Charlie Siskel is one of the directors behind an intriguing film screening at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival this month.
He teams up with John Maloof, who several years ago bought a stack of photo negatives in an auction, uncovering the lifelong work of photographer Vivian Maier.
Maier, who worked as a nanny for most of her career, was an amateur photographer who took thousands of photographs of Chicago during her life. The images were a sensation online and her work has been the subject of several exhibitions. Together the two filmmakers set of to find out more about the mysterious work and the woman who created it.
“John not only had over 100,000 photographs, but hours and hours of super-8 footage and Vivian in her own words in audio recordings that Vivian made and his whole studio filled with a mountain of materials that Vivian left behind,” explained Siskel, “we were able to sift through performing a kind of archeological dig, a kind of visual metaphor for telling her story.”
Maier’s photographs, mostly in black and white, capture Chicago and its residents. She captured people on the street, including the homeless and other passersby. The team were determined not to make a bio-pic about Maier. “We didn’t want to do a movie version of the Wikipedia page,” declared Siskel, “I was most interested in the story about of Vivian’s discovery and the way it completes her story. The fact that she kept her work out of view is central to that…why did she not share her work?” Together Siskel and Maloof set off to answer this central question.
‘Finding Vivian Maier’ is screening at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival. Head to www.revelationfilmfest.org for session times.
