4 documentaries about artists – No.2: ‘Finding Vivian Maier’

CAIRO - 27 August 2017: ‘Finding Vivian Maier’, produced in 2013, is about the accidental discovery of one of the most accomplished street photographers.



It all started when John Maloof went to a local auction to get old pictures to use them for a history book he was writing. He found himself with a box full of negatives. John goes through the massive quantity of negatives, and describes how impressed he is by the quality of the images. He searches the name of the photographer on Google, Vivian Maier, but finds no results. Stunned by the quantity and the quality of the pictures, Maloof becomes determined to search for the woman behind them.

This documentary tries to dive into this artist's personal life, but does not fully achieve this goal, because of contradictory stories by interviewees; none of them was a family member or a real close friend of hers. But what we know for sure is that Maier was an introvert who worked as a full-time nanny, who was always armed with a Rolleiflex camera, and used to photograph whatever she came across. She had a very good eye and prolific pictures yet never showed her own work to others.

Written, directed and produced by Maloof and Charlie Siskel, the documentary film is so captivating that it deserved an Oscar nomination.