Have you heard about Vivian Maier? This longtime street photographer spent most of her life working as a nanny, taking tons of photos in her spare time and keeping all of them to herself. A huge cache of her work was discovered shortly after she died in 2009 and uploaded to Flickr, where it went viral and gave Maier the sort of art-world fame and credibility she’d spent her whole life avoiding.
Have you heard about Vivian Maier? This longtime street photographer spent most of her life working as a nanny, taking tons of photos in her spare time and keeping all of them to herself. A huge cache of her work was discovered shortly after she died in 2009 and uploaded to Flickr, where it went viral and gave Maier the sort of art-world fame and credibility she’d spent her whole life avoiding.
In the years since her work went viral, collector John Maloof, one of the three people who made the original discovery of Maier’s work, worked with Charlie Siskel to document Maier’s story through investigations and interviews with people who knew her. The result of their handiwork was turned into the 2013 documentary Finding Vivian Maier, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. This Sunday at 7 PM, the Bijou Film Center will present a screening of that film at The Byrd Theatre.
Finding Vivian Maier spotlights some of this talented yet extremely private photographer’s eccentricities, pointing out that Maier did very little with the film she shot, often not even developing her own negatives. However, it also offers a close look at someone who has been posthumously recognized as one of the great street photographers of the 20th century. With her work now hanging in posh galleries around the world, Vivian Maier the person becomes a fascinating mystery to unlock.
The Bijou Film Center is the brainchild of F.T. Rea and James Parrish, who created the group to bring the ideas of independent film and the small community theater back to Richmond. The group is currently sponsoring film screenings like this one at the Byrd, but hopes eventually to have a space of its own and to bring in more films that are outside the bounds of the usual Hollywood fare. To that end, the proceeds from this screening of Finding Vivian Maier will go to benefit the Bijou Film Center and the Byrd Theatre Foundation.
Finding Vivian Maier will be screened at the Byrd Theatre (2908 W. Cary St) at 7 PM on Sunday, February 15. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased online by clicking here. Advance tickets can also be purchased from Bygones, Candela Books & Gallery, and Ipanema. Tickets are $7 at the door. The film will be followed by a free after-party at the New York Deli, featuring music from Chez Roue starting at 9 PM.
