Higher Ground Productions


Higher Ground Productions, often known as Higher Ground, is an United States independent production company founded by former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
As of 2020, the company has received and won one Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for American Factory.

History

In May 2018, Barack and Michelle Obama launched Higher Ground Productions by signing a multi-year deal with Netflix to produce scripted and unscripted film and television projects, with the goal of the company to lift up diverse voices in the entertainment industry. Michelle Obama stated "I have always believed in the power of storytelling to inspire us, to make us think differently about the world around us, and to help us open our minds and hearts to others." In February 2019, Priya Swaminathan, Tonia Davis, and Qadriyyah “Q” Shamsid-Deen joined the company, with Swaminathan and Davis serving as co-heads, and Shasid-Deen serving as a creative executive.
On June 6, 2019, Spotify announced a partnership with Higher Ground to produce Spotify exclusive podcasts.The first podcast under the partnership, The Michelle Obama Podcast, was released on July 29, 2020.
The company's first produced film, American Factory, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2020. In May 2020, Netflix released Becoming a documentary following Michelle Obama on her book tour promoting her memoir of the same name Becoming
Higher Ground has multiple projects in development including a feature film adaption of Frederick Douglass's, a drama series set in New York City set after post-WWII following the world of fashion, a scripted anthology series of the New York Times obituary column highlighting deaths of remarkable people not reported, a documentary series adaption of “The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy” by Michael Lewis and a half-hour preschool series Listen to Your Vegetables & Eat Your Parents

Productions