Keeping it short but sweet this week. Giving you just enough to fulfill your hunger for entertainment. If you haven’t seen “Leave the World Behind” the dark look on society currently on Netflix cen- ters on the idea of mistrust and how easy it is for humans to lose empathy for one another when faced with a crisis. Most importantly, it is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground.
Released on Friday, it is one of three films from Higher Ground that will be released within a month of one another on the streaming service. The others are “Rustin” a biopic about a gay civil-rights-era activist, Bayard Rustin, and “American Symphony” a documentary tracking the relationship between the musician Jon Batiste and his partner, Suleika Jaouad.
Together, the films provide the best evidence of the five-year-old company’s attempts to evolve from an earnest, feel-good brand to one that is more complex and focused primarily on good storytelling centered on, Mr. Obama said, people who are dealing with “the tensions that are in our society.”
“It’s taken a while for us to remind our team at Higher Ground, as well as the creative community in Hollywood, that this isn’t like Masterpiece Theatre — not everything we do has to fit on PBS,” Mr. Obama, “We are known to watch other things.”
Thank you for reading an excerpt of Philly Beat on scoopusamedia.com. To read more of Philly Beat, please subscribe to Scoop USA Media. Print subscriptions are $75.00 and online subscriptions (Print, Digital and Vizion) are $90. (52 weeks/1 year)
