Malia Obama Developing Short Film at Donald Glover’s Company; He Told Her: ‘If You Make a Bad Film, It Will Follow You Around’
Malia Obama is staying in the Donald Glover business. As part of a new GQ cover story on the “Atlanta” creator, Glover revealed that his newly-created production company, Gilga, is developing a short film with Malia Obama, the eldest daughter of Barack and Michelle Obama. GQ confirmed Malia is “creating” the short film. It’s unconfirmed at this time if Malia will direct the project.
Malia already has experience working with Glover as part of the writer’s room of his buzzy Amazon Prime Video series “Swarm,” which debuted March 17 on the streaming platform. Malia had a writing credit on the show’s fifth episode, “Girl Bye,” alongside series co-creator Janine Nabers.
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As part of the GQ cover, Glover reflected on how he is mentoring Malia in the entertainment world. “The first thing we did was talk about the fact that she will only get to do this once,” Glover said. “You’re Obama’s daughter. So if you make a bad film, it will follow you around.”
Fam Udeorji, Glover’s longtime collaborator and his creative partner at Gilga, added, “Understanding somebody like Malia’s cachet means something. But we really wanted to make sure she could make what she wanted—even if it was a slow process…It’s more about diversity of thought than just, like, diversity for optics. You know what I mean?”
Plot details about Malia Obama’s new short film are remaining under wraps.
“Swarm” was one of the first projects Glover developed at Gilga. He told GQ of the production company’s purpose: “Rich kids don’t do shit for money. They do things based on if it’s gonna make them happy. Like, that’s really what I realized this last go-around. I made a lot of money, and it wasn’t that I was depressed or anything like that, but I realized it’s the people I was around that mattered. It’s the food I was able to eat. It’s the processes I was a part of that made me happy. People don’t get quality anymore and they need a filter. Gilga is a perfect filter for that shit.”
The first season of “Swarm” is streaming in its entirety on Prime Video.
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