Finding Vivian Maier (2013)

Pirates may disagree, but buried treasure doesn’t always have to mean gold coins and sparkling gems. In the case of John Maloof, an unmarked box that he bought in an estate sale contained thousands of photographers by an unnamed photographer. To clarify: thousands of spectacular photographs, each offering a unique portrait of street life in Chicago. The documentary follows Maloof’s journey to piece together the photographer’s identity, which, as all juicy stories go, isn’t as straightforward as it seems.

Her name was Vivian Maier, and for most of her life, she was a nanny and housekeeper to families around Chicago. After putting the kids to sleep, she’d slink around the streets of Chicago, following her true passion of photography. Yet as her legacy went undiscovered over the course of her lifetime, it begs the question: Did Vivian Maier want her photography seen? Is this documentary ethical? What we do know: It’s gripping, award-winning, and it’s Maier’s face that’ll haunt you even more than her photographs.