Former First Daughter Malia Obama Makes Filmmaking Debut At Sundance Film Festival

Malia Obama, 25, daughter of former President Barack Obama, just made her debut at the Sundance Film Festival with her short film The Heart.

Malia released her 18-minute short film at the festival. She is making a name for herself that goes beyond her title as former first daughter.

Malia is no stranger to the art of film production. She studied visual and environmental studies at Harvard University in addition to an internship with the Weinstein Company in 2017. After finishing her degree, she worked as a writer for an Amazon series titled Swarm. This show was created by Donald Glover, who also helped produce Obama’s short film.

“The first thing we did was talk about the fact that she will only get to do this once,” Glover told GQ about the production of the short. “You’re Obama’s daughter. So if you make a bad film, it will follow you around.”

The film stars Tunde Adebimpe as the protagonist, Joshua, a man who still lives with his mother as an adult. The film shows Adebimpe’s character and his mother (played by LaTonya Borsay) arguing about groceries and then sharing a silent post-fight dinner.

After finishing his dinner, Joshua silently heads to the bathroom and takes a shower while his mother is shown having a heart attack and falling to the floor. She dies in the living room alone and per her request, Joshua must then carry her heart in a jar, along with the guilt of their last passive-aggressive conversation.

Obama released a “Meet the Artist” video via Sundance that relates her reasoning for writing the story and the process behind filming it.