Southside With You,Barack And Michelle Obama’s First Date Inspired Movie Debuts

Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date inspired Southside With You has made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival yesterday Sunday.

The movie set in 1989 on the day that the United States first Couple visited the Art Institute of Chicago, had a picnic lunch, and watched Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing starring Tika Sumpter and Parker Sawyers as The Obamas, Sumpter talked co-producing the film.

“Ultimately, I wanted to see someone who looked like me falling in love up there and I think everybody can relate to that. … It’s not Republican, Democrat or anything else. It’s just a love story,” she told ABC News.

According to director and screenwriter Richard Tanne, the film portrays an accurate view of the couple’s time together that fateful day, though he had to write in the actual conversation. His research consisted of articles and other materials that detailed their first encounter. Sumpter said that the film set out to present POTUS and FLOTUS as people.

“Just the perspective — not seeing these two as we see them now, but from before. … It started because I was just inspired by the love story … and I wanted to see that kind of love up there. It’s not the normal rom-com. It’s real conversations of what might have been said,” she said.