Miranda July's Blog, page 5
July 20, 2011
7 20 11
I stared at this view all day, from the balcony, in between interviews. Thoughts had:
1. Can I yell "What are you feeling and thinking?" to the lounging people or is that going to ruin their time.
2. WIth a running start could I jump from the balcony into the pool? Maybe even into the pink thing?
3. That astro-turf is blue in a way that just won't quit and I'm going to have to make something with it before I leave here.
Nothing came of 1. or 2. but with help of Megahn Burns and James Teel from Roadside Attractions, 3. was totally achieved.
Please do not hesitate to send me your own Walking On The Floor photos. It is a satisfying kind of picture because you needn't be a great beauty to knock it out of the park. Just a little attention to detail.
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Nine days until The Future begins to unroll. Count with me Count Dracula, which is my pet name for you, all of you.
July 19, 2011
7 19 11
This morning my husband reported that I had talked in my sleep — apparently, I said, very politely, "Can you repeat the question?"
Funny times.
Today we have a miscellaneous group of news items:
1. This afternoon I will be I will be psychically attending to the essential dilemmas of strangers for Studio 360, via a call-in radio show. This won't be aired today, but I thought you might enjoy, as I have, reading these essential dilemmas. Life is so problematic. /
2. Yesterday we began installing Eleven Heavy Things at The Pacific Design Center (presented by MoCA).
The moment they were on the grass people began posing with them, which was encouraging. They'll be up through October, so stop by (and send us your snapshots).
(I keep writing "us" and "we," but the truth is, it's just me, sitting here with wet hair and a hurried feeling.)
3. And finally, this evening you can beat me at ping pong while raising money to support the writing of important stories like these:
Just a Typical Day in Banana City
by Noemi, age 8
When Mac and Peter and The Stranger Fell
by Ronald, age 7
A Cheater Named Turquoise
by Darious, Corey and Khaled, ages 9 and 10
Go here to sign up.
July 15, 2011
7 15 11
Last night at the IndieWire event at the 92nd St Y I made some Compliment Videos with a few audience members. Each of these people were taken into a room and given the name of another audience member. Then they were instructed to give this person the compliment that they have always wanted to get themselves. I asked them to be as specific as possible and, in this way, acknowledge what overlooked quality they are proud of. We played these videos thoughout the night — and the audience members who heard their names in the videos stood to receive these mysteriously hearfelt compliments from total strangers.
Untitled from Miranda July on Vimeo.
Untitled from Miranda July on Vimeo.
Untitled from Miranda July on Vimeo.
Untitled from Miranda July on Vimeo.
Untitled from Miranda July on Vimeo.
I Ask Of You: Make a compliment video and post it here. Give the compliment to any stranger whose name you can find on this website.
July 14, 2011
7 14 11
I'm thinking of it like "bar-hopping" which is something I've never done. Maybe we can do it together:
7PM
http://www.92y.org/Tribeca/Event/An-...
8PM
http://www.ifccenter.com/films/movie...
TONIGHT!
The picture is related because it is also an event.
July 7, 2011
7 7 11
Getting fit for the Minneapolis screening and a busy week in NY:
Friday
http://calendar.walkerart.org/event....
Tuesday:
http://www.apple.com/retail/soho/
Wednesday:
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/f...
Thursday:
http://www.92y.org/Tribeca/Event/An-...
Thursday:
http://www.ifccenter.com/films/movie...
July 6, 2011
7 6 11
Assorted Thoughts While Doing French Interviews:
Why am I suddenly saying you in stead of I? (Ex: "When you're writing a screenplay involving a talking cat you tend to –") Everything has become an oddly inclusive generalization.
The French really get me.
This person thought I was smarter before he talked to me. I am smart but I just can't seem to say smart things right now.
Is my left eye swelling up or is that the normal way my eye feels? What would happen if I just fell off my chair right now? Could I play it off like it was an accident?
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Obligatory photoshoot with mini Eiffel Tower.
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I had big ambitions, for example, to take a magic carpet ride over Paris. See the part where it says "Be the star of your own movie" ?? I could have made my next movie before this one even came out. Sure, it might have suffered a little in the quality department — but it only takes 3 minutes! My last movie took FOUR YEARS. So it's a trade-off.
In the end I only had time to sleep.
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Thank you to everyone who watched the movie at 7pm tonight or 8pm last night. It will be in theaters August 17th in France, so mark your French calendars with your French pens and tell your French friends.
Next stop: Minneapolis.
July 5, 2011
7 5 11
YET ANOTHER THING THAT DOESN'T SEEM TO BE AGAINST THE LAW!
An embarrassingly predictable dream on the first day of a press tour. I'll try to dream something more deep tonight.
July 3, 2011
7 3 11
Whenever I go on a trip these days I think I am going INTO Facebook and Twitter, as if leaving my world going into the public means I will literally see every one of you. But of course you guys aren't out there, all hanging out together, you're each in your own personal computer worlds.
First stop, Paris, for 2 days, 25 interviews, 2 screenings. Tres bon. Here is the french Facebook for the movie: http://www.facebook.com/TheFuture.lefilm — only 35 people! It's very exclusive! You have to be really chic! I know they are translating the oracle (Le Oracle, perhaps) so soon you can get your weekly fortunes in french, which will make them much more profound.
Meanwhile, I'm battling through travel anxiety by making various outfit charts and taking out the insoles of my shoes, scrubbing them with dish soap, letting them dry in the sun, and then reinserting them. I almost can't wait til i have to take them off in in airport security and am not ashamed and smell like clean dishes. Here are a few more tips.
Travel Tip #1: When out of town I search bookstores for this book (see video above). Not to buy it (I already own it), just to flip through and remember that life is wide open and I have lots of options in terms of how to draw pleasure from it.
Travel Tip #2: In the airport go to the duty-free shop and find the most expensive face cream and slather the tester all over your hands and face. This is within your rights as a potential consumer and it will protect your skin from the drying effects of the plane. The flight becomes one long hydrating facial.
Travel Tip #3: Afraid of flying? My dad sent me this and it really did help. When it's really bumpy I also like to turn to the person sitting next to me and grill them about every detail of their life. "What do you do for a living? Really? How did you get into that? Do you have kids? What do they do? Where do they live?" Etc. When it smooths out I thank them and then reseal my privacy bubble. It's a little awkward after such intimacy, but who cares? I'm alive.
Travel Tip #4: This last tip I got from a website run by travel-advice-giving-stewardesses: When we visit toilets, bathrooms, hotel rooms, changing rooms, etc., how many of you know for sure if the seemingly ordinary mirror hanging on the wall is a real mirror, or actually a 2-way mirror (i.e., they can see you, but you can't see them)? Just conduct this simple test: Place the tip of your fingernail against the reflective surface of the mirror and if there is a gap between your fingernail and the image of the nail, then it is a genuine mirror. However, if your fingernail directly touches the image of your nail on the mirror, then be aware for it is a two -way mirror.
I Ask Of You: Please share your travel tips with us. Things they shouldn't be: untested, vague. Things they should be: actually helpful.
June 30, 2011
6 30 11
When I was 20 I dropped out of college and started a network for girls and women making movies called Joanie 4 Jackie. It was very lo-fi; women would send me their short movies and I would send them back a tape with 9 other movies on it, plus their own. At that time it wasn't so easy to share videos and knowing other young women filmmakers made me feel like I was part of something important – my plan was to share that feeling and create a, like, revolution. Over the next eight years, as I taught myself filmmaking, I compiled and disseminated more than a hundred and fifty movies made by other women. I mailed VHS tapes via the US Postal Service and drove around the country with a video projector, trying to create an audience for something I myself wanted more of.
If someone had told me that in 15 years there would be thousands of videos made by girls in their bedrooms I would not have been surprised; I knew it was the perfect medium for people who are raised to be self-conscious anyway. But I never would have guessed that most of these videos would be of girls DANCING.
Type "me dancing" into YouTube if you don't know what I mean. Are these women thinking of themselves as directors? Probably not. Are they bored and wanting attention? Probably. I know I was bored and wanted attention the first time I turned on the camera. But now the camera is always on, and the audience is always there.
I was watching a lot of these videos when I was writing the script for The Future. The character I was writing for myself, Sophie, was a dancer, but she was (of course) my age, so she was a little too old to be a YouTube dancer. But I imagined she would be mesmerized by how easily these younger women made their dances and put them out there and got an immediate response. They loved to dance, and they loved to be watched, by strangers. For me an audience seems to promise a kind of deliverance that never comes. And I love to wait, believing that it still might, one day.
This is dicey territory, because of course I, Miranda, am also a woman who makes movies of herself, albeit on a larger scale. Doing that is already pretty tough, so it felt almost reckless to associate myself with these women and girls who are so easily ridiculed. But don't forget, for me this all began, my whole career began, with Joanie 4 Jackie. So when I watched the "me dancing" videos I could not dismiss them. In fact, viewed en masse, they were like one big daring, poignant, funny, heartbreaking exquisite dance. Or at least a pretty bright fucking flare saying We are, actually, here. I for one would like to respond to that flare.
So serious and so much done with such a tiny bit of space.
Her world seems like a really dramatic, romantic place.
Headless!
I Ask Of You: Yes, I really do want to see you dance, in your own particular way, to your favorite danceable music. But I don't want to see your face. Either keep your back to the camera the whole time or make sure that your head is cut off, no matter where you are in the room, and then: GO FOR IT! A sad dance. A complex mixed feelings dance. A dance of love. A dance where you barely move! A dance that you can do secretly where it looks like you are working! You can do no wrong. Title your dance: A ____________ Dance, so we know what kind it is (fill in the blank.)
June 26, 2011
6 26 11
LA Film Festival: before the show last night I asked a few audience members about their hopes and fears for their own Future. As it turns out everyone has a ready answer to this question – maybe because we are hoping these hopes and fearing these fears almost constantly.
What are yours? 1 specific hope and 1 specific fear. Specific means not about world peace. You have a plan for yourself: what is it. And what is your worst vision of what could happen instead.
Her future.
His future.
Her future.
His future.
