Christine La Monte
Christine La Monte, director/producer and former film studio marketing executive, is the founder of
LA MONTE PRODUCTIONS. Her latest producing effort is the award-winning DANDELION DHARMA, a 30 minute "epic" film currently playing the festival circuit which she produced and executive produced; and "The Other Side of 90," a documentary about women in their 90s which wrote, directed and produced. She has several films in various stages of development, including "Red Hot Mamas" written by Gary Goldstein, and a film based on the critically acclaimed legal thriller, "Justice Deferred" by Len Williams. Her most recent theatrical directing work includes Events of the Heart's "The Angina Monologues," performed by Sharon Lawrence, Brenda Strong, Eric Close, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Shelly Goldstein at the Women's Conference, hosted by Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Long Beach, CA, October, 2009; and the Screen Actors Guild's " A Heart United," performed in November, 2009 by Sharon Lawrence, JoBeth Williams, Brenda Strong, Lupe Ontiveros, Dule Hill, Stephen Collins, Garcelle Beauvais and Valerie Cruz.
Prior to her work as a filmmaker, La Monte founded, La Monte & Company, a strategic marketing and branding company which focused on the entertainment industry; clients included the US premiere of Frank Otto's TRIP, a German experimental music and film project; Homemade Entertainment; the Moon and the Stars Productions and the famed Italian studio CineCitta where she worked on location in Rome, among others.
In 2002, La Monte produced the theatrical production of the critically acclaimed, "Three Grooms and a Bride," written by Gary Goldstein and starring Anne De Salvo which played through three extended runs at the Coast Playhouse in West Hollywood. Prior to that, she was hired as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Fitzgerald Communications, a leading high-technology communications agency based in Boston. Opening their Los Angeles office, La Monte expanded the company's core offerings focusing on companies at the intersection of technology and entertainment including such clients as Napster, Texas Instruments, SiriusRadio.com, MSC Software, and iQVC. Before joining Fitzgerald, she served as Executive Vice President of the Motion Picture Group at Rogers & Cowan, an InterPublic Company. During her five and a half year tenure there, she oversaw a wide array of publicity and strategic marketing projects including film festivals and theatrical campaigns for major studios including Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox, as well as independent film companies such as Miramax, New Line and Columbia Tristar. La Monte diversified the scope of R&C's Motion Picture Group to include interactive entertainment, lifestyle and branding, working on such clients as the Golden Globes, Priceline.com, Microsoft, Barry Sears "The Zone", QVC's Cure By The Shore in Cannes, France; Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, Landmark Theatres, the Hong Kong Tourist Association, Skyy Vodka, James Perse, Dollywood, the Norton Simon Museum, Rolex Watch and Hugo Boss, to name a few.
Previously, La Monte served as producer of the syndicated television talk show, "Marilu," starring Marilu Henner. She served as Senior Vice President, Executive Vice President, and then President of Marketing at Orion Pictures. During her two year tenure there, she played a key role in the successful marketing campaigns of back-to-back Academy award-winning films, "Dances With Wolves" and "The Silence of the Lambs," among others. Prior to her work at Orion, she held the position of Executive, Corporate and Media Relations for New Zealand's TV3, while living in Auckland. In New York City, she was Director of East Coast Publicity at Walt Disney Studios and Touchstone Films for over three and a half years working on hit comedies such as "Outrageous Fortune," "The Color of Money," "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," "Tin Men," plus the 50th Anniversary re-release of the animated classic, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." La Monte also spent over five years at Universal Pictures in New York in promotions/publicity, working on mega-hits "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial," "On Golden Pond" and "Sophie's Choice" among others. La Monte started her film career in exhibition when prior to her stint at Universal Pictures, she worked as Director of Publicity and Promotions at Sack Theatres in Boston.
A past faculty member of New York's School of Visual Arts where she initiated "The Dusty Awards" -an on-going annual film festival of student short films/award ceremony - La Monte has guest lectured at UCLA and USC. She earned a BA in French from the University at Buffalo, where she is on the board of the Dean's Advisory Council, recently serving as Producer, as well as Independent Film Workshop Presenter of the 2009 inaugural, Variety-sponsored, UBC2C HOLLYWOOD, an entertainment and media symposium for young professionals; she received UB's Distinguished Alumni Dean's Award in October, 2009. A member since 1986 of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences where she is on the Foreign Language Film Selection Committee, La Monte is a longstanding member of Women In Film (WIF), as well as a former member of WIF's Silver Circle. She is a past board member of the Los Angeles Ballet.
