Netflix is about to get some new original programming, courtesy of the Obamas.
A year after striking a deal with the streaming platform, Barack and Michelle Obama have just announced some of the new projects they have in the works for Netflix. Last year, the former president and first lady landed a multi-year production deal to produce shows and films for the streaming service.
On Tuesday, the Obamas’ production company, Higher Ground Productions, unveiled a new slate of prospective programming for Netflix, The New York Times reported. The seven projects include documentaries, films and even children’s programming.
“Touching on issues of race and class, democracy and civil rights and much more, we believe each of these productions won’t just entertain, but will educate, connect and inspire us all,” the former president said in a statement.
While the production company will cover a wide breadth of programming, the Obamas are reportedly steering clear of any programming that directly addresses the current presidential administration. According to the Times, the former president and first lady “are intent on avoiding any material that could inflame tensions at a red-hot political moment.”
Higher Ground’s first release will reportedly be American Factory, which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. Produced by Participant Media, the documentary details life in Ohio after a Chinese billionaire opened a factory in a former General Motors plant, employing 2,000 people.
Another documentary, Crip Camp, which traces the origins of the disability rights movement, is also in the works.
Other newly-announced projects include a film adaptation of David W. Blight’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, a drama series set in post-WWII New York, and a series based on Michael Lewis’ The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy.
Meanwhile, the Obamas also have plans to break into children’s programming with the questionably titled, Listen to Your Vegetables & Eat Your Parents. Aimed at pre-schoolers, the half-hour episodes will reportedly “take young children and their families around the globe on an adventure that tells us the story of our food.”
While, as the Times notes, there’s no guarantee all of these projects will make it past the development stage, Netflix’s 148 million paying subscribers will have access to plenty of Obama-produced content in the near future.
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