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The Amateurist

Miranda July

1998 00:14:00 United StatesEnglishColorStereo4:3Video
Tags:
Feminism , Surveillance , Television

Description

A captivating video about surveillance, identity, watching, and being watched, The Amateurist slides along the edges of horror and satire to create an unsettling portrait of a woman on the brink of a technologically driven madness.

"The Amateurist has very few precedents--many films provoke laughter and tears, but few (only Chantal Akerman's early work and Todd Haynes Safe spring to mind) do so in a way that taps so directly into submerged contemporary anxiety."

— Derk Richardson, “The Marvelous World of Miranda July,” San Francisco Bay Guardian (3 June 1998)

"I've seen [The Amateurist] three times and it's still so inexplicable. It feels like it has its own invented language and laws. When I try to describe it to people, I can't!"

— Alison Maclean (Director of Crush and Jesus' Son)

This title is also available on Miranda July Videoworks: Volume 1.

About Miranda July

Miranda July makes movies, performances, recordings and combinations of these things.  Her short movies (Haysha Royko, The Amateurist, Nest of Tens, Getting Stronger Every Day) have been screened internationally at sites such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum.  Nest of Tens and a sound installation, The Drifters, were presented in the 2002 Whitney Biennial.  July participated in the 2004 Whitney Biennial with learningtoloveyoumore.com, created with support from the Creative Capital foundation and in collaboration with artist Harrell Fletcher.  July's multi-media performances (Love Diamond, The Swan Tool, How I Learned to Draw) have been presented at venues such as the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and The Kitchen in New York. July's stories can be read in The Paris Review and The Harvard Review and her radio performances can be heard regularly on NPR's "The Next Big Thing". July's first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know (IFC Films / FilmFour) premiered in January 2005 at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received a special jury prize for originality of vision. It debuted internationally at the Cannes Film Festival where it was awarded with four prizes, including the Camera d'Or. The movie has since been released theatrically to critical acclaim.

Also see:

Miranda July: An Interview

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