Finding Vivian Maier
In an era saturated with iPhone photographers and disposable celebrities “famous for being famous,” the mysterious story of Vivian Maier reads as stranger than fiction. Flying intentionally beneath the radar during her lifetime and now heralded by The New York Times as one of “the great American midcentury street photographers,” Maier referred to herself as a “spy” and created more than 100,000 photographs with a medium-format Rolleiflex while working as a nanny for upper-crust families in New York and Chicago. In 2007, realtor-turned-amateur historian John Maloof snapped up the contents of Maier’s derelict storage unit (for $380) and embarked on a research project that led to his 2014 documentary Finding Vivan Maier. Co-directed by Charlie Siskel (nephew of the late film critic Gene Siskel), the Oscar-nominated doc screens as part of the McNay’s Get Reel Film Series. Free, 6:30pm Thu, McNay Art Museum, 6000 N. New Braunfels Ave., (210) 824-5368, mcnayart.org. — Bryan Rindfuss
