- Miranda July
-
Miranda July
At the Berlin International Film Festival 2011 after the screening of The FutureBorn Miranda Jennifer Grossinger
February 15, 1974
Barre, Vermont, U.S.Spouse Mike Mills (2009-present) Miranda July (born February 15, 1974) is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger,[1] she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.[2]
Contents
Background
Miranda July was born in Barre, Vermont, the daughter of Lindy Hough and Richard Grossinger. Her parents, who taught at Goddard College at the time, are both writers.[3] In 1974 they founded North Atlantic Books, a publisher of alternative health, martial arts, and spiritual titles.[4] Her father was Jewish and her mother was Protestant.[5] July was encouraged to work on her short fiction by author and friend of a friend, Rick Moody.[6]
Miranda grew up in Berkeley, California, where she first began writing plays and staging them at the all-ages club 924 Gilman. She attended The College Preparatory School in Oakland for high school. She later attended UC Santa Cruz, dropping out in her sophomore year.[7] After leaving college, she moved to Portland, Oregon and took up performance art. Her performances were successful; she has been quoted as saying she has not worked a day job since she was 23 years old.[8]
Filmmaking
Beginning in 1996, while residing in Portland, July began a project called Joanie4Jackie (originally called "Big Miss Moviola")[9] which solicited short films by women, which she compiled onto video cassettes, using the theme of a chain letter. She then sent the cassette to the participants, and to subscribers to the series, and offered them for sale to others interested. In addition to the chain letter series, July began a second series called the Co-Star Series, in which she invited friends from larger cities to select a group of films outside of the chain letter submissions. The curators included Miranda July, Rita Gonzalez, and Astria Suparak. The Joanie4Jackie series also screened at film festivals and DIY movie events. So far, thirteen editions have been released, the latest in 2002.
Filmmaker Magazine rated her number one in their "25 New Faces of Indie Film" in 2004. After winning a slot in a Sundance workshop, she developed her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, which opened in 2005. The film won The Caméra d'Or prize in The Cannes Festival 2005[10] as well as the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Best First Feature at the Philadelphia Film Festival, Feature Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival, and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival.[11]
At her speaking engagement at the Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco's Mission District on May 16, 2007, July mentioned that she was currently working on a new film. This film was originally titled "Satisfaction" but was later renamed "The Future", with July in a lead role.[12] The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.[13]
Wayne Wang consulted with July about aspects of his feature length film The Center of the World,[14] for which she received a "story by" credit.
Audio
She recorded her first EP for Kill Rock Stars in 1996, entitled Margie Ruskie Stops Time, with music by The Need. After that, she released two more full-length LPs, 10 Million Hours A Mile in 1997 and Binet-Simon Test in 1998, both released on Kill Rock Stars. In 1999 she made a split EP with IQU, released on K Records.
On their 2010 EP "Distractions", Australian band Regurgitator released a track titled "Miranda July" that talks of singer Quan Yeomans writing a letter to her.
Acting
July has acted in many of her own videos including Atlanta, The Amateurist, Nest of Tens, Are You The Favorite Person of Anyone?, and her films Me and You and Everyone We Know and The Future.[15] She also made a small appearance in the film Jesus' Son.
Multimedia
In 1998, July made her first full-length multimedia performance piece, Love Diamond, in collaboration with composer Zac Love and with help from artist Jamie Isenstein; she called it a "live movie." She performed it at venues around the country, including the New York Video Festival, The Kitchen, and Yo-yo a Go-go in Olympia. She created her next major full-length performance piece, The Swan Tool, in 2000, also in collaboration with Love, with digital production work by Mitsu Hadeishi. She performed this piece in venues around the world, including the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
In 2006, after completing her first feature film, she went on to create another multimedia piece, Things We Don’t Understand and Definitely are Not Going To Talk About, which she performed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.[16]
Her short story The Boy from Lam Kien was published in 2005 by Cloverfield Press, as a special-edition book with illustration by Elinor Nissley and Emma Hedditch. Her next story, Something That Needs Nothing, was published in the September 18, 2006 issue of the New Yorker magazine. No One Belongs Here More Than You is a 224-page collection of her stories which was released on May 15, 2007. It won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award on September 24, 2007.[17]
July is also the founder of the online arts community Learning to Love You More, founded with Harrell Fletcher and Yuri Ono. Established in 2002 the site provides assignments for amateur artists to complete and submit to take part in the communal arts project. Learning to Love You More also released a book of the online art in 2007.
Both a multimedia and performance piece, July launched the site "Your World of Text",[18] a grid web page where the public can post text anywhere on the page. July has released very little public information on this piece, other than a link that is posted on her official website.
Personal
July dated Radio Sloan from The Need when she first moved to Portland. She went on to date K Records founder Calvin Johnson.[19] July is married to the artist and film director Mike Mills.[20]
Johanna Fateman, of the post-punk band Le Tigre, has referred to July as being her "best friend from high school".[21]
In a 2007 interview with Bust magazine, July spoke of the importance which feminism has had in her life, saying, "What's confusing about [being a feminist]? It's just being pro-your ability to do what you need to do. It doesn't mean you don't love your boyfriend or whatever...When I say 'feminist', I mean that in the most complex, interesting, exciting way!"[22]
Works
Publications
- Jack and Al (Fall 2002) ('Mississippi Review)
- The Moves (Spring 2003) (Tin House)
- This Person (Spring 2003) (Bridge Magazine)
- Birthmark (Spring 2003) (Paris Review)
- Frances Gabe's Self Cleaning House (Fall 2003) (Nest Magazine)
- It Was Romance (Fall 2003) (Harvard Review)
- Making Love in 2003 (Fall 2003) (Paris Review)
- The Man on the Stairs (Spring/Summer 2004) (Fence Magazine])
- The Shared Patio (Winter 2005) (Zoetrope: All-Story)
- Something That Needs Nothing (September 18, 2006) (The New Yorker)
- Majesty (September 28, 2006) (Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern)
- The Swim Team (January 2007) (Harper's Magazine)
- Roy Spivey (June 11, 2007) (The New Yorker)
Books
- The Boy from Lam Kien (July 1, 2005) (Cloverfield Press)
- The Dead bones (October 20, 2005) (Cloverfield Press)
- No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories (May 15, 2007) (Scribner)
- Learning to Love You More (with Harrell Fletcher) (Fall/Autumn 2007) (Prestel Publishing)
- Corpse Tale (May 30, 2009) (McSweeney's, Irregulars)
- It Chooses You (November 15, 2011) (McSweeney's, Irregulars)
Discography
Albums
- 10 Million Hours a Mile (1997) (Kill Rock Stars)
- The Binet-Simon Test (1998) (Kill Rock Stars)
EPs
- Margie Ruskie Stops Time EP (1996) with music by The Need (Kill Rock Stars)
- Girls on Dates split EP with IQU (1999) (K Records)
Filmography
Short films
- I Started Out With Nothing and I Still Have Most of It Left
- Featured in Emily B. Kingan's documentary The Portland Girl Convention (1996)
- A Shape Called Horse on Video Fanzine #1 (Kill Rock Stars)
- Atlanta (1996) on Audio-Cinematic Mix Tape (Peripheral Produce)
- The Amateurist (1998) part of Joanie4Jackie4Ever
- Nest of Tens (2000) (Peripheral Produce)
- Getting Stronger Every Day (2001) on Peripheral Produce’s All-Time Greatest Hits
- Narrator on Matt McCormick's The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal (2001) on Peripheral Produce’s All-Time Greatest Hits (Peripheral Produce)
- Haysha Royko (2003)
- Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody? (2005) (Wholphin (DVD))
- Things We Don't Understand and Are Definitely Not Going to Talk About (Spring 2007)[citation needed]
Full length
- Jesus' Son (1999) (Lions Gate Entertainment) (acted)
- Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) (IFC Films) (wrote, directed, and acted)
- The Future (2011) (wrote, directed, and acted)
Music videos
- Sleater-Kinney – "Get Up"[23]
- Blonde Redhead – "Top Ranking"[24]
Performances
- Love Diamond (1998–2000)
- The Swan Tool (2000–2002)
- How I Learned to Draw (2002–2003)
- Things We Don't Understand and Are Definitely Not Going to Talk About (2006–Present)
References
- ^ Morris, Wesley (2005-06-26). "Putting all they know to work". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2005/06/26/putting_all_they_know_to_work/. Retrieved 2007-08-11.
- ^ A.O., Scott (2007-06-19). "Hollywood Can Wait". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/19/movies/19durb.html. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
- ^ "The Miranda July Story". Underground Literary Alliance. http://www.literaryrevolution.com/mr-wenclas-060407.html. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
- ^ "North Atlantic Books". North Atlantic Books. http://www.northatlanticbooks.com/store/profile.html.
- ^ Onstad, Katrina (2011-07-14). "Miranda July, The Make-Believer". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/magazine/the-make-believer.html?pagewanted=all.
- ^ Ashman, Angela (2007-05-08). "You and Her and Everything She Knows.". The Village Voice. http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0719,ashman,76576,10.html. "It was author Rick Moody, a "family friend of a friend," who encouraged July to write. But Moody takes little credit for her success. He envies July's dialogue, a skill he attributes to her training as an actress and ability to mimic anyone. "She's completely intuitive," he says. "There are no schools of writing working themselves out in her. No history of literature. She just does what she does, and as a result she's a complete original."
“Case in point: When she recently spent time at the famous Yaddo artists' retreat, July felt somewhat out of her element when the conversation turned to writing in first, second, or third person. "Someone asked me, 'What person are you writing in?'" she recalls. "And I had no idea." If you're wondering, the stories are in the first person, a habit from her performance art." - ^ "A moment with performance artist/filmmaker Miranda July". SeattlePi.com. 2005-05-30. http://www.seattlepi.com/visualart/230572_moment30.html. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
- ^ Johnson, G. Allen (2005-06-29). "Performance artist's new role -- film director". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/29/DDGFMDG2RF17.DTL. Retrieved 2006-04-11.
- ^ "Everything About Some Kind of Loving". Joanie4Jackie.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20070928194656/http://joanie4jackie.com/costar/loving-everything.php. Retrieved 2007-08-11.
- ^ "Cannes 2005: The Winners". indieWIRE.com. 2005-05-21. http://www.festival-cannes.fr/palmares/camera_d_or.php?langue=6002&edition=2005. Retrieved 2007-08-08.[dead link]
- ^ "Me and You and Everyone We Know". IFC Films. 2005. http://meandyou.mirandajuly.com/. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
- ^ Finding 'Satisfaction' Variety May 15, 2008
- ^ Olsen, Mark (2011-01-21). "Sundance Film Festival: Miranda July looks into 'The Future'". Los Angeles Times. http://theenvelope.latimes.com/la-et-sundance-miranda-july-20110121,0,6579977.story.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240402/
- ^ http://mirandajuly.com/movies
- ^ "MIRANDA JULY: performances". MirandaJuly.com. http://mirandajuly.com/performances. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
- ^ Lea, Richard (2007-09-24). "Award-winning film-maker scoops short story prize". London: guardian.co.uk. http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2176098,00.html. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
- ^ http://www.yourworldoftext.com/mirandajuly
- ^ "Miranda July". KUCI.org. http://www.kuci.org/~justin/bedtime/miranda.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Fateman, Johanna. "My Herstory". LeTigreWorld.com. http://www.letigreworld.com/sweepstakes/html_site/fact/jofacts.html. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
- ^ Feministing
- ^ "Get Up: Sleater-Kinney's last show: A retrospective". PitchforkMedia.com. 2006-08-28. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/38186-get-up. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
- ^ "Video: Blonde Redhead: "Top Ranking"". PitchforkMedia.com. 2007-05-24. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/43157-blonde-redhead-top-ranking. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
External links
- Official site
- Miranda July at the Internet Movie Database
- July's blog
- Video Interview on SubmarineChannel, recorded on 2007-08-24
- Miranda July in the Video Data Bank
- Full text of This Person
- Full text of Birthmark
- Full text of The Man on the Stairs
- Full text of The Shared Patio
- Atlanta
- The Make-Believer Long profile in the New York Times Magazine. July 17, 2011
Interviews
- Miranda July interviews Khaela Maricich, and vice versa
- Miranda July talks about 'The Future'
- Video Interview with Miranda & Harrel on designguide.tv
- Miranda July interview on KCRW's Bookworm
- Interview with The Onion A.V. Club
- Podcast Audio Interview with The Post-Movie Podcast
- Interview on Naughty Secretary Club
- Interview by Apple Inc. (requires Quicktime Player)
Categories:- American film directors
- American performance artists
- K Records artists
- Kill Rock Stars
- American feminists
- Feminist artists
- Female film directors
- Sundance Film Festival award winners
- Artists from Oregon
- Pacific Northwest artists
- People from Barre, Vermont
- People from Portland, Oregon
- Bisexual actors
- Bisexual artists
- Bisexual musicians
- Bisexual writers
- LGBT writers from the United States
- LGBT musicians from the United States
- LGBT directors
- LGBT screenwriters
- 1974 births
- Living people
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