Mediaboss Marketing

Two of the documentaries to earn the most Emmy nominations this year come from Netflix and Higher Ground Productions, the production company established by former President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama.

The Oscar-winning American Factory claimed three nominations; Becoming did one better, claiming four, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, and directing and cinematography nominations for filmmaker Nadia Hallgren.

For the documentary, Hallgren followed the former first lady from North America to Europe as Mrs. Obama made promotional appearances for her bestselling memoir, Becoming. She says the project began with an unexpected call.

I was just home one day, sitting at my kitchen table, my phone rang, and it was Priya Swaminathan, who runs Higher Ground Productions, the Obamas production company, Hallgren recalls. She tells me that Mrs. Obama is getting ready to go on this worldwide book tour, and that they thought it could be a great opportunity to document it. Wasnt sure yet if it would be a film or something that just lived in Mrs. Obamas archive, but they wanted to see if Id be interested and, of course, I was.

Related Story'Becoming' Trailer: Michelle Obama Is An Open Book In Her Netflix Documentary

There were other layers to get through, Hallgren adds, like a crucial face-to-face with Mrs. Obama. She hired me on the spot, which was incredible. And then the tour was starting relatively quickly, so I got really thrown into the deep end of this endeavor.

The film contains moments on stage and behind the scenes from about two dozen of the tour dates, at venues filled to capacity with 10,000 or more fans.

It was so incredible to be in those arenas with Mrs. Obama during that timeYoure in these crowds where everyone is so thrilled to be there, and just full of this excitement, Hallgren recalls. The whole idea for the film was having this extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime experience and, How do I get an audience to feel the way that Im feeling right now?

At each stop a different celebrity interviewed Mrs. Obama, ranging from Oprah to Reese Witherspoon, Tracee Ellis Ross and Stephen Colbert. Mrs. Obama revealed what it was like for the eight years her husband was president and she was first lady, to be constantly scrutinized, often through a prism of race and gender. Her attire generated endless commentary (she drew some rebukes for going with a bare-armed look for her first official White House photo); right-wing commentators often tried to portray her as an angry Black woman, and even before they got into office a fist bump the Obamas exchanged on stage caused a furor, with some conservatives labeling it a terrorist fist jab.

Its hard to wake up every day and maintain that level of perfection that was absolutely required of me and Barack as the first Black president and first lady, Mrs. Obama says in the film. Barack and I lived with an awareness that we ourselves were a provocation.

The idea that the Obamas were held to a different standard in the White House was not only important for me to tell that story, but it was important for Mrs. Obama as well, Hallgren shares. Part of what she hoped to do with writing her book, as well as making this film, was to really just be transparent about the experience that she had, and speak about it very honestly.

There is a prescient section of the film where Mrs. Obama discusses the heartache of being in office when so many unarmed African-American people were killed by police, in custody, or by armed white civilians: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, among numerous others.

Thats something that I had personally never thought about, while those events were unfolding on the ground in America. I never thought to myself, Oh, what does Mrs. Obama think about this, as a Black American? Hallgren comments. For me, that was also something really important to include, not just her as a public figure, but her emotional, personal life in the White House and what that experience was like for her.

Last week on her podcast, Mrs. Obama disclosed she has experienced low-grade depression in recent months, during the coronavirus pandemic. She attributed feeling too low at times to the isolation of quarantine, but also two other factors: seeing racial strife in the wake of protests over the deaths of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks and Breonna Taylor, and the dispiriting effect of watching news out of the Trump administration.

Ive gone through those emotional highs and lows that I think everybody feels, Mrs. Obama said on the podcast, where you just dont feel yourself.

Filming well before the pandemic lockdowns, Hallgren also encountered a reflective Michelle Obama, who was facing a transitional moment in her life.

She talks about it in the film, shes an empty nester. Her beautiful childrenthat are young women right now, theyre in college, Hallgren notes. And shes just like us, trying to figure out whats important to her and whats next in her life.

Hallgren describes the editorial process putting together the film as a smooth one.

I definitely did get notes from Mrs. Obama, but they were often really helpful, the director comments. What she actually did was help me be able to expand the emotional experience that she was having during those times, and other than that, I can honestly say that there wasnt any real disagreement in terms of the direction where I wanted to take the film.

Becomingbrought Hallgren the first Emmy nominations of her career, and something to make her the envy of manythe rare chance to spend extensive time with Mrs. Obama.

Shes one of the most down-to-earth and warmest people that Ive ever been around, Hallgren says. The first time that I met hershe knows that when people meet her for the first time that its a very nerve-racking experienceshe worked to make me comfortable. She gave me a big warm hug when I walked in the roomsaying, Its okay, its just us. Were here. Sit down, lets have a conversation.

Read the rest here:
Becoming Director Nadia Hallgren On Traveling The World With Michelle Obama For Emmy-Nominated Documentary - Deadline

Why? There's no part of politics and campaigns more dictated by arcane conventional wisdom than the veepstakes.

That conventional wisdom goes like this: The presidential nominee is primarily guided by the electoral map when making his (or her) pick. The person who winds up as the choice is someone the presidential candidate believes will help him deliver a particular swing state or an area that the ticket badly needs in order to win.

That pick, which is six decades old at this point, remarkably continues to dominate the way that many people -- including many political types -- think about the vice presidential selection process. But even a cursory look at recent history suggests that making a geographic, political pick isn't really a thing anymore.

Let's go through the last seven elections, shall we?

* 2016: Donald Trump picks Mike Pence, who is from Indiana, a state that the Republican presidential nominee had carried in every election but one since 1964. Hillary Clinton picks Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, from a once-swing state but one that by 2016 had moved solidly toward Democrats.

* 2008: Barack Obama selects Joe Biden from Delaware, a reliably Democratic state at the presidential level. John McCain picks Sarah Palin of Alaska, which is not a swing state.

* 2000: George W. Bush picks Dick Cheney of Wyoming, one of the most conservative states in the country. Al Gore picks Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, a state that hasn't voted for a Republican for president since 1988.

* 1996: Bob Dole picks Jack Kemp, a Congressman from New York. Dole/Kemp lose New York.

See what I mean? With the possible exception of Gore in 1992, there simply isn't an example of a VP candidate either being chosen to deliver a single state (or region) and then delivering that single state (or region). (In the case of Clinton picking Gore, I would argue that pick was much less about Gore being from Tennessee and the Clinton campaign's desire to win the Volunteer State than it was about doubling down on Clinton's image of a new sort of Democrat emerging from the South.)

So if VP choices aren't really made based on geography anymore, then what are they based on, you ask?

"Number one, is this a person who could be president literally tomorrow? Secondly, is this a person that I could work with, that I would want to work with day in and day out, in good times and hard times, inside the White House to serve our country? And third, can this person help me win? And with Tim Kaine, I answered all three of those questions affirmatively."

Notice the order Clinton put the priorities of picking a running mate?

1. Could this person be president

2. Personal relationship

3. Political considerations

What Clinton reveals here is that, contrary to the way most of the public thinks about the VP pick, it tends to be a governing decision rather than a purely political one. (Notice I said "purely" political. Because of course, there are politics in it.) And seen through that lens, the recent VP picks make sense.

Trump goes with Pence because he believes Pence, a former member of Congress, can work with the Washington establishment (and serve as a validator for Trump among that skittish group). Clinton picks Kaine because he is a competent bureaucrat who has spent time in the executive and legislative worlds and who, not for nothing, shares a deep religious faith with her. Romney picks Ryan to help him deal with Congress but also because they are both part of the fiscal-first wing of the GOP. Obama chooses Biden as a trusted Washington hand. Ditto Bush and Cheney. Even McCain's pick, which was a total disaster in retrospect, was about his affinity for another fellow "maverick" who had stood up to the establishment.

What all of these presidential candidates have realized is that vice presidential picks don't really get you into the White House. The simple fact is that people -- or at least the vast majority of people -- do not vote for the second-in-command. Think about it in your own life. If you need surgery, what matters more to you: The surgeon who will be doing the actual procedure or the person who is the trusted assistant? If your kid is a gifted athlete, do they choose what college they go to because of the head coach or because of the assistant coach? Right. So why would voting be any different?

To the extent that VP picks matter, it's in what they can bring once you are already in the office. Biden, for his part, seems to see things through that lens.

What we tend to forget -- and what Biden's quote is a useful reminder of -- is that people running for president are still, well, people. In picking a coworker, they want to find someone who, first and foremost, they believe is able and who they can get along with day in and day out.

Who, then, does that suggest Biden might pick? Susan Rice, the former national security adviser in the Obama administration, certainly jumps out to me -- if Biden sticks to the idea of making a pick based on relationships -- and governing.

Follow this link:
Everything you've heard about picking a vice president is wrong - CNN

Supporters of President Donald Trump cheer at the start of his first re-election campaign rally in several months in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., June 20, 2020. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

Yuval Levin and Adam J. White covered almost all that needs to be said about the most recent Trump executive orders, the spiritual descendants of Barack Obamas declaring I have a pen and a phone and deciding to enact the DACA and DAPA programs without congressional concurrence, authorization, or action.

The only thing I would add is that the general enthusiasm for Trumps moves from his grassroots fans, and the general enthusiasm for Obamas moves from his grassroots fans, demonstrates that most people in politics see no value in separation of powers, and cannot get their heads around why the federal government should have separated powers. They cannot comprehend why a government that invests far-reaching powers in the executive could possibly turn out badly for them.

Back in 2014, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee and the 14 other members of the Full Employment Caucus in Congress introduced not legislation but drafted executive orders that they wanted the president to sign. Frustrated by being in the legislative minority, they started dreaming up new ways for the executive branch to change the laws and regulations. She declared, Well give President Obama a number of executive orders that he can sign with pride and strength, in fact, I think that should be our number one agenda, thats write up these executive orders, draft them, of course, and ask the president to stand with us. As the meme goes, thats not how this works, thats not how any of this works. If you want to serve in the executive branch, then leave the legislative branch.

The first thing all U.S. senators and members of the House of Representatives do is take an oath declaring, I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God. And then they advocate government actions that ignore the separation of powers in the Constitution. Two consecutive presidents have concluded, if Congress wont act, I will, and blithely ignored the fact that this is more or less why we fought a revolution against the British.

Do Americans even want a Constitution? Did the education system fail them so thoroughly that they cant even begin to grasp why concentrated government power would be a bad thing?

See more here:
Do Americans Even Care If Theres a Constitution? - National Review

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex speaks ahead of International Womens Day (IWD) held on Sunday 8th March, on March 6, 2020, in London, England.Photo: Ben Stansall (WPA Pool (Getty Images)

Love her, hate her, ambivalent or as yet undecided, Meghan Marklealso known as the Duchess of Sussexis a household name we should all be well accustomed to hearing by now. And as weve previously reported, since she and husband Harry have recently signed to leading speakers bureau the Harry Walker Agency, we should also get accustomed to hearing more of both of them for the foreseeable future.

But should you want to hear this household name from the comfort of your own home, on Wednesday, the Girl Up campaign announced Markle will be appearing at their virtual Leadership Summit, a three-day online event taking place from July 13-15.

As reported by PureWow:

According to the organizations official website, Girl Up is an initiative that has worked with 65,000 girls via 3,500 clubs in nearly 120 countries and all 50 United States to inspire a generation of young women to be a force for gender equality and social change. The event will be one of the duchesss first public speaking engagements since stepping away from the royal family.

G/O Media may get a commission

Of course, the duchess is only one of several dynamic women (and men!) speaking and presenting at this years event, including Michelle Obama, Storm Reid, Steph Curry and Monique Coleman (Disneys High School Musical) and more.

The coolest part? You can bring all this girl power home for freeand its not too late to register! You find out more, donate and get tickets at the Girl Up website.

See the rest here:
Who Run the World? Meghan Markle, Michelle Obama and More to Appear at the Virtual Girl Up Leadership Summit - The Root

No tights, no flights: so far this has been a summer unusually light on blockbuster superhero entertainment. Amazonian sequel Wonder Woman 1984 was originally scheduled to hit cinemas in June before being pushed to October. The Marvel Cinematic Steamroller has hit pause: when Scarlett Johanssons Black Widow belatedly arrives in November, it will be the longest gap between Marvel movies in a decade.

Thankfully, one small-screen superhero series has overlapped neatly with lockdown, even if its oddball cast of boozy do-gooders and aggrieved demon-slayers cannot boast the kind of brand recognition that gets your likeness plastered on pyjamas and lunchboxes. DCs Legends of Tomorrow recently wrapped up its fifth season on Sky, bringing some much-needed levity to the often po-faced world of fighting crime in form-fitting costumes.

Compared with the various other shows that have sprouted from the brooding vigilante series Arrow an expanding TV universe that now directly interconnects The Flash, Supergirl, Black Lightning, Batwoman and more Legends of Tomorrow has always been something of an outlier. Partly that is because of its team-based premise, tasking a grab-bag of C-listers with hopping around history to protect the integrity of the time stream in a whizzy spaceship called the Waverider. If that sounds like it has some overlap with Doctor Who, the slightly stodgy early seasons encouraged the comparison by casting former Tardis companion Arthur Darvill as the squads swashbuckling leader. While the hooded anti-hero Arrow was stuck protecting his home city, the Legends could theoretically go anywhere and any-when, with the team theoretically blending in thanks to a dressing-up box worthy of Mr Benn.

Since its debut in 2016, Legends of Tomorrow has operated as a sort of Ucas clearing house for guest heroes and villains who have wrapped up their arcs on related shows. After the supernatural series Constantine was cancelled in 2015, the title character an entertainingly aggro English exorcist who likes to pick fights with diabolical hellspawn later materialised on the Waverider and has stuck around ever since. Its all part of the rather back-handed compliment of being recruited into the squad: you can be safely removed from your own time without fear of disrupting anything major, so habitual under-achievers suddenly become prime candidates.

This pick-and-mix approach and constant turnover of personnel means that each season essentially stands alone, so even though all five are currently available to binge on Now TV you can basically dive in anywhere (maybe skip the first episode of season five, which wraps up an epic but confusing five-part crossover). As well as smart-mouthed warlock Constantine, the current lineup includes a hard-drinking bisexual ninja, a high-fiving bro of steel, various incarnations of an Egyptian wind god and a beefcake career arsonist played by Prison Breaks Dominic Purcell who has a secret double-life as a bestselling romantic novelist.

Legends of Tomorrow has always been self-aware and keen to send up superhero tropes, but this year it embraced its sitcom side more than ever, signalled with its updated credits sequence. The formerly whooshing sci-fi titles were replaced with a scrappy animated collage that crackles with punky energy.

The shows previous high watermark of daftness came in season three, when the team took on a telepathic super-ape called Gorilla Grodd who had beamed to Chicago 1979 to assassinate a lanky law student named Barack Obama while declaring it was time to make America Grodd again. But season five has taken some even bigger conceptual swings while cleverly cooking up a plausible monster-of-the-week formula: some of the worst offenders in hell are granted a second chance at life, requiring the Legends to pinball around time taking out older and wiser versions of Rasputin, Bugsy Siegel, Marie Antoinette and more.

There has even been some pushback at those who complain that culture is now too saturated with superheroes, with an impromptu 16th-century stag do getting so out of hand that Shakespeare is inspired to start writing plays about costumed avengers, beginning with Romeo v Juliet: Dawn of Justness. The penultimate episode goes even more meta, trapping the various Legends in different TV shows a Friends-alike sitcom, a mannered Downton spoof and a retro Star Trek analogue created to entertain the brainwashed masses of a 1984-style dystopia.

Self-indulgent nonsense? Perhaps, but as other heroes go super-gritty its refreshing to be reminded that these sorts of stories can be heightened, colourful and fun. The good-time crew of the Waverider drink constantly, get high and make messy decisions. When things do go wrong, the stakes feel high because you genuinely like and care for these goofballs. In a summer notably light on laughs, their adventures have been a genuine tonic.

All five seasons of DCs Legends of Tomorrow are currently available on Now TV

Read the original:
Obama v a giant gorilla: here's why you should watch Legends of Tomorrow - The Guardian