FINDING VIVIAN MAIER

US, 2014, 83 minutes, Colour.
Directed by John Maloof, Charlie Siskel.

This is very interesting film-making, nominated for and winning many awards. It is also intriguing.

Vivien Maier was a photographer, amateur, proud of her work even though she did not develop many of her negatives. She did work as a nanny in New York City and two of her charges were able to transfer her into a home for the elderly where she died in 2009.

John Maloof was searching, in 2007, for photographs to illustrate his book on the local area in Chicago. He bought Vivian Myers photographs at an auction but did not do anything about the photos, not even using them for the book, until he developed an interest in photography himself and went back to the cache, examining them, being impressed by them, and put about 100 online asking for people’s response.

Later, an exhibition was organised and Kickstarter was used to raise money for this documentary which Maloof himself co-directed with Charlie Siskel.

The film offers audiences a great number of Vivian Maier’s photographs, most taken in New York City, with a small camera at her waist, snapping ordinary characters, unusual characters, many on the margins of society. To this extent, the documentary is most impressive in its presentation of the photos and life in New York City.

However, the film also is a kind of investigation of the life of Vivian Maier, trying to track down records, some of which lead to friends and interesting stories about her background. It emerges that her work as a nanny with many families over many decades. The remaining talking heads, especially of those who were in her charge, contribute to a range of memories, mostly admiring, some expressing some old stories about her.

She herself emerges from some photos and some movie clips, a tall woman, smartly but rather severely dressed, photographing great number of subjects as well as herself. With the mystery of her name, differences about her birthplace, some suspecting French accented English, she becomes a mystery character, a number indicating that perhaps she suffered from some mental illnesses.

The BBC produced a documentary on her, The Vivian Maier Mystery, some months before the release of this film. Commentators note that it is more objective than the present documentary, especially because John Maloof himself produced and co-directed the film as well is being front camera and explaining his search. Nevertheless, what he has done has been of service to Vivian Maier, letting the world know her photographs, presenting so many of them on screen, as well as raising questions about the photographer herself which later investigators can develop.