Miranda July is a performance artist, film-maker, recording artist (releasing on Kill Rock Stars) and writer. Her creations carry a sort of naïve wonder that could come only from an observer with a uniquely keen eye for the peculiar relationships and situations people find themselves in. And July communicates these situations perfectly, as if the audience is living every moment, adopting her characters’ sensibilities, in on the joke, aware but just as surprised, confused, enamoured or disenchanted.
July’s first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), is 90 minutes of intimacy, joy, woe, wonder and awkwardness. Quite rightly it won a panoply of awards including several from Cannes and Sundance. In this episode of Defunktion’s Podcast Series, MJ Hyland (out of her author role and, for a moment, playing the part of interview and fan) notes that the film leaves the audience with a smile on their face and feeling happy. July captures the essence of the simple things around us and makes them wonderful and, perhaps, that’s what makes her work such a pleasure: that suddenly every interaction and observation can be something utterly special, a moment to savour in of itself.
In June 2007, on the eve of the publication of her first collection of short stories, entitled No One Belongs Here More Than You, MJ Hyland joined July at London’s Serpentine Gallery to discuss life after her first movie, artistic practices, quotidian routine and to read an excerpt from the forthcoming book.
Click the play button above to listen to the entire session right now on Defunktion, or read the Podcast guide below to find out more about other methods for listening to the Defunktion Podcast Series.
Miranda July’s first collection of short stories is published by Canongate in the UK. Find out more about the book and order it via the Canongate website.
Podcast Credits
The Podcast was recorded live at London’s Serpentine Gallery on June 4th, 2007. Defunktion would like to thank the Serpentine Gallery and Canongate for supporting and facilitating this audio recording. The photograph associated with this podcast was taken by Tod Brilliant of www.polafiction.com. The incidental music on this podcast was created by Kid Mingus.
How to access the Podcast
You can listen to this episode of the Defunktion Podcast Series right now by clicking on the streamer play button (above), or click the appropriate link below to load the podcast in your favourite media-player:
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