when you are rolling with Michelle Obama that things happen very quickly; there could potentially be times when a very small footprint is needed. My background as a cinematographer, as well as working on super-low-budget docs, meant that I could one-person-band it when I had to. I was able to direct; I was able to shoot and sometimes do my own sound. In looking back at some of my other work, I am really interested in identity, what makes people who they are, and what compels people to take on the things in the world that they do. Having spent a career thinking deeply about those things prepared me to direct Becoming.

Let’s talk about the actual capturing of it all. You directed it, but you also did a lot of the shooting yourself. How were you able to navigate these different spaces so easily?
NH: I had this idea that I was going to go into this film with all the fancy gear. That changed very quickly. I think within my first day filming with Mrs. Obama, I realized that this was not like any other documentary that I had ever worked on before. Mrs. Obama is flanked by Secret Service everywhere she goes. There’s no, “Can you slow down for the camera?” That meant that I had to move really fast. There were no bells and whistles in terms of the verité that I was filming — but that worked to help me get really close and intimate with Mrs. Obama. I think I went with her to about 23 out of the 34 cities that she did. I was having such an incredible experience being with her that all I kept telling myself was, I want an audience to feel the way I feel right now. I want everyone to feel like they’re riding shotgun with Michelle Obama in her motorcade.

I remember when we were going to film a book signing, in my mind I was like, How interesting could that be? I go in, and there are hundreds of people waiting for her. A young woman who works with her grabs a box of tissues. She’s like, “People get emotional.” I started filming, and 10 minutes later, I come out in tears. That really surprised me. She’s just signing books and shaking hands, but there’s this special quality, this warmth to the way that she connects with people that I had never experienced before.

Could you describe the experience of interviewing her family members?
NH: There were times when I was laughing so hard while I was filming her and Craig, her brother, because they’re so funny. I was trying to hold the camera still so that I didn’t ruin the shot... And [Michelle’s mother] Mrs. Robinson is the realest person I’ve ever met. She’s super practical. As she says, there are millions of Craigs and Michelle and Barack Obamas all over the South Side of Chicago. She does not think her kids are special. She reminds them of that. It’s this wonderful quality that she has.

Mrs. Robinson had been known not to talk to cameras while they were in the White House. She appreciated her anonymity. Over time, we developed a relationship, and I think we see the culmination of that relationship in the scene when Michelle goes back with her mother to visit her childhood home. They both go to this very emotional place, talking about Michelle’s dad and bringing up these memories of him. Mrs. Robinson is so beautifully expressive in that moment. For me, that was really special.

In the editing room, sitting down with the footage, what was that experience like? Were there favorite moments that emerged?
NH: There were these stories from Mrs. Obama’s book that I knew I wanted to include in the film. One of them was the scene we called “Escaping the White House.” She tells the story of the day that she went to the Charleston funeral [for the victims of the 2015 shooting attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church]. That same day, she goes back home and marriage equality passes, and there’s a celebration happening outside the White House. It was such an amazing range of emotion in one day that brought me closer to understanding what her life might have been like.

There’s also the scene back at her childhood home where we get this very vivid picture of how she grew up. In that house, there’s still her childhood bedroom with her doll on the bed. It’s amazing. I remember when I first walked in there, I had chills all over my body. She and President Obama lived in that house together, and it’s such a humble, modest home. There’s so much richness and history in that space. That we were able to go in there and share that, it just moved me so much.