A 26-year-old filmmaker has a bone to pick with Malia Obama … seemingly claiming the former first daughter used one of her works as inspiration for a new Nike ad — without properly crediting her.
Natalie Jasmine Harris said Monday the A’ja Wilson vignette that Obama and Nike released this month to promote the hooper’s new signature shoe is “shockingly similar” to NJH’s 2024 Sundance Film Festival flick, “Grace.”
Nike/Field of Jasmine Films
In the Obama-Wilson piece, a young girl can be seen teaching the WNBA superstar her version of “Miss Mary Mack” while on a stoop of a home. In “Grace,” two of the characters play a similar game with their hands as they sit on a small staircase leading to a house’s front door.
Harris made it clear in a series of social media posts she doesn’t believe the lookalike imagery is a coincidence — especially considering she and Obama at one point linked up during the ’24 Sundance event in Utah.
“I know art often overlaps,” she wrote on her X page, “but moments like this hit hard when you’ve poured your heart into telling stories with care and barely get the recognition you deserve.”
TMZ.com
“If brands want a certain look,” she added, “why not hire from the source instead of for name recognition?”
Harris later took to her Instagram to explain the whole situation was “disheartening and disappointing.”
“I’m constantly posting about how difficult it is to be an emerging filmmaker right now and sustain myself without benefitting from family connections, generational wealth, or nepotism,” she said, “and then to see this just really gives me even less hope that this industry wants me to be here.”
We’ve reached out to Nike for comment, but so far, we’ve yet to hear back.
