Difference between revisions of "Miranda July"

Latest revision as of 01:40, 21 November 2010

Miranda July (born 1974 February 15) is a performance artist, musician, writer, actress and film director. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California, after having lived for many years in Portland, Oregon. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July" because she says it is the month that most facilitates her creativity.^[unverified]

She was born in Barre, Vermont, grew up in Berkeley, California, and later attended UC Santa Cruz. Despite earlier comments to that effect, Timothy Leary was not her godfather, nor did she bring him to class at UC/Santa Cruz (she never met him); her parents forgot to select a godfather, and she never wanted one. After leaving college, she moved to Portland and took up performance art. Her performances were successful, as she has been quoted as saying she has not worked a day job since she was 23 years old.^[1]

Filmmaking[edit]

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.^[2]

Beginning in 1996, while residing in Portland, July began a project called Joanie4Jackie (originally called "Big Miss Moviola") 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. The Joanie4Jackie series also screened at film festivals and DIY movie events. So far, thirteen editions have been released, the latest in 2002.

Music[edit]

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, both on by Kill Rock Stars, and a split EP with IQU in 1999 on K Records.

Multimedia[edit]

In 1998, July made her first full-length multimedia performance piece, Love Diamond, in collaboration with composer Zac Love; 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.

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, scheduled to be released on May 15, 2007.

Bibliography[edit]

Publications[edit]

• 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)

Books[edit]

• The Boy from Lam Kien (July 1, 2005) (Cloverfield Press)
• No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories (May 15, 2007) (Charles Scribner's Sons)
• Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher, Learning to Love You More (fall 2007) (Prestel Publishing)

Discography[edit]

Albums[edit]

• 10 Million Hours a Mile (1997) (Kill Rock Stars)
• The Binet-Simon Test (1998) (Kill Rock Stars)

EP's[edit]

• 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[edit]

Short Films[edit]

• 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) on Joanie 4 Jackie 4Ever
• Nest of Tens (2000) (Peripheral Produce)
• Getting Stronger Every Day (2001) on Peripheral Produce’s All-Time Greatest Hits (Peripheral Produce)
• 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)

Full length[edit]

• Jesus' Son (1999) (Lions Gate Films) (Acted)
• Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) (IFC Films) (Wrote, directed and acted)

Performances[edit]

• Love Diamond (1998-2000)
• The Swam 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)

Personal[edit]

July dated Radio Sloan from the Need when she first moved to Portland. She went on to date K Records founder Calvin Johnson.^[3] July is currently dating artist/ film director Mike Mills.^[unverified]

Trivia[edit]

• In 1999, July directed Sleater-Kinney's music video for their single Get Up.[1] Sleater-Kinney's lead guitarist Carrie Brownstein is featured in July's short film Getting Stronger Everyday.
• Johanna Fateman, of the post-punk band Le Tigre, has referred to July as being her "best friend from high school". While in college the two collaborated on a zine entitled Snarla.^[4]

Interviews[edit]

• Interview on After Ellen.com
• Miranda July interview on Drinks with Tony hosted by Tony DuShane
• Interview with The Onion A.V. Club
• Miranda July Interview on Future Movies
• Interview on Naughty Secretary Club

References[edit]

1. ↑ G. Allen Johnson. Performance artist's new role -- film director, San Francisco Chronicle. 29 June 2003. Retrieved 11 April 2006.
2. ↑ Caméra d'Or (co-winners). Retrieved 11 April 2006.
3. ↑ http://www.kuci.org/~justin/bedtime/miranda.htm
4. ↑ http://www.letigreworld.com/sweepstakes/html_site/fact/jofacts.html

External links[edit]

• Blurb for Tao Lin's writing
• Official site
• MySpace
• July's blog
• Me And You... website
• No One Belongs... website
• Learning To Love You More interactive site
• List of performances from Miranda on NPR's The Next Big Thing.
• Miranda July at the Internet Movie Database
• Miranda July profile in the Las Vegas Weekly by Tony DuShane