Nanny’s Secret Photo Treasures Unearthed in Documentary FINDING VIVIAN MAIER

Filmmaker and TV producer Charlie Siskel discusses how his team-up with art collector turned director John Maloof resulted in the fascinating documentary Finding Vivian Maier – which tells the story of a highly accomplished photographer whose work went undiscovered for many years as she worked as a nanny for families in Chicago.

In 2007, Maloof discovered more than 100,000 photographs when he bought what was the collection of a mysterious nanny, Vivian Maier, who went from complete obscurity to becoming one of the most renowned photographers in the world.

Siskel – a nephew of the late Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel – said that ironically, he grew up in the same neighborhood where Maier served as a nanny to neighbors. He explains that the project came together through comedian and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Jeff Garlin, who is also an avid photograph collector and heard about Maier’s story.

In addition to the trove of photographs, Siskel said hundreds of hours of super 8 footage and audio recordings were also found and were utilized in the documentary.

“People say in the film say that Vivian was very private and that she would have hated this – we include people who say that Vivian would have hated the attention – but these people are her employers, to them Vivian was the help.”

Siskel said he doesn’t know whether any of these people ever asked her about her photography, and whether they took an interest in what she was doing with the camera, and how private she really was.

“I think they weren’t that interested, ultimately. I think some of them did try to appreciate her in that way, but I don’t think they really saw her in that light,” he said, adding that most of the time it didn’t move beyond the normal employer-employee relationship.

But despite this apparent lack of awareness about Maier’s hidden talent, Siskel said he believes that she herself was very aware of her contribution to the art world. “Vivian was quite well-educated – she seems to have been self-taught – but she was very worldly, and was fully aware of what was happening in the art world and what other photographers were doing, and was very well-read.”

He also said that since Maier is not longer alive to tell her side of the story, the portrait created of her in the film is “delicate.”

“We did not want to sugar coat or airbrush the story, and present Vivian as a saint – she was not – by all accounts she was not a saint. But who among us is. I think she had an incredible sense of adventure, and a sense of humor, she was playful. But I think she did seem to have some sort of a darker past, and we really don’t know the nature of it.”

He added that as referenced in the film, there seemed to be some sort of rift in her family that estranged Maier from her mother and the rest of the family after her childhood.

The documentary does deal with some of this darker side of the artist, including several cases of harsh treatment and alleged abuse of some of the children that she cared for.

Watch the full episode to view several clips from the film – which is on this year’s Academy Award shortlist for Best Documentary - and to hear Siskel address the movie’s Oscar chances.