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Nest of Tens

Miranda July

1999 00:27:00 United StatesEnglishColorMono4:3Video

Description

Nest of Tens is comprised of four alternating stories which reveal mundane yet personal methods of control. These systems are derived from intuitive sources. Children and a retarded adult operate control panels made out of paper, lists, monsters, and their own bodies.

"A young boy, home alone, performing a bizarre ritual with a baby; an uneasy, aborted sexual flirtation between a teenage babysitter and an older man; an airport lounge encounter between a businesswoman (played by July) and a young girl. Linked by a lecturer enumerating phobias in a quasi-academic seminar, these three perverse, unnerving scenarios involving children and adults provide authentic glimpses into the queasy strangeness that lies behind the everyday."

— New York Video Festival (2000)

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