Netflix is about to get lit all thanks to the coolest former president and former first lady and we cannot wait. Former U.S. President Barack Obama and wife Michelle Obama have just unveiled seven new documentary films and series that will stream on Netflix over the next few years.
The Obama’s Netflix-based production company Higher Ground has set an expansive first slate of projects. Included in the initial slate of seven projects are three features and four TV series, including one for preschoolers.
“We created Higher Ground to harness the power of storytelling. That’s why we couldn’t be more excited about these projects,” former President Barack Obama said Tuesday in a statement. “Touching on issues of race and class, democracy and civil rights, and much more, we believe each of these productions won’t just entertain, but will educate, connect and inspire us all.”
In May, Netflix announced that the Obamas signed a multi-year deal with their own production company, Higher Ground, to bring us movies and TV shows right alongside the streaming giant’s hits such as Glow, and House of Cards.
Under the pact, the duo’s Higher Ground will produce scripted, unscripted and documentary TV series and movies exclusively for the streamer.
Here are the seven projects, currently in various stages of development, that are slated to be released over the next several years:
American Factory
The documentary was acquired by Netflix in association with Higher Ground Productions out of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the directing award for U.S. documentary. From Participant Media, the doc was directed by Academy Award-nominated and Emmy winners Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert (The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, A Lion in the House, Seeing Red). The acclaimed film takes a deep dive into a post-industrial Ohio, where a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant and hires 2,000 blue-collar Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America. The producers are Bognar, Julia Reichert, Jeff Reichert and Julie Parker Benello.
Bloom
The drama is described an upstairs/downstairs series set in the world of fashion in post-World War II New York City that depicts barriers faced by women and by people of color in an era marked by hurdles but also tremendous progress. Bloom is written and executive produced by Academy Award-winner Callie Khouri (Nashville, Thelma and Louise, the upcoming Aretha Franklin movie at MGM) from an idea developed by Khouri, writer-director Clement Virgo (The Book of Negroes, The Wire, Empire) and novelist and producer Juliana Maio (City of the Sun). Higher Ground Productions, Khouri, Virgo and Maio will executive produce the series.
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
Higher Ground is producing a feature film adaptation of author David W. Blight’s Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, for which he won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in History. The New York Times called the book “an ambitious and empathetic biography of a major American life.”
Overlooked
The scripted anthology TV series is adapted from The New York Times’ ongoing obituary column of the same name, telling the stories of remarkable people whose deaths were not reported by the newspaper, Higher Ground is developing it as a scripted anthology series with producers Liza Chasin of 3dot Productions and Joy Gorman Wettels of Anonymous Content.
Listen to Your Vegetables & Eat Your Parents
The preschool TV series will be a half-hour entry from creators Jeremy Konner (Drunk History) and Erika Thormahlen. The show will take young children and their families around the globe on an adventure that tells us the story of our food.
Fifth Risk
From Michael Lewis, the best-selling author of The Big Short and Moneyball and based on his book The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy, the nonfiction series will aim to portray the importance of unheralded work done by everyday heroes guiding our government and safeguarding our nation.
Crip Camp
This feature-length documentary in production is supported by the Sundance Institute and was acquired earlier this year by Higher Ground and Netflix. Just down the road from Woodstock, in the early 1970s, a parallel revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers that would transform young lives, and America, forever by helping to set in motion the disability rights movement. The film is directed by former camper Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham. Producers include Newnham, LeBrecht and Sara Bolder, with executive producer Howard Gertler.
In April, Netflix revealed its first quarter earnings report that it has recorded its highest quarterly paid net adds in its history with 9.6 million new subscribers. Despite the healthy Q1 results, the stock down over 4% in after hours trading on a historic trading day. A lot of that comes from the billions in debt Netflix is carrying and the lower than estimated guidance for Q2 and going forward.
Coming after a recent price hike and with looming competition, the Q1 results were well above the 8.9 million net additional paid subscribers that the SVOD service had projected itself earlier. All of which means that Netflix has 148.9 million subscribers overall. The growth breaks down as 1.74 million new subs in the US and 7.86 million internationally.
Netflix has become a daily part of life for people from nearly every sphere and Judging by this lineup, everyone will soon to be talking about these films and series.