Exclusive: CAA has signed filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev, director of the Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip.
The documentary received great acclaim when it was released and was put on the shortlist for Best Documentary for the 2018 Academy Awards.
Bar-Lev made his directorial debut with documentary Fighter which followed two Holocaust survivors who revisit the labor camp which they were imprisoned. He also directed the Emmy-winning The Tillman Story as well as Happy Valley which examined the Penn State scandal.
His other credits include My Kid Could Paint, a documentary about four-year-old artist Marla Olmstead as well as the Academy Award-nominated Trouble the Water, which he co-produced.
Bar-Lev was previously represented by Wme. His attorney is Linda Lichter at Lichter Grossman Nicholas Adler & Feldman.
The documentary received great acclaim when it was released and was put on the shortlist for Best Documentary for the 2018 Academy Awards.
Bar-Lev made his directorial debut with documentary Fighter which followed two Holocaust survivors who revisit the labor camp which they were imprisoned. He also directed the Emmy-winning The Tillman Story as well as Happy Valley which examined the Penn State scandal.
His other credits include My Kid Could Paint, a documentary about four-year-old artist Marla Olmstead as well as the Academy Award-nominated Trouble the Water, which he co-produced.
Bar-Lev was previously represented by Wme. His attorney is Linda Lichter at Lichter Grossman Nicholas Adler & Feldman.
- 3/4/2019
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
In his 2000 feature debut "Fighter," doc filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev followed two Czech Holocaust survivors as they revisit a notorious labor camp, one of whom begins poking holes in the other man's narrative. As the director himself explains: "It's about the tension between two friends when one of them begins to question how much of the story has been imposed as an afterthought."
Seven years later in his controversial but acclaimed "My Kid Could Paint That," Bar-Lev investigated a Binghamton, NY family whose precocious toddler Marla Olmstead had been vetted by the media as an art-star prodigy. Bar-Lev revealed the facts to be a little sketchy after Marla's parents handed over the storytelling reins to the filmmaker, then tried to take them back: "A tug of war ensues between who controls the story. Is it mine to tell?"
As diverse as his films have been, it's easy to see that Bar-Lev...
Seven years later in his controversial but acclaimed "My Kid Could Paint That," Bar-Lev investigated a Binghamton, NY family whose precocious toddler Marla Olmstead had been vetted by the media as an art-star prodigy. Bar-Lev revealed the facts to be a little sketchy after Marla's parents handed over the storytelling reins to the filmmaker, then tried to take them back: "A tug of war ensues between who controls the story. Is it mine to tell?"
As diverse as his films have been, it's easy to see that Bar-Lev...
- 8/19/2010
- by Aaron Hillis
- ifc.com
My Kid Could Paint That (2007) Direction: Amir Bar-Lev By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica: In a real sense, the 83-minute documentary My Kid Could Paint That is one of the most disgusting films of all time. It disgusts because a) it so vividly displays the utter nonsense and stupidity of the modern art scamming that has gone on for the last half century or more (especially in Abstract Expressionism) — and that’s a good thing; and b) it so vividly displays the exploitation of an innocent child, Marla Olmstead, to meet the personal and psychological demands and needs of her Mark and Laura — and that’s a bad thing. Basically, the film, released in 2007, follows the rise and fall, in 2004 and 2005, of a young girl hailed as a ‘Pint-Sized Pollock’ (Jackson, that is) — not to be confused with other claimed child painterly prodigies such as [...]...
- 4/11/2009
- by Dan Schneider
- Alt Film Guide
Uncovered Film Review
I found this documentary on little Marla Olmstead to be very interesting. Documentaries live and die by the story they tell. If the story isn't as entertaining as fiction, you are going to be bored, and watching the doc. will be like a chore. That's what makes My Kid Could Paint That a diamond in the rough. It displays a child's rise to fame, an expose' on her work, and how her family deals with the fame that they may or may not have antagonized. If you have a solid decision on what side you're taking in the beginning, you'll seriously doubt your feelings by the end of the movie. I don't think the filmmaker goes to far, he mostly just records whatever he sees, and lets the story write itself. The parents on the other hand... that's up to you to decide.
On Netflix | On IMDb...
I found this documentary on little Marla Olmstead to be very interesting. Documentaries live and die by the story they tell. If the story isn't as entertaining as fiction, you are going to be bored, and watching the doc. will be like a chore. That's what makes My Kid Could Paint That a diamond in the rough. It displays a child's rise to fame, an expose' on her work, and how her family deals with the fame that they may or may not have antagonized. If you have a solid decision on what side you're taking in the beginning, you'll seriously doubt your feelings by the end of the movie. I don't think the filmmaker goes to far, he mostly just records whatever he sees, and lets the story write itself. The parents on the other hand... that's up to you to decide.
On Netflix | On IMDb...
- 12/2/2008
- by Matthew
This review was written for the festival screening of "My Kid Could Paint That".
PARK CITY -- A 4-year-old girl who does world-class abstract paintings and becomes an international celebrity seems like a ripe subject for a penetrating documentary about the nature of art. However, "My Kid Could Paint That" is not that film. Instead, director Amir Bar-Lev stumbled on a juicier story about whether the young artist might not be the sole creator of her work. Picked up for distribution at Sundance by Sony Pictures Classics, the film and the controversy should generate interest at the boxoffice, but it's more a story about media manipulation and parental responsibility than art.
After a local reporter broke the story and the New York Times picked it up, Bar-Lev went to the Binghampton, N.Y., home of Marla Olmstead in fall 2004 hoping to make a film about the phenomenon. He promised the girl's parents, Laura and Mark Olmstead, that his documentary would capture a deeper truth for Marla to have when she was older. They agreed and invited him into their home for the next year, where he befriended Marla and became a fixture in the household.
Marla was shy but seemed like a normal kid. She had started painting at 2 when her father put a brush in her hands and set her on the dining room table in a diaper. She produced a series of colorful paintings that were compared to the work of Jackson Pollock and the abstract expressionists. Not surprisingly, she had nothing to say about the meaning of her art, or anything else for that matter. She clearly was not going to sustain a film on her own.
Then, in February 2005, "60 Minutes" aired a report suggesting that Marla may have had help with the paintings. Sales of her work ($300,000 to date) came to a halt, and the Olmsteads received hate mail and accusations. They turned to Ben-Lev hoping for vindication. They also filmed their own video of Marla creating one of her works.
Laura, a dental assistant, and Mark, a night manager in a Frito-Lay plant, seem like concerned, attentive parents. They say they didn't pursue this whole thing, that it came to them. Mark is an amateur realist painter, and the suggestion -- which they adamantly and tearfully deny -- is that he helped Marla with her paintings.
Sniffing a good tabloid story, the media piled on, with the New York Post referring to the girl as Willem de Frauding. Calmer voices prevail in the film, and New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman says people will choose to accept a story because it conforms to how they see it. And because many people regard abstract art as a put-on or a racket, they are more than happy to see the Marla affair as a hoax.
Left with the responsibility of clearing the family's name, Ben-Lev is put in an awkward position for a supposedly objective documentary filmmaker. He is forced to interject himself into the film and admit that he, too, has doubts about the veracity of the paintings.
Skillfully shot and edited, this might not be the film Ben-Lev set out to make. There is little discussion of the quality of the work, other than the fact that people buy it. Marla's original gallery owner, Anthony Brunelli, testifies to her brilliance, but he obviously has a vested interest. So the film is less concerned with the question of whether my kid could paint that than whether my kid could sell that.
MY KID COULD PAINT THAT
Sony Pictures Classics
Credits:
Director: Amir Bar-Lev
Producer: Amir Bar-Lev
Executive producer: John Battsek
Directors of photography: Matt Boyd, Nelson Hume, Bill Turnley
Music: Rondo Brothers
Editors: John Walter, Michael Levine
Running time -- 81 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- A 4-year-old girl who does world-class abstract paintings and becomes an international celebrity seems like a ripe subject for a penetrating documentary about the nature of art. However, "My Kid Could Paint That" is not that film. Instead, director Amir Bar-Lev stumbled on a juicier story about whether the young artist might not be the sole creator of her work. Picked up for distribution at Sundance by Sony Pictures Classics, the film and the controversy should generate interest at the boxoffice, but it's more a story about media manipulation and parental responsibility than art.
After a local reporter broke the story and the New York Times picked it up, Bar-Lev went to the Binghampton, N.Y., home of Marla Olmstead in fall 2004 hoping to make a film about the phenomenon. He promised the girl's parents, Laura and Mark Olmstead, that his documentary would capture a deeper truth for Marla to have when she was older. They agreed and invited him into their home for the next year, where he befriended Marla and became a fixture in the household.
Marla was shy but seemed like a normal kid. She had started painting at 2 when her father put a brush in her hands and set her on the dining room table in a diaper. She produced a series of colorful paintings that were compared to the work of Jackson Pollock and the abstract expressionists. Not surprisingly, she had nothing to say about the meaning of her art, or anything else for that matter. She clearly was not going to sustain a film on her own.
Then, in February 2005, "60 Minutes" aired a report suggesting that Marla may have had help with the paintings. Sales of her work ($300,000 to date) came to a halt, and the Olmsteads received hate mail and accusations. They turned to Ben-Lev hoping for vindication. They also filmed their own video of Marla creating one of her works.
Laura, a dental assistant, and Mark, a night manager in a Frito-Lay plant, seem like concerned, attentive parents. They say they didn't pursue this whole thing, that it came to them. Mark is an amateur realist painter, and the suggestion -- which they adamantly and tearfully deny -- is that he helped Marla with her paintings.
Sniffing a good tabloid story, the media piled on, with the New York Post referring to the girl as Willem de Frauding. Calmer voices prevail in the film, and New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman says people will choose to accept a story because it conforms to how they see it. And because many people regard abstract art as a put-on or a racket, they are more than happy to see the Marla affair as a hoax.
Left with the responsibility of clearing the family's name, Ben-Lev is put in an awkward position for a supposedly objective documentary filmmaker. He is forced to interject himself into the film and admit that he, too, has doubts about the veracity of the paintings.
Skillfully shot and edited, this might not be the film Ben-Lev set out to make. There is little discussion of the quality of the work, other than the fact that people buy it. Marla's original gallery owner, Anthony Brunelli, testifies to her brilliance, but he obviously has a vested interest. So the film is less concerned with the question of whether my kid could paint that than whether my kid could sell that.
MY KID COULD PAINT THAT
Sony Pictures Classics
Credits:
Director: Amir Bar-Lev
Producer: Amir Bar-Lev
Executive producer: John Battsek
Directors of photography: Matt Boyd, Nelson Hume, Bill Turnley
Music: Rondo Brothers
Editors: John Walter, Michael Levine
Running time -- 81 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.