Me and You and Everyone We Know
2005 PDX Film Fest
Guild Theater, 829 SW 9th
Sun April 24, 8pm

Perhaps God invented the slash for describing Miranda July’s career (as if Portlanders needed an introduction). The Puddletown-ex gained her fame and following as a performance artist/author/short filmmaker/recording artist/girl’s video chain letter instigator/web artist, and some other roles that we’re probably forgetting that end with the word “artist.”

In the late ’90s, July made a series of highly psychological narrative recordings for Kill Rock Stars and K Records. Set to dark, droning soundscapes, July created a sonic theater about children who didn’t feel pain and women with tiny radio transmitters implanted in their skulls. Short films like The Amateurist and Nest of Ten followed, which explored similarly disturbing, but entrancing characters involved in various modes of surveillance, control, and fear. July began touring full-length performances, taking her live personal theater across the country and to Europe. She had a brief but memorable role as a black-eyed nurse in the film adaptation of Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son, and in 2001 received a writing credit for Wayne Wang’s vaguely erotic The Center of the World. At that point, it seemed like there was nothing Miranda July couldn’t do. But as it turned out–she was just getting warmed up.

In 2002, a sound installation by July was selected for the Whitney Biennial, the highest-profile art show in America. A short story appeared in The Paris Review, and listeners started hearing her on NPR’s The Next Big Thing. In 2002, shortly before leaving Portland for Los Angeles, July co-founded Learning to Love You More with Portland artist Harrell Fletcher. The web site ( www.learningtoloveyoumore.com) invites visitors to complete assignments that July and Fletcher dream up. Designed to provoke authentic communication and tenderness, typical assignments include “Take a picture of your parents kissing” and “Record your own guided meditation.” The project has become wildly popular, frequently topping lists of Contemporary Internet Art. In 2004, July was again invited to show in the Whitney Biennial, this time with Fletcher for Learning To Love You More.

Now July’s most ambitious undertaking to date is about to drop, and Portlanders are in the privileged position of getting a sneak peek. Me and You and Everyone We Know is July’s first feature-length film, which recently received bananas buzz at the Sundance Film Fest (and earned Miranda the Special Jury Prize for “Originality of Vision”).

Me and You, which July wrote, directed, and stars in, is about a single-dad shoe salesman (John Hawkes) who hooks up with an eccentric performance artist and cab driver (July). Their intensely odd and honest relationship makes Dad all crazy-like but seems almost banal compared to the sad and hilarious lives his two sons lead, which involve internet romance and bizarre neighbor girls. If the synopsis sounds like a familiar romantic comedy–it’s not. Me and You is a study in unique characters, emotional tonality, and human systems of communicating.

Roger Ebert in particular seems to be one screening away from starting the Miranda July fan club. Here are a few excerpts of what the recently slimmed down critic has said about the film: “My favorite feature from [Sundance],” “daring and delicate, a balancing act between the transgressive and the heartwarming,” “perfect control of tone and an insidiously haunting soundtrack,” and finally, describes one section as “one of the most perfectly written and conceptualized scenes I have ever seen.”

Christ, Roger–you’re making me blush! Me and You and Everyone We Know won’t be released until later this summer, but the PDX Film Festival is having a one-night-only screening this weekend. The Sunday night show will be a surefire sell-out, so show up early to be that much cooler than your friends living in the cultural wastelands of Los Angeles and New York.

THE MERCURY: Congratulations on all the early success of the movie. It’s been crazy to watch the buzz from up here.

MIRANDA JULY: Thanks. Yeah, it’s weird. I’ve obviously been keeping up with the early reviews and everything, but I keep wondering if all this seems crazy just because it’s about me, or if you can tell from the outside that it’s all going pretty well.

No, I check out Ebert’s website pretty regularly, and one day there was your picture, front and center. That was a trip. I figured that must have been a good weekend for you.

Yeah, that was crazy. That was the end of Sundance, at the awards ceremony, and I was with some friends from Portland. We were finding our seats and passed by this guy who turned out to be Roger Ebert–but I totally didn’t recognize him.

He’s skinny Ebert now.

Yeah. He was like “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” I kind of scoffed, because you see everyone about a million times at a festival like this. I kept on going, and he came after me and he was like “You’re Miranda July.” Then he introduced himself and I was like “whoa, whoa, whoa.” Then he whips out his camera and takes my picture and starts going on about this one scene in the movie. I’m already so nervous because it’s the awards ceremony, and then he goes and sits down right next to my friends, so we can’t even say anything or talk about him.

Are you worried about actually getting people to see the movie? Is that on your mind?

Yeah, it feels very unknown. Right now I’m just trying to make sure all the marketing is in place, and making sure there’s a lot of cross-pollination happening with the audience I already have. The movie comes out of the same world as my earlier work, and I think people will be surprised at how much this movie is in the territory of my previous stuff.

The work I first became familiar with–some of the audio pieces, specifically–were very dark and creepy. Most of what I read about the new film is that it’s a pretty straightforward, if quirky, boy-girl story.

It’s not. Sometimes people have trouble describing the movie, so they call it that–but it’s not. The best I can say is that describing the plot doesn’t really convey what it is. It’s a lot about details and performance and characters that create a specific feeling. I’ve never been that invested in plot–structure, yeah–but not plot for its own sake. But while it doesn’t have a lot of the darkness of the stuff from my early 20s, neither does a lot of stuff that I’ve been working on.

Are you able to think about any non-film projects right now, or are you keeping your head in the movie industry?

I have stuff going on in pretty much every medium I work in right now. I started really getting into a new performance–but realized there wasn’t going to be any time to work on it, so I had to slow down on that. I have another movie idea that I got pretty far with when I was editing Me and You that I look forward to working on. And I have a book of short stories that I’m hoping to finish up soon… But at the moment, I’m doing none of that.

How did your creative freedoms in Me & You compare to previous projects?

I had final cut, so it was just like everything else I’ve ever made. I got a few notes from the studio, but when you have final cut you can kind of take it or leave it. Sundance was actually the first time the company had seen a finished version of the movie.

That’s awesome. I can’t wait to see it–I think a lot of people can’t wait.

Yeah, I haven’t been to Portland since I left like a year and a half ago. I’m sort of worried about making sure that the whole thing isn’t alienating to the people who have supported me for a long time.

You’re not going to step out of the limo wearing shades or anything?

Yeah, I’ll step out of my ’85 Honda Accord–which is in the movie. My Mom saw the movie and she was like “Wow, you’re still driving that?” A lot of times I’ll realize I’m wearing the exact same things to screenings that I’m wearing in the movie. Maybe I’ll start to wear gowns, to let everybody know that I really am acting on screen.

Me and You and Everyone We Know screens Sunday, April 24, at the Guild Theater (829 SW 9th) at 8 pm. The movie opens in New York and LA in mid-June, and nationwide shortly thereafter.