USC: The Big Miss Moviola Project

Organized by Mary Celeste Kearney. Sponsored by Women’s Graduate Coalition and the Women’s Film Board.

As Mary Celeste Kearney recalls: “I’m guessing I invited Miranda to USC to present Big Miss Moviola in 1995 or ’96. I think it may have been around the time she appeared in Sassy with BMM, which was April 1996. Anyway, it was after I saw her perform with the CeBe Barnes band in LA. Their record, which was released in 1995, was out already. Miranda was passing out flyers for BMM at that show, and that’s what inspired me to invite her to USC. (This was definitely before BMM became J4J.) The location of the event was USC’s School of Cinema-TV (now School of Cinematic Arts). Some faculty and students attended, along with some riot grrrls from the local area whom I had met at punk shows. In addition to talking about her plans for BMM and showing some clips from the chainletter videos, Miranda talked about her Missing Movie Report, wherein she asked folks to tell her what movie they’d like to make. She also invited audience members to participate in BMM during the intermission by appearing alone on video and completing the sentence, “Nobody ever told me __.” Unfortunately, the camera wasn’t working correctly the night of the USC event, so no video was recorded. Oh, and perhaps not as important, but I remember Miranda wore a vintage girdle instead of shorts — the kind with tabs to hold up stockings — and had a necklace that was just a tooth retainer on a chain — punk rock fabulousness — I loved it!”