What I’m watching this week: Finding Vivian Maier at The Clay

Less a film review and more a recommendation, I’m going to see Finding Vivian Maier this evening and I think you should definitely join me!

This film entices me as it’s a documentary about the accidental fame of an artist, by which I mean Vivian being a woman who created art for herself and not the public. I love documentaries about art lacking in ego. I’m thinking of films like Herb and Dorothy, Journal de France, or Jazz on a Summer’s Day.

Here is the trailer:

There have been a slew of films lately centered on self promoting “visionaries” like the Anne Wintour monstrosity The September Issue, which is both droll and a ridiculous self-created myth. If you’re interested in fashion history please redirect yourself to the wonderful Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel. It really doesn’t get much better when it comes to vanity.

However, this documentary promises a refreshing tale celebrating the creativity of the human mind from unlikely places. It’s a surprise tale of a closeted elegance. An eye for storytelling kept to oneself. The story of a hobby unlike yours or mine and one that’s paying off posthumously whether she likes it or not.

Please join me at the ever-beautiful Clay Theatre on Filmore for some documentary indulgence. I hope this film is as good as it looks. For some reason it makes me want to revisit Fur or dig for a film about Brassai who I first heard of just today after reading in The Huffington Post about those unveiled crime scene photographs. What a scene!