474 – Finding Vivian Maier (2013)

 spacetime coordinates: 20th century // 2000/10’s Chicago,  the Alpine village of Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur > street scenes in Chicago and New York during the 1950s and 1960sfinding_vivian_maierFinding Vivian Maier is a 2013 American documentary film about the photographer Vivian Maier  (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) written, directed, and produced by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, and executive produced by Jeff Garlin.

Maier was a French-American woman who worked most of her life as a nanny and housekeeper to a multitude of Chicago families. She carried a camera everywhere she went, but Maier’s photographic legacy was largely unknown during her lifetime. The film documents how Maloof discovered her work and, after her death, uncovered her life through interviews with people who knew her. Maloof had purchased a box of photo negatives at a 2007 Chicago auction, then scanned the images and put them on the Internet. News articles began to come out about Maier and a Kickstarter campaign for the documentary was soon underway.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2714900/

“the poor are too poor to die”

456 – Marwencol (2010)

Marwencol-691x1024Marwencol (also known as Village of the Dolls in the UK) is a 2010 American documentary film that explores the life and work of outsider artist and photographer Mark Hogancamp. It is the debut feature of director-editor Jeff Malmberg.

in popular culture

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1391092/


Welcome to Marwen2018 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis, based on the experiences of Mark Hogancamp

0091 – In the Realms of the Unreal (2004)

spacetime coordinates: 1892–1973 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. 

in_the_realms_of_the_unreal

In the Realms of the Unreal is a 2004 documentary film directed by Jessica Yu about American outsider artist Henry Darger.

An obscure janitor during his life, Darger is known for the posthumous discovery of his elaborate 15,145-page fantasy manuscript entitled The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred watercolor paintings and other drawings illustrating the story.

The film’s style is atypical of a documentary. Because there are only three known photographs of Darger, and because of his reclusive lifestyle, the film is mostly a narrated biographical account, accompanied by animated versions of events from his magnum opus, which is also surveyed in detail. Interviews with his few neighbors and other acquaintances are included.

in-the-realms-of-the-unreal--the-mystery-of-henry-darger-poster

In the last entry in his diary, he wrote: “January 1, 1971. I had a very poor nothing like Christmas. Never had a good Christmas all my life, nor a good new year, and now… I am very bitter but fortunately not revengeful, though I feel should be how I am…”


imdb