Obama Mama
The most powerful man in the world says he owes everything he is to his mother - Stanley Ann Dunham.
She was an extraordinary and charismatic woman, who lived a full life moving halfway around the world, yet remaining forever a true American, both participating in making a better world and observing it with intelligent eyes.
American expatriate and film-maker Vivian Norris discovered, as she read Barack Obama’s autobiography, that she had grown up, by chance, almost following in the footsteps of Stanley Ann Durham. As a result she has extraordinary personal access to the men and women who Stanley came into contact with in Texas, Seattle, Indonesia, and in the worlds of academia and microcredit.
This film, based on those contacts, and the filmmakers knowledge of the places and worlds in which Stanley Ann Dunham lived, will tell the amazing story of a girl from the Midwest who grew up to mother the first black president of the United States.
But this is more than just a biopic – Stanley Ann’s personal and public life mirrored (and often presaged) the important political, cultural and social changes of her time. From Cold War fears, to the Civil Rights movement, Feminism and the United States' presence abroad, Ann Dunham's journey from a small town in Kansas to the remote villages of Indonesia, taught her what it truly meant to be an American.
Her family's mid-Western roots influenced her measured demeanor, and their experiences with racism in Texas, lead them to begin a voyage Westwards, to Seattle, Hawaii and finally Java. This voyage of discovery as an American girl, then expatriate abroad, helped her to understand more fully what it means to be an American. Her professional and private life drove her towards other cultures and people, resulting in her creating for her own children, an understanding of the multicultural experience which is our common future.
Her influence on her children, and thus on the future President of the United States, resulted in an event which has been seen around the world as providing hope for all people. Her own early passing, not fully covered by health insurance, influenced her son, the President’s decision to make health care a priority. Her understanding of the importance of education to create a better life is reflected by the work she did. And many of her good works and beliefs translate into her son’s policies to build a stronger America.
RUNTIME:
83 Minutes
DIRECTOR:
Vivian Norris
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER:
Brian Woods
RELEASED:
2010