While President Barack Obama is busy fending off America's lunatic fringe at the moment over questions of health-care reform and the location of his birth certificate, documentary fans will be hoping he finds a few minutes to get involved in a planned film called Stanley Ann Dunham: A Most Generous Spirit. Why should the world's most powerful man sign up to it? Well, because it's about his mum.
Yes, the late Stanley Ann Dunham was the Hawaiian woman who raised the President and, according to executive producer Mary Aloe, "gave a lot of the backbone to our current president and his compassion to the people". She raised Obama in Hawaii and Indonesia, and found time to do pioneering work in Third World microfinancing of small business entrepreneurs, usually women, who want to help their communities become self-sufficient.
Charles Burnett, who recently directed Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation but is perhaps best known for 1977 cult classic Killer of Sheep, will direct the documentary, which will shoot early next year in Hawaii and Indonesia. Negotiations for President Obama's involvement continue, but we hear he's got a few other things on his plate.