Malia Ann (Obama) makes her music video debut with Michael Kiwanuka's "One And Only"

Malia Ann (Obama) is really stepping up her game as a filmmaker. The former first daughter just made her music video debut in a genuinely cinematic take on Michael Kiwanuka’s “One And Only,” using the moniker Malia Ann. It’s the same name she employed to debut her short film The Heart at Sundance earlier this year. 

The clip sees a woman chase her doppelganger through the woods in an Us meets that loner-hunting scene from The Lobster kind of setup. Credit where credit is due: it looks quite good. The video is filmed beautifully, and Obama manages to wrestle some genuine tension out of her four minutes. There’s even a delayed title card drop three quarters of the way through! She’s clearly been doing her homework.

The fact that Obama created The Heart with Donald Glover’s production company, Gilga, might have contributed to her music video expertise. The Heart received the Young Spirit award at this year’s Deauville Film Festival, and also screened at Telluride and TIFF in addition to its Sundance premiere. Reactions to the film were mixed, but that’s to be expected. Despite the big last name (even if she’s not using it), Malia Ann is still just starting out.

“One and Only” is the fourth single off Kiwanuka’s latest album Small Changes, which released November 22. “I was subliminally thinking of the fear of… change,” Kiwanuka told NPR of the album, which was produced in collaboration with Danger Mouse and Inflo. “Can things stay as they were? Can I adapt? And it sort of became the subject of the album.” You can watch the music video below: