Nadia Hallgren is a first-time Emmy nominee, except her initial foray into TV Academy recognition spans two nods right out of the gate--for Outstanding Directing as well as Outstanding Cinematography for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program, both for Becoming (Netflix), which follows former First Lady Michelle Obama on her 34-city book tour for her bestselling memoir. Produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, the documentary marks the feature directorial debut for Hallgren, an accomplished cinematographer. She has shown her directorial chops before, however, helming After Maria, a 2019 Academy Award-shortlisted documentary short telling the stories of three families displaced by Hurricane Maria. After Maria was also nominated for Best Documentary Short at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Hallgren recalled getting a call from Higher Ground about chronicling Michelle Obama’s book tour, a project that could become a full-fledged feature documentary or perhaps just a film that would live in the Obama archives. While Higher Ground was attracted to Hallgren’s vérité sensibilities, she was drawn to the First Lady, having lensed the Tony Gerber-directed CNN Films’ documentary We Will Rise: Michelle Obama’s Mission to Educate Girls Around the World. “I saw then how she interacted with people,” said Hallgren, noting that Michelle Obama’s power of connection, positively impacting others’ lives and stories made the prospect of following her from arena to arena for Becoming all the more enticing.

This in part prompted Hallgren to make Becoming more than a documentary about Obama. The filmmaker additionally covered to an extent those who came out to see the First Lady, their stories and how they were inspired in some way by her. The fly-on-the-wall perspective extended beyond Obama to others not so famous, putting their stories within the First Lady’s story. “I became interested in not just telling Michelle Obama’s story but telling a story about storytelling, what it means when people share their stories with each other.”

Though it was a challenge to weave the stories of other young women into Becoming--aided by “an incredible edit team,” said Hallgren--this approach made for a multi-dimensional film. “I was thinking about my life,” explained Hallgren, “and how I became the person I am. A lot of it came from listening to people’s stories. I’ve spent most of my adult life on shoots, hearing stories and the experiences of people from all over the world--and their stories changed me as a person.”

As for doing full justice to the first Black First Lady’s story on tour and otherwise, Hallgren had to capture an intimacy by staying physically close to Obama. “This could not be shot at the end of a long lens,” said Hallgren who noted that she had “to get past my intimidation relative to her. She’s this icon, larger than life. I had to overcome this to be next to her. She does not move through the world like ordinary people. She’s flanked by Secret Service. She moves very quickly which can be difficult to capture on camera. She’s part of a fast-moving operation, a fast-moving dance. I had to integrate myself within this dance.”

And now Hallgren is integrating herself into another dance, the art and craft of directing. She’s pursuing more directorial opportunities in long and short-form content. On the latter front, she recently joined production house Chelsea Pictures for commercials and branded content. This marks her first branded representation. Hallgren said she’s looking to Chelsea “to nurture me in a different aspect of storytelling.”

Chelsea president Lisa Mehling said, “As cinematographer of some of my favorite films (Trouble the Water, RBG, The Hunting Ground) Nadia has seamlessly transitioned to directing with After Maria, landing her on the Oscar shortlist and now with the outstanding documentary Becoming--where Nadia became a fly on the wall of the world’s most famous woman, resulting in an intimate, human and deeply touching vérité film. We clicked immediately over our mutual friends in the business, her hunger to tell stories and her regard for the impact that is possible with a brand platform.”

Hallgren brings to Chelsea a perspective informed by her experience on Becoming. “Personally what I walked away with from Becoming was the idea that nothing is impossible. Growing up as a kid, I wanted to be a filmmaker. How would I get my foot in the door of this industry? I set my sights on a goal that seemed impossible. But by meeting people who helped, through perseverance and hard work--things that Michele Obama talks about in her message about us believing in ourselves--I was able to reach my goal. You can do anything. Being with her as she reinforces positive ideas made me believe this in a way I hadn’t before. Follow your dreams.”

An affirmation of those dreams comes in the form of the two Emmy nominations she earned for Becoming--particularly given the high regard she holds for her fellow nominees in the directing category. She cited as examples Feras Fayyad for The Cave (National Geographic) and Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert for American Factory (Netflix). Hallgren noted all that Fayyad had to endure to make his film while she described American Factory, which won the Best Feature Documentary Oscar earlier this year, as already being “a classic.” Like Becoming, American Factory was produced by the Obamas’ Higher Ground.

Read the rest of the interviews for this series here.