Miranda July (born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger; February 15, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, actress and author. Her body of work includes film, fiction, monologue, digital presentations and live performance art.
She wrote, directed and starred in the films Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) and The Future (2011) and wrote and directed Kajillionaire (2020). She has authored a book of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007); a collection of nonfiction short stories, It Chooses You (2011); and the novels The First Bad Man (2015) and All Fours (2024).
Early life
July was born in Barre, Vermont, in 1974,[1] the daughter of Lindy Hough and Richard Grossinger. Her parents are both writers who taught at Goddard College at the time.[2] They were also the founders of North Atlantic Books, a publisher of alternative health, martial arts, and spiritual titles.[3][4] Her father was Jewish, and her mother was Protestant.[5]
After relocating to Portland, Oregon,[11] she took up performance art in "one woman shows".[12] Her performances were successful; she has been quoted as saying she has not worked a day job since she was 23 years old.[13] In an interview for the Tate, she explained that she still tried to practice performance, partially due to its stark differences from filmmaking, such as its live audience or how "present" it is in comparison.[14] Portland is also where she began participating in the riot grrrl scene that was beginning to grow in the early 1990s.[5]
In the early stages of her film career, she created several small video projects and performances years prior to her feature film, Me and You and Everyone We Know.[5] However, while she worked on her art, July had to work several odd jobs; she worked as a waitress, a tastemaker for Coca-Cola, a locksmith, and a stripper.[15][8]
At the young age of 16, Miranda wrote and directed a play known as The Lifers, which was based on a close connection she had with a man who was incarcerated for murder. She moved on to stage it in punk clubs.
July reading at Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco (c. 2007)
July was immersed in the riot grrl scene in Portland and motivated by its do-it-yourself ethos, and she began an effort that she described as "a free alternative distribution system for women movie-makers".[16] One of July's reasons for starting the project was to apply the concepts of riot grrrl into the filmmaking world.[15] The idea was to connect as many women artists as possible, let them see each other's work, and foster a sense of community.[17] Participants sent a self-made short film to July, who mailed back a compilation videotape containing that film and nine others – a "chainletter tape".[18] When it began in 1995, the project was called Big Miss Moviola[9] but was soon renamed Joanie4Jackie.[19] July also credits the project to the loneliness she was experiencing at the time, but felt she learned from the project immensely, saying "that was my film school".[5] July's first film, Atlanta, appears on the second tape of the series.[19] July continued to run the project for years, handing it off to the film department of Bard College in 2003.[20]
In Spring 2016, July donated an archive of Joanie4Jackie to the Getty Research Institute.[21] The collection includes more than 200 titles from the 1990s and 2000s, videos from Joanie4Jackie events, booklets, posters, hand-written letters from participants, and other documentation.[22]Thomas W. Gaehtgens, the director of the Getty Research Institute, stated that the acquisition is "an esteemed addition to our Special Collections that connects to work by many important 20th century artists who are also represented in our archives, such as Eleanor Antin, Yvonne Rainer and Carolee Schneemann."[23][24]
Miranda made a flier for other women filmmakers of her time to see as a way for them to send Miranda their VHS tapes of their work. By doing so, Miranda would be able to watch then send the films back to that person. This was how women during that time period were able to see each other's work.
Filmmaker 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.
On May 16, 2007, July mentioned that she was working on a new film. This film was originally titled "Satisfaction" but was later renamed The Future, with July in a lead role.[27] The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival[28] and was nominated for a Golden Bear at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.[29]
In July's film 'The Amateurist (1998),[34] a dowdy researcher examines, via a video monitor, a stereotypical "beautiful woman"; July plays both roles. July wrote, directed, and starred in the film. The film won Cinematexas Best Experimental and No Budget Award 1999, New York Expo 1999 Silver Award Experimental, and San Francisco Golden Gate Award Silver Spire 2000.[35]
Nest of Tens
In October 2000, July released Nest of Tens[36].[37] A lengthier video, the 27-minute Nest of Tens (2000), juxtaposes four unrelated scenarios in which "seemingly everyday people go about acting completely normal while demonstrating distinct abnormality".[34] July wrote and directed the film with Polly Bilchuk in the starring role. Nest of Tens has been placed in the permanent online collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[38] July won awards for Nest of Tens, the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival's main prize 2001 and Cinematexas International Short Film Festival's Gecko Award 2000.[39][better source needed]
She recorded her first E.P. for Kill Rock Stars in 1996, titled Margie Ruskie Stops Time, with music by The Need.[44] She released two full-length LPs, 10 Million Hours A Mile in 1997 and The Binet-Simon Test in 1998, both on Kill Rock Stars.[45] She collaborated with Calvin Johnson in his musical project Dub Narcotic Sound System,[44] and in 1999 she made a split EP with IQU, released on Johnson's K Records.[46]
July has acted in many of her own short films, including Atlanta, The Amateurist, Nest of Tens, Are You The Favorite Person of Anyone?, and her feature-length films Me and You and Everyone We Know and The Future. She also made an appearance in the film Jesus' Son (1998).[41] She appeared in an episode of Portlandia in 2012.[47] She co-starred in Josephine Decker's 2018 feature film, Madeline's Madeline.[48]
Live performance pieces
In 1998, July made Love Diamond, her first full-length multimedia performance piece – in her description, a "live movie."[44] This two-hour stage work featured July playing multiple characters, humorously depicting women's perceived cultural roles.[49] This was followed by a second full-length performance piece, The Swan Tool, and a six-minute film, Getting Stronger Every Day (2001).[50] The latter is an abstract view of a grown man and a little girl, seemingly taunted by indistinct floating shapes while an offscreen narrator recounts a tale of real-life pedophilia.[50]The Swan Tool is another "live movie", a one-woman show in which July plays Lisa Cobb, a woman searching for her lost body. Although it's peppered with deadpan comedy, the surrealist story concerns "childhood sexual traumas, adult alienation, and persistent, unfocused guilt".[51]
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.[52] This stage show contained several ideas that would become key elements of her later film, The Future.[44]
In March 2015, July premiered her performance work New Society as part of the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival.[53] In the program for the performance, July requested the audience not share details of the show, stating it is now "a rare sensation to sit down in a theater with no idea what will happen."[54]
Other art projects
With artist Harrell Fletcher, July founded the online art project called Learning to Love You More (2002–2009). The project's website offered assignments to artists whose submissions became part of "an ever-changing series of exhibitions, screenings and radio broadcasts presented all over the world".[55] Over 8,000 people participated in the project.[5] In addition to its internet presentations, Learning to Love You More also compiled exhibitions for the Whitney Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and other hosts.[55][56] A book version of the project's online art was released in 2007.[56][57] Starting May 1, 2009 the project's website stopped accepting assignment submissions. In 2010 the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquired the website, to preserve it as an archive of the project online.[58]
July constructed a sculptural exhibition, Eleven Heavy Things, for the 2009 Venice Biennale.[59] Its assortment of cartoonish shapes, made sturdy with fiberglass and steel, were designed for playful interaction by visitors.[60] The exhibition was also shown in New York City at Union Square Park and in Los Angeles at the MOCAPacific Design Center.[59]
In 2013 she organized We Think Alone, an art project involving the private emails of public figures. Unredacted except for the recipients' names, the emails were freely donated by a disparate group of notable persons including author Sheila Heti, theoretical physicist Lee Smolin, basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and actress Kirsten Dunst. July grouped selected emails by topic, and sent a new set to the project's subscribers every week for 20 weeks.[61][62] As one reviewer described them, the emails are "simultaneously mundane and eerily revealing; they shed light on how people in the public eye craft their private identities... [they] also underscore, in some way, the way all of us present ourselves over email: excessively formal or passive-aggressive, lovey-dovey, flakey, overly excited."[62]
In 2014, July created Somebody, an iOS app[63] which allows users to compose a message to be delivered to someone else in-person, or to deliver someone else's message in-person. When you send your friend a message through Somebody, it goes – not to your friend – but to the Somebody user nearest your friend. This person (likely a stranger) delivers the message verbally, acting as your stand-in. Somebody is a far-reaching public art project that incites performance and twists our love of avatars and outsourcing – every relationship becomes a three-way. The project was funded by Miu Miu.[64] The app closed on October 31, 2015.[65]
In 2022 July collaborated with Mack Books to create Services, a limited edition book/sculpture composed of photographs and texts between July and Jay Benedicto, a trans woman living in the Philippines who offered services to increase the readership of self-published authors. The first six months of July and Benedicto's correspondence, which coincided with the first six months of North American lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, were published in the book. Only 25 copies were made available for sale.[66]
For its fall 2024 campaign, Prada worked with July on "Now That We're Here", a photo series featuring stars like Hunter Schafer, Letitia Wright, Damson Idris, Harris Dickinson and Ma Yili who encourage people to call into a hotline where they can interact with pre-recorded scripts recorded by July herself.[67]
Writing
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. Another short story, Something That Needs Nothing, was published in the following year by The New Yorker.[68]
No One Belongs Here More Than You
No One Belongs Here More Than You, July's collection of short vignettes, was published by Scribner in 2007.[69]
It won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award on September 24, 2007.[70] In The New York Times, Sheelah Kolhatkar gave the collection a mixed review: "A handful of these stories are sweet and revealing, although in many cases the attempt to create 'art' is too self-conscious, and the effort comes off as pointlessly strange."[69]
As of 2015 the collection has more than 200,000 copies in circulation.[71]
It Chooses You
July's non-fiction story collection It Chooses You was published by McSweeney's in 2011.[72]
While procrastinating the writing of her screenplay The Future in 2009, July criss-crossed Los Angeles accompanied by photographer Brigitte Sire to meet a random selection of PennySaver sellers, glimpsing thirteen surprisingly moving and profoundly specific realities, along the way shaping her film, and herself, in unexpected ways.[73] The work received mixed reviews with fans citing the collection's "lasting impression" of realistic struggle[74] and critics citing the mumblecore-influenced artist's writing style as a "cheap trick" in text-format.[75]
The First Bad Man
July's first novel The First Bad Man was published by Scribner in January 2015.[76] The narrative centers around Cheryl Glickman, a middle-aged woman in crisis whose life abruptly changes course when a young woman, named Clee, moves into her home.[76][77] The novel explores the complex relationship between Cheryl and Clee.[78]
In her review for The New York Times Book Review, reviewer Lauren Groff writes The First Bad Man "makes for a wry, smart companion on any day. It's warm. It has a heartbeat and a pulse. This is a book that is painfully alive."[78]
Her films have a common theme of "intimacy." For example, many of her work's titles use pronouns ("me," "you," "we," etc.). July creates "slice of life" films using ordinary characters and giving them attention within her films. She describes this as her being, "desperate to bring people together."[5] However, as she's aged she's become more interested in how people sabotage coming together.[14]
July receives criticism for being too "niche" or trying too hard to seem "quirky." According to The New York Times, "July has come to personify everything infuriating about the Etsy-shopping, Wes Anderson-quoting, McSweeney's-reading, coastal-living category of upscale urban bohemia that flourished in the aughts [sic]." She is often lumped in with directors like Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, but says she gets more push-back than them due to her films being so emotional and feminine, being called "precious" and "twee." In this same interview with The New York Times, July explains that she likes the directors she's been compared to, but they never get criticized for making films about themselves, though she as a female filmmaker is often labeled "self-obsessed."[5] In a 2015 Guardian article, July adds, "Yes, it's pretty clear that 'whimsical' is a diminishing word, [...] I almost think asking the question is like I'm being asked to gossip about myself. I think it's kind of a female thing, being asked to gossip about yourself. I think I'm maybe done with that."[84]
July also often includes the theme of sex in her films. The New York Times describes this theme "as both a sudden surprise and a way to illuminate the inner lives of her characters". July elaborates: "I was always interested in sex, even as a kid. Sex includes shame and humiliation and fantasies and longing. It's so dense with the kinds of things I'm interested in."[5]
She has also expressed her interest in the rhythm and feeling of film, rather than being "inspired" by other filmmakers, and states that she wouldn't call herself a "cinephile."[5]
In between Me and You and Everyone We Know and The Future, July began to incorporate some of the oddball avant-garde things she had done in theater performance into her films, some of which was easier to swallow on stage but not on screen, such as the talking cat in The Future,[14] which she was later criticized for by viewers.
July also has a strong interest in clothing and costume.[12] She served as the lookbook creative director for Uniqlo UT's 2019 clothing line.[85]
Personal life
July is married to filmmaker and visual artist Mike Mills, with whom she has a child,[86] born in March 2012.[87][88] July and Mills met at both of their first Sundance Festival premieres in 2005,[89] and married in mid-2009.[5] In July 2022, July announced that she and Mills were separated romantically, although they continue to live together and co-parent.
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!"[90] In a later interview in 2017 on Idaho's Public Television station, July explained that once she started confronting the racial issues in current day politics, she started contacting publishers and revising her work, realizing that not everything she had said was racially and politically sound.[12]
She changed her last name to "July" when she was 15, after a character (based on her) in a story by her high school best friend, Johanna Fateman. She changed her name legally in her early 20s.[5] July describes her family as very "DIY", which probably accounts for some of July's makeshift style.[5] Therefore, when July wanted to change her last name, her father was very accepting of the decision.[12] Her father was a workaholic, which is something she believes she picked up from him.[12] Her family also dabbled in practicing New Age religions and discussed spirituality while she was growing up.[5]
I Started Out with Nothing and I Still Have Most of It Left[91]
Atlanta (1996) – appeared on Audio-Cinematic Mix Tape (Peripheral Produce)
A Shape Called Horse (1999) – appeared on Video Fanzine #1 (Kill Rock Stars)
Nest of Tens (1999) (Peripheral Produce)
Getting Stronger Every Day (2001) – 6 mins 30 secs,[92] appeared on Peripheral Produce: All-Time Greatest Hits: a collection of experimental films and videos (Peripheral Produce)
^ abcd"Miranda July » "Love Diamond"". PICA. December 4, 1998. Archived from the original on October 4, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2020. Since she burst onto the scene in 1995, Portland artist Miranda July has been busily making waves with her films, videos, performances and recordings which explore the world of women. In three years, she founded Big Miss Moviola, "the largest underground distributor of lady-made movies;" founded, performed and recorded with two rock bands — The CeBe Barnes Band and The Need; directed a number of film and video projects which have been shown in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Portland, Toronto and Tokyo; performed extensively up and down the West Coast and around New York; and released five CDs of her work.
^ abPhoenix, Val (November 2, 2011). "From Queercore To The Future: Miranda July Talks Independent Art". The Quietus. London, England: Black Sky Thinking Ltd. Retrieved October 4, 2020. Who were your running buddies? MJ: Like, Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney. I was a founding member of a band called The Need, but we kind of went separate ways. I moved up there to be closer to my girlfriend at the time, and dropped out of college.
^"Contact + FAQ". Joanie 4 Jackie. Retrieved October 4, 2020. The Joanie 4 Jackie archive was donated to the Getty Research Institute / Getty Trust by Miranda July in Spring 2016. ... The artists remain the rightsholders of their work...What happened to the Bard College Joanie 4 Jackie Tutorial after the archive moved to Getty Research Institute? The Joanie 4 Jackie Tutorial ended in 2007, but sharing its spirit, the The[sic] Joanie 4 Jackie Film Club, run by students and faculty at Bard College, brings professional women filmmakers to campus to present their work.
^"Joanie 4 Jackie". Joanie 4 Jackie. Retrieved October 4, 2020. In 1995 Miranda July dropped out of college, moved to Portland, Oregon, and typed up a pamphlet that she imagined would be the start of a revolution of girls and women making movies and sharing them with each other. The pamphlet said: "A challenge and a promise: Lady, you send me your movie and I'll send you the latest Big Miss Moviola Chainletter Tape."
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