Mike Mills

 

los angeles nouvelle vague

interview by AARON ROSE
portraits by TODD COLE

All on set pictures of 20th Century Women by Gunther Gampine, courtesy of A24

 

Few contemporary Los Angeles filmmakers can claim such diversity of practice as Mike Mills. His career has followed the most unlikely of paths. From his beginnings as an art student studying with artist Hans Haacke at Cooper Union in New York, then to his work with Tibor Kalman at the revolutionary design firm M&Co., then to his career as a celebrated graphic designer in his own right, Mills has left a mark on everything he touched. His graphic design practice mutated to embrace film, and he began directing seminal works in documentary, music videos, and television commercials. Three feature films later, Mills truly is an anomaly in Hollywood.

Mills’s latest feature film, 20th Century Women — starring Annette Bening, Elle Fanning,…