{"id":1132,"date":"2009-10-01T11:22:21","date_gmt":"2009-10-01T18:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/10\/miranda_july_the_importance_of\/"},"modified":"2009-10-01T11:22:21","modified_gmt":"2009-10-01T18:22:21","slug":"miranda_july_the_importance_of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/10\/miranda_july_the_importance_of.html","title":{"rendered":"Miranda July – the importance of Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miranda July<\/a> dropped out of the University of California at Santa Cruz in her sophomore year, disappointing her parents. After working her way to the top in Oregon’s DIY arts scene as a performance artist, Internet experimenter and writer, she moved to Los Angeles in 2004 and in 2005 delivered the widely heralded independent movie Me and You and Everyone We Know<\/i>, written by, directed by and starring herself. It opened the Seattle International Film Festival and won the Camera d’Or for best first feature at Cannes. She submitted her screenplay to the Sundance Screenwriting and Filmmaking Lab, was rejected twice before getting the Sundance nod.<\/p>\n

In a 2005 interview in the PI<\/a>, she explained Portland’s allure.<\/p>\n

Your parents must be happy now. <\/p>\n

Yes. I grew up in Berkeley with a full Berkeley upbringing. They expected independence, but not independence from a college education. For me, school was taking away from getting to begin. I was never academic. I fight all conventions until they become useful to me.
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why did you move to Portland? <\/p>\n

One of my best friends from high school was going to Reed and it seemed like a good place. I lived with a bunch of girls in a house and started doing plays in a punk club. I had a band called The Need. I was singing, although I can’t sing at all. I made up for it in showmanship. I loved being on stage. I have a pretty strong connection to the independent music scene in Olympia. Performance is something I’ve been doing since high school.
\nThere’s a great film and video community in Portland, with people like Harrell Fletcher<\/a> and Matt McCormick<\/a>. I feel lucky to know them. Portland was very nurturing for me. I found people interested in what I was interested in. In Portland, if you’re doing something, there are people who will give you their time and talent. They’re totally game for putting in huge amounts of time.
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What did you do to earn a living? <\/p>\n

I was a car door unlocker. I worked at Pop A Lock, but I haven’t had to have that kind of job since I was 23.
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What a useful skill. Can you still pop locks? <\/p>\n

I’d need the tools.
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You developed the Internet site “LearningtoLoveYouMore” with Fletcher. Who thought of inviting people to do those amazingly affecting tasks, such as, “Re-create a poster you had as a child” or “Make a paper replica of your bed”? <\/p>\n

A lot of people. It just grew.
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You’re had a lot of support from the visual art community, both in the Northwest and around the country, yet you don’t exactly identify with that community. <\/p>\n

I don’t feel that much a part of any of these worlds, partly because of how I entered them.
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No master of fine arts degree? No film school? <\/p>\n

Yes. I always felt I was crashing.
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A New York Times critic said you’d be famous by now if you hadn’t spent so much time in Portland. That’s kind of funny considering your age. You’re young for a movie director, actress and major writer. <\/p>\n

I’m glad I lived in Portland when I did. I wanted not to be under the influence of a powerful city like New York or Los Angeles. I’m impressionable. I could have taken a wrong turn. In Portland, I could wait to develop, and I knew a voice would come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miranda July dropped out of the University of California at Santa Cruz in her sophomore year, disappointing her parents. After working her way to the top in Oregon’s DIY arts scene as a performance artist, Internet experimenter and writer, she moved to Los Angeles in 2004 and in 2005 delivered the widely heralded independent movie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}