It would appear that Malia Obama was hired to direct a commercial for Nike.
Now, another director is claiming that Malia Obama stole her work and used it to create her commercial.
Malia Obama unveiled her first film at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
On her new project, she stated, “The film is about lost objects and lonely people and forgiveness and regret, but I also think it works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in those things.
“We hope you enjoy the film and it makes you feel a bit less lonely, or at least reminds you not to forget about the people who are.”
During that festival, Natalie Jasmine Harris screened “Grace,” and reportedly met Malia, which is key to her claim that Malia stole her work.
Malia recently directed an ad for Nike that featured a young girl teaching a WNBA player how to play pat-a-cake. The ad seemed a bit too close to home for Harris, who had a similar scene in “Grace.”
Harris stated, “It’s not about the game. It’s about the cinematic tools used to depict it.
“I know art often overlaps, but moments like this hit hard when you’ve poured your heart into telling stories with care and barely get the recognition you deserve. If brands want a certain look, why not hire from the source instead of for name recognition?”
The second part of her statement is what caught my attention, as she appears to be upset that Obama was hired instead of her. The fact of the matter is that directors often look for inspiration in other people’s work, then use it in their own projects, and that is likely what happened here.
Yorgos Lanthimos is a Greek filmmaker who explained how directors use other works, stating, “During preproduction we looked at different films — some of them period, some contemporary — in order to be inspired in different ways.
“We looked at period films that made bold choices in the past and were creative in how they dealt with the genre including Amadeus (Milos Forman), The Madness of King George (Nicholas Hytner), The Draughtsman's Contract (Peter Greenaway) and Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman) in terms of tone but also visually.”
Pawel Pawlikowski is another award-winning director who explained that sometimes these inspirations come via a life of watching films, stating, "I wasn't conscious of any one director while making Cold War, to be honest. But in its DNA must be all the films I've admired over the ages by directors as diverse as Jan Nemec, Slobodan Sijan, Wojciech Has, [Andrzej] Wajda, [Jean-Luc] Godard, [Milos] Forman, [Billy] Wilder, [Andrei] Tarkovsky, [Robert] Bresson and [Roberto] Rossellini."
You guys know me well enough by now that if I thought some nefarious act had taken place, I would say it, but this seems like pettiness and jealousy on the part of Harris. And I am not saying she should not be upset because her notion that Malia got the job because of her name is likely dead on, but nothing illegal appears to have happened here. My guess is that Malia saw “Grace” at the film festival and when Nike approached for the ad, that scene came to mind. Lacking originality… absolutely, but in that industry, this happens all the time.
