Chris LaMont

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Chris LaMont is an independent filmmaker who co-founded the Phoenix Film Festival in 2000 and is currently its president. He has produced and directed several independent films, including Film Club, Quality Time, Netherbeast Incorporated, and The Graves.

Background

LaMont graduated Magna Cum Laude from Arizona State University, and while there he won an Emmy Award for Student Production for the local sketch comedy series, TV or Not TV. He directed his first feature with Steve Bencich (screenwriter of Brother Bear, Chicken Little and Open Season), The Best Movie Ever Made featuring TV’s Batman, Adam West. His next feature, Writer’s Block, was released to video stores, and the horror-thriller earned critic and fan praise, including a 3½ star rating in the Blockbuster Video Guide.

In 2000, he directed and co-wrote Film Club, a short film parody of David Fincher’s Fight Club. It was included on the George Lucas in Love DVD, one of the biggest short film compilation releases in history. The film was featured on CNN Headline News and MSNBC.com. Later, he directed the documentary feature 14 Days in America, and in 2006 he produced with Brian and Dean Ronalds the office-vampire comedy Netherbeast Incorporated, which was released in North America on DVD in January 2009 by Illuminata Films.

In 2008, he also produced the animated logos for "R&D TV" for writer/director Jerry Hultsch that appear on the end of the Season 4 episodes of SyFy Channel's Battlestar Galactica.

His film Quality Time (also known as My Apocalypse) is an avant-garde dark comedy/drama which had its world premier at the 2008 Boston Underground Film Festival. It has also screened as an Official Selection at the Sydney Underground Film Festival, Strasbourg (France) International Film Festival, New Jersey Film Festival, Arizona International Film Festival, and the River's Edge Independent Film Festival during 2008.

In 2009 he produced the film The Graves for first-time feature filmmaker, writer-director Brian Pulido, with the Ronalds Brothers. Starring Claire Grant, Jillian Murray, Bill Mosely and Tony Todd, the supernatural suspense genre film follows two sisters who are captured in an old ghost town controlled by a religious zealot and his brainwashed clan. The film was released in 2010 by AfterDark Films as one of the "Horrorfest 2010: Eight Films To Die For". It is available on DVD and Netflix and ran on the SyFy channel.

Since 2010, he is a regular contributor to the local NBC affiliate, KPNX-TV, with film and television commentary on the morning news program "12 News Today."

Organizations

In 2000, LaMont co-founded the Phoenix Film Festival, which had over 23,000 attendees in 2013. In past years, such luminaries as Tom Arnold, Kevin Bacon, Alan Cumming, Laurence Fishburne, Peter Fonda, Robert Forster, John Landis, Kyra Sedgwick, Jane Seymour, and John Waters have appeared. He is the Executive Director of the festival, and president of the non-profit Phoenix Film Foundation, which he also co-founded. In 2002, he started the Phoenix Film Project, an independent filmmaker community group, which has officially changed to IFP-Phoenix, and started the Phoenix Film Society in 2004.

With comic book writer Brian Pulido, he co-founded and is the Executive Director of the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival. The festival attracted over 4,000 attendees in 2006 and has featured such celebrities as Mick Garris, Tobe Hooper, Nightmare on Elm Street's Heather Langenkamp, and Star Wars’ Chewbacca Peter Mayhew. In 2007, he founded the Arizona Student Film Festival to encourage young statewide filmmakers.

In 2011, the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival became the late night programming arm of the Phoenix Film Festival.

He is currently the President of the non-profit Phoenix Film Foundation and also the 2-term Vice President of the Arizona Film and Media Coalition, a lobbying group that is working to bring back Arizona's Media Production Tax Incentives.

Current Film Projects

He currently has various projects in various stages of development.

Other Affiliations

LaMont has worked as a Video Producer for ASU's Mary Lou Fulton Teacher's College since 1999. He also has taught at the School of Theatre and Film at Arizona State University since 2004. As a founding Board Member of the Arizona Film and Media Coalition, he fought for lower budget thresholds for state filming tax incentives that were signed into law by Governor Janet Napolitano in May 2005. He is also an adjunct instructor at the newly created Digital Film Program at Grand Canyon University.

Filmography

As a producer

  • Jayse's Challenges (2013)
  • The Graves (2009)
  • My Apocalypse (2008)
  • Netherbeast Incorporated (2006)
  • Screen Wars
  • Paychecked! (2006)
  • Writer's Block (1995) ...aka Writer's Block: Truth or Dare 2 (USA: video box title)
  • The Best Movie Ever Made (1994) ...aka The Battle for the Planet of Cheese

As a director

  • My Apocalypse (2008)
  • Paychecked! (2006)
  • 14 Days in America (2005)
  • Mating Rituals (2004)
  • Film Club (2000)
  • Writer's Block (1995)
  • The Best Movie Ever Made (1994)

As a writer

  • My Apocalypse (aka Quality Time) (2008)
  • Paychecked! (2006)
  • Mating Rituals (2004)
  • Film Club (2000)
  • Writer's Block (1995/I)
  • The Best Movie Ever Made (1994)

As an editor

  • My Apocalypse (aka Quality Time) (2008)
  • Paychecked! (2006)
  • Mating Rituals (2004)
  • Writer's Block (1995)
  • The Best Movie Ever Made (1994)

External links

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