1. Write a 1-2 sentence synopsis of the movie. Who are the major characters?
My Kid Could Paint That is a documentary on the early life and fame of a four year old girl who is seen as a prodigy, selling paintings for thousands of dollars in art galleries. Such a story created quite a stir in the media and art world, with many questions arising from many people around the world. What started off as an innocent and honest story turned out to become a controversial, masked and much disputed subject. The major characters are Marla Olmstead, Mark Olmstead, Laura Olmstead, Elizabeth Cohen, and Amir Bar-Lev.
2. Marla's parents give permission to the documentary director of the film, Amir Bar-Lev, to make the movie. At a certain point, they change their minds. There is a tug-of-war over who owns the story. Who controls the story now? Marla's parents or Bar-Lev?
It seems as if Bar-Lev controls the story. He always had the power to control it, being the producer of the film. He could make it seem as if the parent's side was right over the media, and vice versa. What the parents wanted, of course, was to sort of clear their name and have the documentary be a sort of proof of Marla being the real artist. Towards the end, especially, it seemed as if Marla's parents spun out of control, losing their credibility on the story, leaving people possibly confused and/or undecided, unable to pick sides on who to believe, the parents or the media.
3. Marla's story started off as a cute little human interest story. As a result of media interest, the story takes a dark turn when people began questioning if her father is helping create the paintings. What determines when a story has "run its course?" When is a story in the media done? Can you think of examples in the news where a story seems to have run its course, but is artificially kept alive in the press?
I believe that a story in the media becomes stagnant when too much controversy occurs. At a certain point, people may become sick of it, not knowing who to believe or what opinion to follow. People usually like a good story with a bit of controversy and then a solid ending. In this case, however, nothing is really solved in the end and people are left to make their own decision on what they believe, rather than having the media or set-in-stone facts to tell them what to believe.
An example would be that of the missing boy named Kyron. So many twists in the story only anger the audience and people eventually give up and their opinion on it turns sour.
4. In the beginning, Bar-Lev was allowed into the family's home to document a sweet little story about a four-year old child. And then the story began to change...
What sort of responsibility do you think a documentary filmmaker or non-fiction writer has? Is Bar-Lev just documenting the story? Or is a part of the story; is he helping actually create his own version of the story?
A person in that situation has many responsibilities. I think someone who is in such a position as this is in an intense place. This said person is getting closely involved in the lives of the family and friends of the family who may be used as credible sources or who may be interviewed for information and different points of view. If you mess up, your documentary can be cut short by who you are making a documentary of.
I did get the impression that he was actually creating his own version of the story, kind of implying that Marla's paintings like "Ocean" were very different than the others that seemed to be more "polished" or refined. My final thought on it, though was that he really wasn't attempting to do that. I really do think he was just leaving it up to the viewers, because in his documentary he was able to get both the good and the bad of the whole story.
5. What did you think of the documentary overall? Did it capture your interest? How did it change the way you perceive how stories are portrayed in the media?
I thought that the documentary was very different and interesting. I was very much pulled in by the negative possibilities of the story the Bar-Lev brought out. It didn't quite change the way I see stories brought out by the media, but it did give me a sort of insight on what people go through. It gave me sense of ugly. It was a dark, dirty, chaotic mess of pain and distress. It's something not everyone thinks of when they see something brought out by the media.
6. The story has now seemingly fallen off into oblivion. The documentary was made in 2007 so what information can you find to add to the story? What has happened since? What are your final feelings/thoughts regarding this story?
I've read through a couple of blogs, and it appears as if she is still painting. A more recent painting, called New Art, is selling for 30 grand, a bit more than what she was making on paintings that were included in the documentary. She is now in second grade, and her parents say that she is even less able to paint as often as before, and her style of painting is changing- it's no longer as abstract, where now she is starting to paint things such as horses. Her parents sell the paintings through the website alone.
I do feel as if maybe she really did paint them all. There is that lingering thought that maybe Zane was really painting them, or painting them with her, or that maybe her father helped her, even if he didn't have to pick up a paintbrush. My thoughts are that it is a possibility that she may have gone through a process where she changes certain techniques and colors in her paintings, creating a whole new feel and flavor. It seems as though most strokes and circles and similar elements stay the same in her paintings, but seem to almost change as a whole throughout her "career" as an artist. I really don't like knowing that I could be giving her the credit that doesn't belong to her, or not giving her enough. Whether she completed them all on her own or not, I still do believe that she is an artist and has a talent that many cannot claim to possess. It could just be a child playfully painting with no deeper intent in her art. Even then, I do appreciate her work, and I would love to hang it on my wall... for a nonexistent price, of course.
One of my personal favorites by Marla Olmstead.
