Might 9, 2025
Malia Obama is being accused of copying an indie fillmmaker when creating her new Nike adverts for A’Ja Wilson.
Malia Obama’s new Nike adverts are being referred to as out by one impartial filmmaker who thinks the previous First Daughter copied components from her 2024 Sundance brief.
Nike tapped Malia, who goes professionally by Malia Ann, to direct two commercials for A’ja Wilson’s debut A’One sneaker. However quickly after the adverts dropped on Might 3, filmmaker and NYU alum Natalie Jasmine Harris took to X to level out what she believes are hanging similarities between Malia’s work and her personal Sundance brief movie GRACE.
Harris made positive to notice that Malia additionally made her Sundance debut final yr with the movie The Coronary heart.
“Been sitting with this for some time,” Harris wrote, alongside stills from her and Malia’s initiatives. “My Sundance brief movie GRACE (shot brilliantly by Tehillah de Castro) was made with deep love and care. The social minimize of the brand new @Nike industrial directed by Malia Obama (who was additionally at Sundance my yr) feels shockingly just like my work…”
Harris ended her assertion with a suggestion for Nike to think about giving alternatives to the impartial filmmakers they might have drawn inspiration from, reasonably than prioritizing higher-profile names.
“I do know artwork usually overlaps, however moments like this hit onerous whenever you’ve poured your coronary heart into telling tales with care and barely get the popularity you deserve,” she wrote. “If manufacturers desire a sure look, why not rent from the supply as a substitute of for identify recognition?”
Malia’s newest work provides to her rising resume, which now features a Sundance brief movie, writing credit on Donald Glover’s Swarm, and a pair of Nike commercials. The A’ja Wilson adverts honor the WNBA MVP’s upbringing, creatively pairing lyrics about Wilson’s childhood with the melody of the traditional nursery rhyme “Miss Mary Mack.”
The adverts are crammed with refined tributes to Wilson’s roots in Columbia, South Carolina, and her basketball journey, that includes scenes shot round her hometown. Cameos embrace her dad and mom, South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Daybreak Staley, who as soon as had her personal signature Nike shoe, a gaggle of dancing Benedict School cheerleaders, and a scene inside Saint John Baptist Church, Wilson’s childhood church.
A 3rd industrial, titled “A’One from Day One,” is ready to debut on Friday, Might 9, spotlighting interviews with residents of Columbia.
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