Nadia Hallgren's camera stays close to one subject for 89 minutes. Becoming, an American documentary from 2020, is a portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama: her life story, what she hopes for, and the way she connects with the people she meets.
What is Becoming about?
Becoming is built as a personal portrait instead of a political chronicle. Michelle Obama is on screen for most of the running time, speaking for herself about where she has been and what matters to her now. The film's three threads are named plainly in its own description: her life, her hopes and her connection with others. That last strand gives the documentary much of its shape, as conversations and encounters with other people keep bringing the focus back to how she listens and responds. Family members and well-known public figures pass through the frame, yet the perspective remains hers throughout. The tone is intimate and observational, closer to time spent in someone's company than to a formal interview.
About the cast
As a documentary, Becoming has participants, not a fictional cast. Michelle Obama is the central figure. Also credited as appearing are Barack Obama, Sasha Obama and Malia Obama, along with Phoebe Robinson, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Stephen Colbert. Everyone appears as themselves, and director Nadia Hallgren keeps the attention on the title subject.
Context & significance
Documentary portraits of public figures tend to fall into two camps: the investigative film that argues a case, and the access film that spends time alongside its subject. Becoming belongs to the second group. It records a person speaking in her own voice and does not set out to assess policy or settle political debates, which is worth knowing before pressing play. The compact length suits that approach; at under an hour and a half it can be watched comfortably in one evening. The film was made in the United States and found a warm reception among viewers. For Persian-speaking audiences, the dubbed version makes a conversation-heavy documentary far easier to follow, since nearly everything of substance is spoken aloud.
Watching Becoming on Ktime
Becoming streams on K-Time with a Persian dub. You do not need an account to read this page, but you do need to log in to K-Time to start the documentary. The whole experience, from browsing to the player, is presented in Farsi for the Iranian diaspora.