Marla Olmstead
Coming up on Friday: the filmmaker behind what may be the best-titled documentary film this year so far: My Kid Could Paint That.
In 2004, readers of the Press & Sun-Bulletin of Binghamton, N.Y., learned about a local four-year-old wunderkind, Marla Olmstead:
Painting with her fingers, spatulas and brushes, and using plastic mustard and ketchup bottles to squirt out acrylics, she creates textured, abstract landscapes laden with emotion, depth and yes, real talent. Talent that could bring in as much as $5,000 per canvas, if her paintings fetch the asking prices at a show opening this week in Binghamton.
Word spread of Marla's skill with a brush, and the girl was soon hailed as an artistic genius. She was invited on Oprah, and her paintings sold for thousands of dollars. Then, in 2005, 60 Minutes II's Charlie Rose visited the Olmsteads and reported that Marla's atelier didn't function as expected.
—Ilya Marritz
The wunderkind was getting guidance from her dad, Rose reported. And the painting she was working on wasn't anything special. Suddenly, Marla looked like an ordinary girl.
Filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev was already hanging out at the Olmstead home when the phone stopped ringing. Instead of heading home, Bar-Lev stuck around and kept filming — and Marla kept painting.
Is Marla a prodigy or an ordinary girl? Were Marla's parents innocents or charlatans? And was it Marla's art, or her story, that really beguiled the collectors who bought Marla's paintings?
Check out the trailer, and listen for the BPP interview with Amir Bar-Lev this Friday.
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