Salim Baba (right), Please Vote for Me and My Kid Could Paint That will be screened as the final installment of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual "Contemporary Documentaries" series on Wednesday, June 3, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission is free.
Salim Baba tells the story of 55-year-old Salim Muhammad, who, with the help of a hand-cranked projector inherited from his father, has made his living screening discarded film scraps for kids in North Kolkata, India, for 45 years. Directed by Tim Sternberg and produced by Francisco Bello, Scott Mosier and Raja Dey, Salim Baba earned an Academy Award nomination for best documentary short subject of 2007.
Directed by Weijun Chen and produced by Don Edkins, Please Vote for Me (above) follows a third-grade class in Wuhan, China, holding an election to select its Class Monitor. As per the Academy's press release, Chen’s documentary "is an inquiry into how democracy might be received if it ultimately came to China, and whether democracy is a universal value that reflects human nature."
Directed and produced by Amir Bar-Lev, My Kid Could Paint That chronicles the rise and fall of four-year-old Marla Olmstead, a media darling heralded as a prodigious artist — until her family is accused of fraud. Bar-Lev will be present to take questions from the audience after the screening.
The Linwood Dunn Theater is located at 1313 Vine Street in Hollywood. Doors open at 6 p.m. All seating is unreserved. Free parking is available through the entrance on Homewood Avenue (one block north of Fountain Avenue). For additional information, visit www.oscars.org or call (310) 247-3600.