Becoming

The thirty four city tour Michelle Obama made for her book Becoming. The documentary follows it: backstage, the bus, hotels, signing queues and small sessions held in schools. Nadia Hallgren directs. It is a Netflix production, made by Higher Ground, the company the Obamas set up. That last detail is what gets argued about. The documentary was produced by the company of the person it is about, so it is not a critical portrait and could not be. Hallgren does not hide that. What works, against that, are the small sessions offstage. Michelle Obama sits with small groups, particularly young Black women, and the conversation leaves the book and goes somewhere else: who has a right to be where, belonging, and exclusion. The scale of the tour is a subject too. A book is being promoted at stadium scale, and the documentary shows that scale itself; the selling of a book has become a cultural event. Hallgren came from documentary cinematography and mostly operates the camera herself. Who it is for: viewers who want Michelle Obama's account and who follow tour documentaries. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a critical view. The film never reckons with its subject and stays away from political argument.