Event

MY KID COULD PAINT THAT

How many times have you looked at a piece of abstract art and muttered to yourself, "Even my kid could paint that?"
In director Amir Bar-Lev's (Fighter) fascinating new documentary, the notion of "who gets to call it art?" is explored through the bizarre real-life story of four-year-old Marla Olmstead, whose abstract paintings shocked the art world and sold for tens of thousands of dollars a piece, eventually netting a total of over $300,000 by her fourth birthday.
When filmmaker Bar-Lev set out to document her story, Marla was already garnering international media attention, and her work (as well as the role of her parents) was embroiled in controversy; while some touted the young artist as a genius comparable to Pollock and Kandinsky, others believed that her success proved that all modern art was meaningless.
However, halfway through Bar-Lev's production of the film, 60 Minutes ran an expos suggesting that Marla could not possibly have done all of the paintings, accusing her father, Mark Olmstead, of painting or at least "touching up" her work. As both the media's interpretation of the story and the affect it had on the Olmsteads began to change and mutate drastically, Bar-Lev's focus began to change as well, and the filmmaker inserted himself into the film to such an extent that all notions of "objective distance" started to crumble.
Was toddler Marla really a world-renowned painter? Were her parents pulling the wool over the eyes of the art establishment? And what exactly is the true nature of art, not to mention the role of a documentary filmmaker?
MY KID COULD PAINT THAT explores these questions in such a uniquely gripping manner, you may never look at a painting the same way again.