MIRANDA JULY

'Miranda July' (born February 15, 1974) is an openly bisexual^[1] 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',^[2] she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character in a short story by a high-school friend.^[3]
She 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.^[4] She was encouraged to work on her short fiction by author and family friend, Rick Moody.^[5]
Miranda grew up in Berkeley, California, and later attended UC Santa Cruz, dropping out in her sophomore year.^[6] After leaving college, she moved to Portland 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.^[7]

Contents

Filmmaking

Music

Multimedia

Bibliography

Publications

Books

Discography

Albums

EP's

Filmography

Short Films

Full length

Music videos

Performances

Personal

Interviews

References

External links

Filmmaking

''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.^[8]
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. The ''Joanie4Jackie'' series also screened at film festivals and DIY movie events. So far, thirteen editions have been released, the latest in 2002.
At her speaking engagement at the Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco's Mission District on May 16, 2007, July mentioned that she is currently working on a new film.

Music

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

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.
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.^[10]
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.

Bibliography

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) ('')

★ ''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)

★ ''No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories'' (May 15, 2007) (Charles Scribner's Sons)

★ ''Learning to Love You More'' (with Harrell Fletcher) (Fall/Autumn 2007) (Prestel Publishing)

Discography

Albums

★ ''10 Million Hours a Mile'' (1997) (Kill Rock Stars)

★ ''The Binet-Simon Test'' (1998) (Kill Rock Stars)

EP's

★ ''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) 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

★ ''Jesus' Son'' (1999) (Lions Gate Films) (Acted)

★ ''Me and You and Everyone We Know'' (2005) (IFC Films) (Wrote, directed and acted)

Music videos

★ Sleater-Kinney - "Get Up"^[11]

★ Blonde Redhead - "Top Ranking"^[12]

Performances

★ ''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

July dated Radio Sloan from the Need when she first moved to Portland. She went on to date K Records founder Calvin Johnson.^[13] As of September 2005, July is dating artist/film director Mike Mills.^[14]
Johanna Fateman, of the post-punk band Le Tigre, has referred to July as being her "best friend from high school".^[15] While in college, the two collaborated on a zine entitled ''Snarla''.¹⁵

Interviews

★ 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

★ Interview by Apple Inc. (requires Quicktime Player)

References

1. Interview with Miranda July
2. Putting all they know to work
3. Miranda Writes: Arthouse queen Miranda July gets literary
4. The Miranda July Story
5. You and Her and Everything She Knows.
6. A moment with performance artist/filmmaker Miranda July
7. Performance artist's new role -- film director
8. Cannes 2005: The Winners
9. Everything About Some Kind of Loving
10. MIRANDA JULY: performances
11. Get Up: Sleater-Kinney's last show: A retrospective
12. Video: Blonde Redhead: "Top Ranking"
13. Miranda July
14. La Dolce Musto
15. My Herstory

External links

★ Official site

★ July's blog