The last film I watched that really got me thinking was Her directed by Spike Jonze. That was until tonight. Huddled up under my numerous blankets, I watched the film/ documentary Finding Vivian Maier. 

This is my first ever film 'review' post... so I hope you find it interesting. I have decided to keep it brief so you can watch the film for yourself.

As a Friday night break from studying, I decided to watch the film after I saw my friend Helena (ig: @plantimal) post about it on Instagram. I was instantly intrigued by the photos I saw and the short caption she had written.

Finding Vivian Maeir.

Where do I begin?

Her life story encapsulated in the film is mysterious, strange, unheard of... pure interesting. As a viewer, you feel her emotions through each image shown. She had an 'edge' and 'eccentricity' to her character which was clearly captured in her photos.

But the mystery?

1. She collected. Everything. We see this through the hundreds of boxes and suitcases filled to each corner with pieces from her life.

2. Photos. She took many and she hardly got any of them developed. By many, I mean over 100,000 photographs between the 1950s to the1990s. 

3. She had a sense of morbidity in her subject matters. A fascination with death in her photographs and the thousands of newspaper headlines she collected. One family noted that she had so many piles of newspapers in her room the floor began to sag and you could hardly walk through her room.

4. Those around her hardly knew her. She was a nanny to numerous families but remained isolated and introverted - essentially, in her own world. She locked her bedroom doors and requested no one enter.

- The mystery of Maeir and her beliefs and values in life will most likely never be discovered. She captured life from a different perspective. She showed the raw side of humanity. She wanted to retain as many memories through as many physical means as possible.

"I bring my life with me"

All photographs via MALOOF COLLECTION

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