Review of Finding Vivian Maier (2014) by Ioana ? — 15 Nov 2015

Doco by a young entrepreneur who found a stash of negatives in an estate sale that turned out to be amazing. The movie follows his search to find out about the photographer, a nanny named Vivian Maier.

The photos themselves that are shown, mostly taken on the "street" in Chicago, are indeed really provocative and interesting. Maier's story is rather sad - perhaps she had some sort of mental illness, probably of the obsessive compulsive type.

She hoarded things (sometimes incomprehensibly) and took hundreds and thousands of photos that she apparently never showed anyone. She went from one family to another and the (now adult) children are interviewed about what they remember of her (she died in 2009); they don't always tell positive stories.

So, some mysteries are uncovered, many remain, but the documentary seems a stretch at 80 minutes.