Obama Mama
Intelligent, progressive, and steadfastly brave, Barack Obama’s mother Stanley Ann Dunham (a lifelong globetrotter who spent her teenage years living in Mercer Island) pursued an unexpected and profound life.
Schedule | |||
|---|---|---|---|
May 31, 2014 | 6:00 PM | ||
June 1, 2014 | 11:00 AM | ||
Stanley Ann Dunham was more than the mother of the first black President of the United States of America. As an anthropologist with a Ph.D and as a lifelong globetrotter, her intelligence, progressive politics, and activism made for a profound life—one whose inspiration continues to resonate through her son, President Barack Obama. Through interviews with high school friends and colleagues, film clips, and archival footage, Obama Mama explores Dunham’s travels from small-town Kansas to Seattle, Hawaii, and Indonesia as well as her work in the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements, her dedication to raising awareness of global poverty, and her development of microcredit programs to address poverty in rural villages. Dunham is indirectly responsible for some of the greatest contributions to American and global history, especially Obama’s revolutionary health care bill. She died from cancer at the age of 52 – and had incurred several hundred dollars of unreimbursed health-care costs each month due to her cancer being considered a “pre-existing condition.” The “largeness of her heart,” as her son describes it, is the centerpiece of this inspiring documentary.
Director Biography
Vivian Norris is based in Paris and holds a PhD, focusing on Globalization Studies at the University of Washington. Currently, Dr. Norris is an independent producer and director as well as writing freelance on Business, Film, and Technology for BBC Online and The Huffington Post. She founded Vigilante VNM Productions to produce independent documentaries with social messages.
Sponsored by 4Culture, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Washington State Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, Black Rapid Media, CityArts
Director: | Vivian Norris |
Premiere Status: | World Premiere |
Country: | USA, Poland, France |
Year: | 2014 |
Running Time: | 83 minutes |
Producer: | Vivian Norris, Brian Woods |
Screenplay: | Vivian Norris |
Cinematographers: | Bruce Hutson, Yuri Zakovitch, Ray Woodhouse, Dennis Boni |
Editors: | Angelos Angelidis |
Music: | Josette Zakovitch, Johanna Saint-Pierre, Kate Ellis |
Website: | |
Filmography: | Debut Feature Film |
Language: | English |
Format: | DCP |
