My Kid Could Paint That (2007)

Director:

Amir Bar-Lev

Release Date:

18 October 2007 (Australia)

Genre:

Documentary | Family | Mystery

Tagline:

Inspiration or Manipulation? You Decide.

Plot:

A look at the work and surprising success of a four-year-old girl whose paintings have been compared to the likes of Picasso and has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Plot Keywords:

Art | Painting | Artist | Little Girl | Mother Daughter Relationship

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Amir Bar-Lev	...	Himself
Anthony Brunelli	...	Himself
Elizabeth Cohen	...	Herself
Jonathan Crosby	...	(voice)
Ron Curtis Jr.	...	(voice)
Michael Kimmelman	...	Himself
Laura Olmstead	...	Herself
Mark Olmstead	...	Himself
Marla Olmstead	...	Herself
Zane Olmstead	...	Himself
Celeste Russi	...	(voice)
Tara Sands	...	(voice)
Stuart Simpson	...	Himself
Jackie Wescott	...	Herself

Directed by
Amir Bar-Lev

Produced by
Amir Bar-Lev	....	producer
John Battsek	....	executive producer
Stephen Dunn	....	co-producer
Richard Klein	....	executive producer: BBC
Sara Nolan	....	associate producer
Andrew Ruhemann	....	co-executive producer

Original Music by
Rondo Brothers

Cinematography by
Matt Boyd		(director of photography)
Nelson Hume
Bill Turnley

Film Editing by
Michael Levine
John W. Walter		(as John Walter)

Production Management
Christopher Kenneally	....	post-production supervisor

Sound Department
Ryan Carroll	....	sound recordist
Mark Garcia	....	adr mixer
Marlena Grzaslewicz	....	supervising sound editor: 701 Sound
Eric Offin	....	sound re-recording mixer
Paul Sacco	....	dolby sound consultant
Ira Spiegel	....	sound effects editor: 701 Sound
Ryan Zappin	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Amir Bar-Lev	....	additional camera operator
Bryan Donnell	....	additional camera operator
Guy Fiorita	....	additional camera operator
Jason Lelchuk	....	additional camera operator
Rachel Libert	....	additional camera operator
Jenna Rosher	....	additional camera operator
Jenna Rosher	....	camera operator
Laleh Soomekh	....	additional camera operator
John W. Walter	....	additional camera operator (as John Walter)
Dan Zappin	....	additional camera operator

Animation Department
Anthony Kraus	....	animator: Noisy Neighbor Productions
Stefan Nadelman	....	animator: Tourist Pictures

Editorial Department
Anne Alvergue	....	additional editor
Tricia Chiarenza	....	color timer
Will Cox	....	on-line editor: Final Frame
Penelope Falk	....	additional editor
Liam Lawyer	....	additional editor
Aaron Lubarsky	....	additional editor
Sandy Patch	....	assistant on-line editor
Gabriel Rhodes	....	additional editor
Trevor Ristow	....	additional editor

Music Department
Jeff Daniel	....	music supervisor: Rock River Music
Mariusz Glabinski	....	music editor
Jeff Booth Diamond Ring	....	music licensing: Rock River Music (as Jeff Diamond)
Jeff Booth Diamond Ring	....	music supervisor: Rock River Music (as Jeff Diamond)

Other crew
Jessica Berman Bogdan	....	clearances (as Jessica Berman-Bogdan)
Jessica Berman Bogdan	....	researcher (as Jessica Berman-Bogdan)
Paul Brennan	....	legal services: Sloss Law Office
Peter Broderick	....	consultant
Jonathan Crosby	....	consultant
Carl Deal	....	archival consultant
Winston Emano	....	publicist
Craig Emanuel	....	legal services: Loeb & Loeb
David Fox	....	legal services (as David Fox Esq.)
Steven Gravatt	....	production intern
Jo Haslam	....	production intern
Peter Jaszi	....	legal services
Noah Kistler	....	production intern
Julia Landau	....	production intern
Melanie Vi Levy	....	production intern (as Melanie Levy)
David Magdael	....	publicist
Holly Cara Price	....	clearances
Holly Cara Price	....	researcher
Benjamin Rutkowski	....	production intern
Steve C. Schechter	....	legal services (as Steven C. Schechter)
Tina Shaerban	....	production intern
Emi Takahara	....	production intern
Stephen Trapp	....	production intern
Anne Stulz	....	publicist (uncredited)

Production Companies

• A&E IndieFilms
• Axis Films
• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
• Passion Pictures

Distributors

• Sony Pictures Classics (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• A&E Television Networks (2007) (USA) (TV)
• A&E IndieFilms (2007) (USA) (TV)
• LK-TEL (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Releasing (2008) (Argentina) (all media)

Other Companies

• Arts Engine  fiscal sponsorship
• Creative Artists Agency (CAA)  distribution advisory services
• Donna Daniels Public Relations  publicity
• Ovasen Post Production  post-production services and facilities
• Ovasen  post-production services and facilities
• Submarine Entertainment  distribution advisory services
• Tandem Sound  sound post-production

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Canada:PG | Sweden:Btl | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Netherlands:AL | Australia:M | UK:12 | Ireland:PG

Filming Locations:

Binghamton, New York, USA

Company:

A&E IndieFilms

Quotes:

Michael Kimmelman:All writers, all storytellers, are imposing their own narrative on something. I mean, all art in some ways is a lie. It looks like a picture of something, but it isn't that thing, it's a representation of that thing... Your documentary is itself going to be a lie...

Movie Connections:

Features "The Jane Pauley Show" (2004)

Soundtrack:

Snow Blind

Everybody always talks about Marla! Marla Marla Marla!

My Kid Could Paint That, if it's 'about' anything, or as Ebert would say how it's about it, is process. Marla is a four year old who paints, most likely for reasons nobody knows because she's four years old. It just comes from somewhere, maybe even nowhere. We see her process in little pieces, but it's really also, for a good deal of its running time, the process of the art industry today. Does an artist like Marla really stand a chance against or in the same league as other artists who put their heart and soul and body and mind into their art (sometimes the cynical kind, sometimes not)? Perhaps it all has to do with her being four years old and making these paintings that ultimately defies description by someone who isn't an art critic (pretentious or otherwise), and why Marla's parents sell her paintings at galleries and go up for sale in the tens of thousands. Is she any more talented than a Van Gogh? Keep in mind, folks, Van Gogh didn't sell a painting in his life.

So it's not just about the process of a four year old artist- who, as we see argued in the film, may have not even painted all of her paintings as her father is suggested as another- but about the media's scrutiny, of that 60 Minutes piece, and then, ultimately and thankfully, the process of film-making and capturing a family on film. The director gets close to the family and their situation of their daughter, and they by proxy, being recognizable on a national scale. At first the director just wants to take a look, as he's asked point blank by the female journalist seen often in the film, at modern art through this story and Marla in the scope of it. But we see this struggle play out of his subjectivity, of his perception of what's going down, and it shapes the rest of the film for about the last twenty minutes or so. Where before we didn't see much of him, the director, living sometimes 24 hours a day around Marla and the family and filming (and getting great footage) becomes part of the subject.

What is art? How do we define it, or what makes a particular work successful? Jackson Pollock is shown, of course, but as is a lot of 'abstract art', what it means to put a piece out there and how it finds its audience. To be fair, I'm not sure if Marla's works would get the kind of grandiose attention it got if not for the practical gimmick of her age, but some might based on the merits and talent on display. At one point a critic looks at it and interprets a little section of the painting as if its a doorway and a little figure is there. Why does he see the significance there? Who knows? Who cares, even, except that the work makes an impact. And the director's goal with My Kid Could Paint That is to take Marla's story, of a cute little girl who is basically a kid who wants to just be a kid (as we can see inasmuch in a 80 minute film), and may indeed get a little nudging, more or less, from her father in some of her paintings.

Some have questioned about the validity of the works, about how much is really Marla's father, who works in a Frito-Lay factory as a manager (the mother a dental assistant, notching up very middle-class roots), and how much we actually see on film of Marla painting compared to the works when the camera wasn't around. Does this depreciate the value of the paintings then? That's not entirely the point the filmmaker is out to make, though he brings it up in a tense interview late in the film. The film is most successful at bringing to light how we get to conversations about art and artists and the commerce of it in the first place. Some of it is a gimmick that connects, yes. Who knows if Marla will still be painting next year, or even now. But we see the process realistically at work, on and behind the camera, and that makes it interesting.