We The People, executive produced by Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Chris Nee and Kenya Barris, premieres July 4th on Netflix. Meshell Ndegeocello provided the main title for the series, and scored an episode in which a poem by the National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman is set to her music.
We the People covers a range of basic U.S. civics lessons in not-so-basic ways, set to original songs
performed by artists such as Janelle Monáe, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Brandi Carlile, Adam Lambert, Andra Day, Cordae, Bebe Rexha, Kyle, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, Daveed Diggs and Brittany Howard with a groundbreaking mix of animated styles. Each episode of the series promises to educate children on United States civics, and is an “an exuberant call to action for everyone to rethink civics as a living, breathing thing and to reframe their understanding of what government and citizenship mean in a modern world”. Episodes were directed by Peter Ramsey, Trisha Gum, Victoria Vincent, Benjy Brooke, Mabel Ye, Tim Rauch, Jorge R. Gutierrez, Daron Nefcy, Everett Downing, and Kendra Ryan.
The AFI Docs Film Festival will host the world premiere of We the People with a free screening in the Docs Talks section of the event on June 24 at 8 p.m. ET.