Filmmaker Nadia Hallgren interview: ‘The hardest part about working with Michelle Obama was holding the camera steady while I was laughing’

Sabrina Barr meets the director behind the former first lady’s documentary, Becoming

From the South Side of Chicago to the White House (Netflix/Becoming)

You enter a room in which one of the most famous women in the world is sitting. She rises from her seat, standing tall as you make your way towards her. You have 30 minutes to make a lasting impression. Where do you begin?

The day that documentary filmmaker and cinematographer Nadia Hallgren met former first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, they got off to an awkward start. “I extended my hand to shake her hand, and in my nervousness our fingers got weirdly intertwined with each other,” Hallgren tells The Independent, laughing as she recalls the day in 2018. “I was just like, ‘Oh man I’m messing this up already,’ and we both just laughed.”

When Netflix decided to launch a 90-minute programme following Obama on the 34 city stops of her Becoming book tour, produced by Higher Ground Productions, Hallgren was chosen to direct, despite it being her first feature film. Originally from the Bronx in New York and shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2019, Hallgren was tasked with providing an in-depth look at the woman who spent eight years living in the White House and has since remained firmly on the world stage with regular public appearances and a book that sold 1.4m copies in its first week.