Michelle Obama supports American Symphony, the award-winning documentary about musician Jon Batiste and his wife Suleika Jaouad

Michelle Obama is boosting the whole thing American Symphonythe Oscar-winning documentary about musician Jon Batiste and his wife, musician Suleika Jaouad.

The former first lady introduced Matthew Heineman’s film at a special screening Thursday night in New Orleans, a place of special meaning to Batiste, who was born in nearby Metairie, Louisiana, and grew up in Kenner, just outside NE. Michelle and Barack Obama are producing the Netflix film through their production company Higher Ground, which has a distribution deal with the streaming platform.

“I’m so excited to be here in Nawlins with you all!” did mrs. Obama began (noting that Barack Obama was absent from the event, she said, “My husband, he’s not here. He’s saying ‘Hey'”). “There is no better place to take this work to the next level than the city where music is at the heart of everything, because music is at the heart of this film.”

Heineman’s documentary traces the development of Batiste’s “insane original symphony” (as the New York Times put it), a classical work that gives the film its title. During the project, Batiste received a whopping 11 Grammy nominations for his album World music radio. But celebrating that achievement took a backseat to caring for Jaouad, who was diagnosed with cancer again, originally diagnosed at age 22.

“This film is about so much more than just one man’s meteoric rise,” said Mrs. Obama noticed. “This is the story of two souls, Jon and Suleika, two souls on parallel paths. In addition to Suleika’s courageous battle against leukemia, we learn the full story behind Jon’s Grammy win and his performance at Carnegie Hall. [in May 2022], the harmony and dissidence that elevates them both on their journey, but also brings them down at the same time. We see how art and music can be a source of healing.”

American Symphony premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and won numerous awards, including audience awards at the Montclair Film Festival, Virginia Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival and Philadelphia Film Festival. The film recently won Best Music Documentary and Best Original Score at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards and has been nominated for four awards at the Cinema Eye Honors in New York next month.

The Obamas received much praise for their Higher Ground documentary on Netflix – 2019 American factory won the Oscar for best documentary and 2020 Crib camp Received an Oscar nomination. But the Obamas rarely make public appearances on behalf of their films and keep a low profile behind the scenes.

In her opening speech, Mrs. Obama describes Batiste as her dear friend.

“Jon says music is more than just entertainment for him. It is a spiritual practice. He says he believes a song or an album is being created and he almost has a radar to find the person when he needs them most. Isn’t that the real thing?’ She said. “We also learn that the victories we see in public, even among famous people, are usually not the whole story. And while the extreme highs and lows don’t necessarily balance each other out, at least they can coexist in imperfectly beautiful ways.

Mrs. Obama also praised Heineman, the Oscar-nominated documentary film director Cartel country, City of ghosts, The first waveDocumentations The tradeand narrative function A private war (with Rosamund Pike as war correspondent Marie Colvin).

“In American Symphony“Matthew takes the same raw and critical approach as in previous projects about Syrian activists opposing brutality or citizens standing up against drug cartels,” said Mrs. Obama said. “Here Matthew shows us that human courage takes many forms, even in concert halls and cancer halls.”

She added: “These are exactly the kind of stories and storytellers Barack and I wanted to work with when we started our production company.”

American Symphony is one of 167 documentaries up for an Oscar (the shortlist starts next week). It is currently streaming on Netflix.