Mike Mills (director)

Mike Mills (born March 20, 1966) is an American film and music video director and graphic designer. He is perhaps best known for his independent films Thumbsucker, Beginners, and 20th Century Women.

Mills was born in Berkeley, California, the son of Janet L. "Jan" (Dowd), a draftsperson, and Paul Chadbourne Mills, an art historian and museum director. He graduated from Cooper Union in Lower Manhattan, New York City. His mother died of brain cancer in 1999. Six months after she died, his father Paul came out as gay at the age of 75 and after 44 years of marriage. Five years later, his father died of lung cancer.

Mike Mills has created music videos for such musical acts as Moby, Yoko Ono and Air. Air named the fifth song on their album Talkie Walkie after Mills.

He has also worked as a graphic designer on promotional material and album covers for such acts as Beastie Boys, Beck, Sonic Youth, and Ol' Dirty Bastard. In addition he has created graphics for X-Girl, Marc Jacobs, and currently produces his own line of posters and fabrics called Humans by Mike Mills.

Mills played guitar and performed background vocals with the short-lived indie rock band Butter 08 along with Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto, Russell Simins of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Rick Lee of Skeleton Key. The band released one self-titled album in 1996 on the now defunct Grand Royal record label.

Thumbsucker (2005) is his feature-film directorial debut, for which he also created the film posters. He followed this up with Beginners in 2010. Mills next directed 20th Century Women, starring Annette Benning, Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning and Billy Crudup. The film had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival, and will be released on December 28, 2016, by A24.

He has released some of his art/documentary photography works with the two books, Gas Book 11 (2003) and Humans (2006). In 2009, the popular Berlin-based culture magazine 032c devoted an issue to Mills. For the occasion Mills was interviewed by Nick Currie, best known for his work as Momus, in a piece called "Getting Through the New Depression."

Mills is married to fellow artist and film director Miranda July, with whom he has a son, Hopper, who was born in February 2012.

Films

• 20th Century Women (2016)
• Beginners (2010)
• Does Your Soul Have A Cold? (2007, 82 min)
• Thumbsucker (2005, 96 min)
• Not How Or When Or Why But Yes (2004, 24 min)
• Paperboys (2001, 42 min)
• Deformer (Ed Templeton) (2000, 17 min)
• The Architecture of Reassurance (1999, 24 min)
• AIR: Eating Sleeping Waiting & Playing (Air) (1999, 96 min)
• Hair Shoes Love and Honesty (1998, 40 min)
• "Richard June's Backyard" (Kate Spade) (1998, 3 min)
• "Skating with Dave and Jared" (1995, 3 min)
• "An Introduction to Harmolodics" (Ornette Coleman) (1995, 11 min)
• Lost Episode III-Cheese (Frank Black)
• Lost Episode I-Los Angeles (Frank Black)
• Men in Black (Frank Black)
• 1997 CDFA Awards (Kate Spade)
• Birthday (Kate Spade)
• Rock Star (Lauren Hoffman)
• Banking (Marc Jacobs)
• Entertainment (Marc Jacobs)
• Look Presents: Qui est-vous New York (Marc Jacobs)
• VH-1 Fashion Awards 2001 (Marc Jacobs)
• Bummer

Music videos

• "All I Need" - Air
• "Kelly Watch the Stars" - Air
• "Le soleil est près de moi" - Air
• "Sexy Boy" - Air
• "23" - Blonde Redhead
• "The Dress" - Blonde Redhead
• "My Impure Hair" - Blonde Redhead
• "Silently" - Blonde Redhead
• "Top Ranking" - Blonde Redhead
• "Afrodiziak" - Bran Van 3000
• "Bad Ambassador" - The Divine Comedy
• "Temperamental" - Everything but the Girl
• "2 Kindsa Love" - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
• "Sometimes" - Les Rhythmes Digitales
• "Legacy" - Mansun
• "Stardust" - Martin Gore
• "Run On" - Moby
• "Walking on Thin Ice" - Yoko Ono
• "Concrete Sky" - Beth Orton
• "Hey Hey You Say" - Papas Fritas
• "Spokes" - Pond
• "Party Hard" - Pulp
• "1, 2, 3, 4" - Titán
• "It's Automatic" - Zoot Woman

Record sleeves

• "Kelly Watch the Stars" single - Air
• "Moon Safari" - Air
• "Playground Love" single - Air
• "Sexy Boy" single - Air
• "The Virgin Suicides" soundtrack - Air
• "Root Down" EP - Beastie Boys
• "Socks, Drugs, and Rock and Roll" - Buffalo Daughter
• "Butter 08" - Butter 08
• "Viva! La Woman" - Cibo Matto
• "Runaway" single - Deee-Lite
• "Thank You Everyday" single - Deee-Lite
• "Experimental Remixes" - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
• "A Picture of Nectar - Phish
• "Logan's Sanctuary" - Roger Joseph Manning Jr. & Brian Reitzell
• "Washing Machine" - Sonic Youth
• "Back to Skull" - They Might Be Giants
• "John Henry - They Might Be Giants
• "Future Crimes" b/w "Glass Tambourine" single - Wild Flag

Books

• Gas Book 11 (2003)
• Thumbsucker (2005)
• Humans (2006)
• Fireworks (2008)
• Graphics Films (2009)
• Drawings From the Film Beginners (2011)

Commercials

• Gap
• Adidas
• Nike
• Apple Computer
• MasterCard
• Volkswagen
• DuPont
• Facebook