On a promotional book tour for her recently released autobiography Becoming (2020), Michelle Obama reflects on her years at the White House, her own past and America’s future.
The Netflix documentary depicts an inspiring, strong, vulnerable, complex woman who transcended her role as America’s First Lady. She has emerged as a modern icon of female empowerment and hope. Despite her role as First Lady ending, she still keeps in touch with the general public through her book signings, talks and school workshops. As seen in the documentary, people and mainly young women are eager to share their stories, their struggles with their role model – a black woman who despite a society still battling with racism and sexism has ended up at one of the most powerful positions in the United States.
She does not shy away from sharing her life experience with young women looking up to her for guidance. While she is assisting to a workshop organised for a selected group of young female high schoolers, one of them asks her how she fought against invisibility in society. Her answer is simple and powerful : for Michelle Obama, invisibility starts within ourselves. She encourages these young women who are the future generation to realise the power of their stories and their voices when they don’t. But most of all, she gives them hope.
The documentary also comes back on some of the iconic moments of Barack Obama’s presidency from her point of view. She also shares raw, emotional and uncomfortable stories as being told by a school advisor that she should not aim to go to Princeton because of her gender, experiencing racism and prejudices in college as one of the very few BAME students or balancing out her own aspirations with being a mother and wife of a former President. She shares her stories in front of crowds during book events or televised talk shows, which allows all women to hear them. Her experiences are unique but also common to many women who do not have such platforms. By sharing she makes these stories heard, making countless women feel less alone and inspiring them to fight for change.
It takes only a few seconds of watching her interact with people at book signings, talks or workshops to see she is a role model and an inspiration for women of all ethnicities and social backgrounds. Becoming (2020) is a reminder of what determination, hard work and optimism can achieve.
Director: Nadia Hallgren
Stars: Adrian K. Collins, Gayle King, Barack Obama
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