SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL - Short Shot, Salt Kiss

Q & A : My Kid Could Paint That
By Jeff Hanson

Amir Bar-Lev admittedly startled even himself in his revealing documentary My Kid Could Paint That. The film centers on the prodigious talents and ensuing scandal that surrounded four-year-old abstract painter Marla Olmstead, whose art started drawing worldwide attention and thousands of dollars apiece, and the rollercoaster of emotions experienced by her parents as they promoted and then defended their daughter’s work. After a recent screening, Bar-Lev discussed his experience in a Q&A, along with gallery owner Anthony Brunelli and reporter Elizabeth Cohen, who were both featured in the film.

Director Amir Bar-LevMatthew Saville, My Kid Could Paint That. -- Photo By George Pimentel, Wireimage.com

“‘just because a painting is non-representational doesn’t mean that it doesn’t tell a story...’ You’re partially buying the painting because you love it, but also because you love the story. ”

Cohen began by reading a prepared statement from Laura Olmstead, Marla’s mother.

Cohen: Originally when Amir asked us to come here to this film festival today, I thought the people who really should be here were the family – the parents of Marla. Her mother, unfortunately at the last minute, opted not to come. Whether she had had enough of this whole thing or she just was afraid to face you all today, which is kind of terrifying, she did give me this statement:

Laura Olmstead’s statement: When we met Amir Bar-Lev three years ago and he expressed interest in my daughter’s work, we welcomed him into our home and lives. But we were heartbroken by some of the choices he made in his portrayal of our family and the editing of this film. We feel the question of the authenticity of our daughter’s paintings has been answered. Marla has created many pieces on film, one of which, in Mr. Bar-Lev’s opinion, was in keeping with her best works. Our daughter is almost seven now, and has become aware of the skepticism surrounding her art, which confuses her, but also flatters her. In her innocence, she feels complimented by the idea that people think she could not compose her paintings alone. We have also felt dismayed by this, and it’s our hope the media will lay the issue to rest at last. The controversy over her authorship has been painful and humiliating for our family.

Q: Why would it be important who painted the art if they were good paintings?
Brunelli: First of all I want to say Amir is a fantastic filmmaker, and this is one helluva documentary. The one thing where he and I differ is the question of what you just brought up and let me first start by saying I believe Marla is the painter 100 percent. We have hundreds of hours of her videotaped painting that did not make it into Amir’s documentary. The Olmsteads are honest people, and they got caught up in a story that was way beyond them. And anybody who buys a piece of art should only buy it for one reason; and that’s that they love it. And that’s all it should be.
Bar-Lev: I slightly disagree with you, Tony. I think that it does matter who does the painting. The gentleman in the film kind of touched on it a little bit, he says, ‘just because a painting is non-representational doesn’t mean that it doesn’t tell a story’ and I think part of the story of the painting is in the back story. You’re partially buying the painting because you love it, but also because you love the story.

Q: [To Bar-Lev] I felt that you wanted to believe Marla painted the paintings. You’ve had comments making reference to your potentially not including film that would support that argument. How did you feel about that?
Bar-Lev: I showed the film to the Olmsteads four weeks ago and they were disappointed in the film. About two weeks ago, Laura showed me a few paintings and asked me which was my favorite. I picked one or two and she told me that they have footage of her making that painting and that footage you can see online at marlaolmstead.com. So, it’s less about me omitting footage and more about Laura’s feeling that my concern or doubts were predicated solely on my opinion of the paintings, and that if footage exists of a painting that I thinks looks more polished then it shows that I’m not being thorough. This was a situation where I didn’t have any proof either way and I really did have to base my feelings on assessing the paintings. As you can see in the film, this has been a really painful process. I really like the Olmsteads a lot and I feel for them. You ask yourself these moral questions, [like] ‘is this how it really happened?’ I tried to do that the best I could. I read a great line in The New York Times Book Review the other day where they were quoting Jarhead and said, ‘what follows is neither true or false, it’s what I know.’ I thought that really related to this film.