My Kid Could Paint That
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Amir Bar-lev
Stuart Simpson
Zane Olmstead
Mark Olmstead
Marla Olmstead
Elizabeth Cohen
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the span of only a few months, 4-year-old Marla Olmstead rocketed from total obscurity into international renown--and sold over $300,000 dollars worth of paintings. She was compared to Kandinsky and Pollock, and called "a budding Picasso." Inside Edition, The Jane Pauley Show, and NPR did pieces, and The Today Show and Good Morning America got in a bidding war over an appearance by the bashful toddler. There was talk of corporate sponsorship, with the family fielding calls from The Gap and Crayola. But not all of the attention was positive. From the beginning, many faulted her parents for exposing Marla to the glare of the media and accused the couple of exploiting their daughter for financial gain. Others felt her work was, in fact, comparable to the great Abstract Expressionists--but saw this as emblematic of the meaninglessness of Modern Art. Through no intention of her own, Marla revived the age-old question, 'what is art?' And then, five months into Marla's new life as a celebrity and just short of her fifth birthday, a bombshell dropped. CBS' 60 Minutes aired an exposé suggesting strongly that the paintings were painted by her father, himself an amateur painter. As quickly as the public built Marla up, they tore her down. The New York Post asked whether "the juvenile Jackson Pollock may actually be a full-fledged Willem de Frauding," the Olmsteads were barraged with hate mail, ostracized around town, sales of the paintings dried up, and Marla's art dealer considered moving out of Binghamton. Embattled, the Olmsteads turned to the filmmaker to clear their name. Torn between his own responsibility as a journalist and the family's desire to see their integrity restored, the director finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a situation that can't possibly end well for him and them, and could easily end badly for both.
Director
Amir Bar-lev
Cast
Stuart Simpson
Zane Olmstead
Mark Olmstead
Marla Olmstead
Elizabeth Cohen
Laura Olmstead
Anthony Brunelli
Michael Kimmelman
Crew
Anne Alvergue
B Arnovick
Amir Bar-lev
Amir Bar-lev
Ary Barroso
John Battsek
Jessica Berman-bogdan
Nick Bledsoe
Matt Boyd
Fila Brazillia
Peter Broderick
Ryan Carroll
M Cichy
Will Cox
Will Cox
Jonathan Crosby
Jonathan Crosby
Jonny Cuba
Xavier Cugat
Ron Curtis Jr.
Jeff Daniel
Carl Deal
Jeff Diamond
Bryan Donnell
Stephen Dunn
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Penelope Falk
Guy Florita
Phi France
Mariusz Glabinski
Glenn Gould
Steven Gravatt
Simon Green
Arnovick J Greer
J Greer
Marlena Grzaslewicz
Jo Haslam
Kieran Mies David Hebden
Nelson Hume
Gunild Keetman
Chris Kenneally
Noah Kistler
Richard Klein
Anthony Kraus
Julia Landau
Liam Lawyer
Jason Leichuk
Michael Levine
Melanie Levy
Rachel Libert
Aaron Lubarsky
Jonathan Maron
Cobby Mcsherry
Jesse Neuman
Sara P Nolan
Eric Offin
Eric Offin
Carl Orff
Sandy Patch
Vadim Peare
Holly Cara Price
I Pudo
Gabriel Rhodes
Trevor Ristow
Jenna Rosher
Nino Rota
Andrew Ruhemann
Celeste Russi
Benjamin Rutkowski
Paul Sacco
Tara Sands
Tina Shaerban
Laleh Soomekh
Ira Spiegel
J Swinscoe
Emi Takahara
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
The Mills Brothers
Cal Tjader
Stephen Trapp
Bill Turnley
John Walter
John Walter
J Why
J Why
Dan Zappin
Ryan Zappin
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 2007
Released in United States Fall October 5, 2007
Released in United States January 2007
Released in United States on Video March 4, 2008
Released in United States September 2007
Shown at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Documentary) June 29 - July 7, 2007.
Shown at London Film Festival (Film on the Square) October 17-November 1, 2007.
Shown at Toronto International Film Festival (Real To Reel) September 6-15, 2007.
Shown at Vancouver International Film Festival (Nonfiction Features of 2007) September 27-October 12, 2007.
Sony Pictures Classics acquired worldwide distribution rights for $1.8 million at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
Released in United States 2007 (Shown at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Documentary) June 29 - July 7, 2007.)
Released in United States 2007 (Shown at London Film Festival (Film on the Square) October 17-November 1, 2007.)
Released in United States 2007 (Shown at Vancouver International Film Festival (Nonfiction Features of 2007) September 27-October 12, 2007.)
Released in United States January 2007 (Shown at Sundance Film Festival (Documentary Competition) January 18-28, 2007.)
Released in United States Fall October 5, 2007
Released in United States on Video March 4, 2008
Released in United States September 2007 (Shown at Toronto International Film Festival (Real To Reel) September 6-15, 2007.)
