Finding Vivian Maier

Stories of posthumous success are always interesting. Rarely have they been on the scale of Vivian Maier, whose body of work proves that her perspective of the streets is not a fluke. The pictures are staggeringly good yet modest. She had a talent, if not one for printing and promotion. Elusive artists, ones who do it for their own satisfaction, are pretty fascinating. You think art should be one of those things that begs as much attention as possible. That was Vivian's enemy. Fortunately, or unfortunately for her, director John Maloof knows how to spread the word. Upon finding her photos and setting up galleries for them, he set out on a journey to find out more about her. He probes into all her facets. Her brilliance, her quirks, and her flaws. Perhaps Maloof shouldn't have had the gall to include himself, but he acts as an antithesis to Vivian. Almost an antagonist to her goal. It's a great dynamic that guides the film in a great way. Thoroughly entertaining, enlightening and engaging documentary with a beautiful score to boot. Finding Vivian Maier is easily of the best documentaries of the year. 8/10

None of her pictures were ever published during her lifetime, but after death, street photographer Vivian Maier attained fame when undeveloped negatives from her deceased estate were published online. This documentary from first-time directors John Maloof and Charlie Siskel follows their attempts to probe into Maier's background and discover why she took so many photographs, yet never shared them with anyone. The film is very deliberately structured. The first half basks in Maier's magnificent work, focusing on her innovative camera angles and ability to candidly capture pure human emotion. The second half is dedicated to the investigation of who Maier was and what made her tick, and as the film progresses, we gradually learn (through thoughtfully spliced interviews) that she may have not just been an eccentric recluse, but in fact someone very paranoid with severe emotional problems. Some have commented that the documentary spends far too much time towards the end on the question of just how unbalanced Maier is (especially considering that nobody still knows for sure); then again, it is always understandable why Maloof and Siskel are so set on pursuing her past. She was, after all, a great artist and it is often fascinating to learn what makes such people tick. Especially interesting are the conflicting testimonies of what Maier was like. Maloof and Siskel may be unable to offer any definite answers or deeper insight into Maier's psyche, but this film is just as much about their attempt to understand an unknown artist as it is about the artist herself.

This is a very good movie. It starts by the accidental discovery of the negatives of what turns out to be a very talented photographer. You slowly learn more. There is a darker side, and you soon find yourself immersed a bizarre world--a journey of following Vivian Maier's discarded gems, photographic and other, as well as emotional debris and dark alleys that echo of the unthinkable. A woman so capable at looking at us and revealing truth, yet carefully masks herself behind which must certainly be the workings of the mental ill. The movie does a unique job at letting your experience how greatness and mental illness can coexist; in fact, perhaps her greatness is a result of the mental illness.

This documentary is director John Maloof's first work. While I thought, as a whole, it was a good piece of work, I have some criticisms too. First of all, when he interviews practically himself, it really gets a bit too self-promoting for my taste. yes he is the one who found the negatives, but still, there are ways this could have been handled with more class. Aside from him, it is an interesting snippet that the nephew of the famous late film critic Roger Siskel was also involved with directing here. The story can be summarized quickly. A nurse took hundreds of thousands of photos during her lifetime and these were found and made her popular after her death. While I am okay with the photos being published, I am not really okay with the filmmaker's involvement in her life. She obviously was a very secretive woman and I just cannot accept the fact that Maloof did deep research into her life and past, such as traveling to France into a small village where she lived. Due to this research, we found out that she was a very eccentric lady who obviously had to fight with her inner demons, but it just feels wrong that the public knows about her loneliness, her hoarding or her violence against children now. She should only be judged for her work as a photographer in my opinion (except by the people who she was directly in contact with), but not for everything else by the broad masses. Especially the insight into her life as an old lady is pretty sad and I cannot imagine she would have wanted the public to know about any of it. Interviews are mostly with people she knew directly, including Phil Donahue and excluding a very random comment added by actor Tim Roth at one point. All in all, I would still recommend this documentary, but the only thing which it is really worth watching for, are the photos, thankfully the center of the film. Most of these are simply wonderful and depict her extraordinary talent.

It's no secret that a lot of famous and talented people were also not very nice or suffered from mental disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar-ism: Picasso, Chanel, Schumann, Edgar Allan Poe, Van Gogh, Peter Sellers, Mel Gibson... So when I watched Finding Vivian Maier, I wasn't surprised to find out that such a talented photographer as she should also suffer from many personality and mental disorders: paranoia, fear of intimacy and men, hoarding, and worst of all, accusations of child abuse from her former charges. The story of how her negatives were recovered and discovered and how they were turned into several exhibitions, a documentary, and book, was a heart-warming tale. But before we have even seen a hundred of her images, we are bombarded with the unsavoury side of Miss Maier's character, and I think this hurts her reputation before it was even made. I would liked to have had a more rounded story that more clearly defined her background. Maier was an excruciatingly private person with a sense of history, and piecing together what has been pieced together was obviously difficult, however, whole parts of her life seem to be a blur. Her photographs date back to 1951, according to the voice-over, but then photos she took of a French village in 1949 are shown - so there are some discrepancies that needed to be addressed by a little more research.

And, who, exactly, was Vivian Maier?... Well - That, my friends, is probably something which we'll never, ever know for sure. But, with that said - I certainly must give John Maloof (this documentary's co-writer/co-director) a helluva lot of credit for his thoughtful and extensive investigation into the identity of this very private, yet incredibly prolific, street-photographer who, in her lifetime, took an estimated 150,000 photos (most of which were never developed). It was only by a stroke of sheer luck that Maloof came across this surprise discovery of negatives amongst Vivian's possessions, which he had purchased at an auction (of her abandoned personal property) in 2007. Vivian (who worked as a nanny for various families for nearly 40 years) apparently never showed her photographic work to anybody. But thanks to Maloof's uncovering of Vivian's personal possessions, it is now realized that her photographic-eye was truly exceptional. For the most part, this documentary was quite an extraordinary experience for this viewer. But, alas, it lost itself some significant points due to there being just a little too much emphasis placed on determining whether Vivian was a kook, or not. In conclusion - Without ever achieving the recognition that she so rightly deserved in her lifetime, Vivian Maier died in 2009 (at the age of 83) in the state of complete poverty.

Documentaries have an interesting way of touching souls. They are particularly effective because they're based on reality, and when they're well made, one appreciate the art behind the camera, and the full impact of the qualities of the subject matter. Last year we had "Blackfish", and I can recall others that were so effective that led to changes in the way we see and do things. "Vivian" certainly raises a lot of questions because of the way it is structured. There are surprises and revelations, and they all ring true, not fabricated or biased, as it is the case of so many documentaries and Hollywood films which are produced by people who believe the subject matter is enough to have something special. "Vivian" introduces us to a unquestionable talent, one shaped by mysterious forces and incidents we might never really know or understand but presented in such a way that we might never forget who or what we have seen. A photographer finds an incredible amount of photos, films (developed and undeveloped), and the trigger is that the artwork is unquestionably beautiful, haunting, special, and begs the audience to inquire how and why it was made. Through some careful detective work, we soon find the identity of the artist. The initial discovery raises more questions because of the quality of the work and the profession of the woman who took the pictures. She is revealed to be a nanny and a caretaker. As layers are removed and more information is provided, we see a complex and mysterious individual who had the obsessive need to document what she saw, and with the help of a very good camera, an excellent eye for visual composition, and some interesting emotional baggage, we put together most of the puzzle. The documentary takes you through interviews of some of the children she took care, the impressions she made along the way. How she was an imposing and puzzling character, creating an aura of distance, but not being able to remain neutral. Her personality was too strong and her emotions so powerful, they were hard to ignore. Interviewees show their affection, the way she made a difference in their lives by exposing them to a truly complex nature, a woman so different from what most expected. She dragged children through remote parts of town, driven by an impulse to study the darker side of society. Vivian was attracted by forces many would rather disregard. She look for frowns, flaws, pain, darkness and with the help of her camera, made them beautiful, alluring, attractive, and powerful. The last third of the film shows her personal background, and though we know more than we did one hour before, we still are left with holes in the stories. They are meant to remain that way because in Vivian's eyes, the work and ideas were important enough to reflect her thoughts and questions, but she wasn't ready to share them with the world, much the way she kept her personal distance, she might have believed the world was not ready for her contributions, or she lacked the confidence to offer them to us. What is obvious by the end of the documentary is that she is now making a mark in the world, and people can recognize that her soul is in her work, a soul that appreciated, feelings and emotions other fail to recognize or are bound by their own limits. She had no audience expectations and crossed barriers. There is the sadness and joys of a child's eyes, the weight of the world in those denizens she captured at a special time. The most intriguing subjects are those who know they are being photographed and are under her spell, willing to let souls connect for a few seconds. Just like her subjects, which remain a mystery to us, like Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", Vivian also manages to remain somehow enigmatic, yet fully human and quite a special artist and human being.

FINDING VIVIAN MAIER (2014) **** An intriguingly bittersweet documentary in the discovery by filmmaker John Maloof of a treasure trove of amazing photography and an unknown artist-who- should've been in the unlikely form of French-born nanny-for-hire Vivian Maier, an eccentric and at times frustrating source to pin point who she truly was, after Maloof goes on a journey into unraveling the shutterbug's lifelong mystery. Uncovering thousands of stills, undeveloped rolls of film, reels of film and dozens of puzzle pieces to fit into place, the viewer gleefully goes along for the journey of literally a lifetime. Beautiful and at times poignantly sad but still remarkable in 'what-could-have-been' into a what-should-have-been existence. One of the year's best films.

Vivian Maier (V.M.) was let down by the very liberal country in which she lived. The notion of pursuit of happiness has left individuals like V.M. out in the cold. V.M' s artwork should be pasted inside the White House to remind politicians to learn to make policies to protect the most vulnerable in society, such as individuals like V.M. V.M. did live inside the homes of what appears to be very intelligent human beings however even these human beings seem to have no clue as to how to relate or reach out to V.M. in a way that connected to her through the heart. V. M. had feelings and she could perceive when people liked her and when they did not - just like the rest of humanity. She was only a little bit different in her individuality. This movie is tragic on all fronts. First, it is tragic because V.M. was psychotic; second it was tragic because it is iconic of our current Western society and third it is tragic because V.M. was, in my opinion, not a photographer but rather she used the camera to create a fantasy world, one of ultimate evil. I believe the shooting of photos was not about the actual hardcopy of photographs but it was about capturing and raping humanity. The camera is a very masculine means of capturing and hence destroying the soul. May cultures believe this. I believe V.M. was a fragmented individual and that, through means of her actions, she tried to project her psychopathic nature onto others, and instead of seeing good, she saw evil. She represents the most sinister part of individualism and that is the right to lose oneself in absolute darkness.

A box is bought at auction and explored, turns out the last owner collected a large hoard, of film and negatives, you start to build a narrative, for your curiosity, you receive a great reward. The picture that develops is profound, the images you've captured just astound, the story that it tells, puts you right under its spell, as more canisters (amongst other things) appear, it's quite profound. A brilliant piece of factual storytelling that reveals the story of a tough and eccentric spinster who spent her life taking some of the greatest pictures the world nearly never saw. I've lost track of how many times I've revisited this over the years and it remains a gem to be perpetually revisited.