Malia Obama is facing allegations of plagiarizing an independent filmmaker’s work for her Nike advertisement, which was released earlier this month and marks her directorial debut. However, she is now being slammed. Natalie Jasmine Harris claimed that Malia Obama’s one-minute Nike ad featured scenes that were “shockingly similar” to her 2024 short film Grace.
The specific scene she referred to shows two young Black girls playing pat-a-cake. Harris pointed out multiple technical resemblances, including the camera angles, shot choices, framing style, and the use of similar color tones. “It’s not about the game,” Harris, 27, told the Business Insider, alleging plagiarism. “It’s about the cinematic tools used to depict it.”
Copying Others’ Works and Claiming It to Be Her Own
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“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,” she posted on X.
“It’s devastating,” she wrote, next to a side-by-side comparison of the shots.
Harris said that her frustration isn’t with Obama personally, but rather at the broader film industry which failed to protect her work from being copied by someone else.
“It speaks to a larger issue of brands not supporting independent artists and opting for folks who already have name recognition, which doesn’t breed innovative films or original storytelling,” said Harris.
The two filmmakers first met at the Sundance Film Festival last year, where Harris showcased her 14-minute short “Grace.”
Both had entries competing in the festival, which also marked Obama’s red-carpet debut. At the time, Obama said she would stop using her last name to avoid being seen as a “nepo baby.”
Star in Her Own Right
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However, her words and actions don’t appear to be in sync, as her work has now been questioned.
Natalie Jasmine Harris, according to her IMDb profile, has directed four more short films besides Grace: Ben in Bloom (2024), The Small Things (2021), Pure (2021), and Metamorphosis (2018). According to her LinkedIn page, she graduated from Foxcroft School and went on to study at American University.
Harris’s thesis film at NYU, Pure, received the Student Film Award from the Directors Guild of America and was later picked up by HBO Max.
She has taken part in several artist development programs, including those run by Film at Lincoln Center, GLAAD, and Outfest, and has also collaborated with major media outlets like Vogue, Vanity Fair, and others.
