Michael M. Conti

Michael M. Conti was given the experience of having Stan Brakhage mentor his first short black and white 16mm film, Public Fixture, while at The Colorado College, that gave Conti the confidence to approach filmmaking as an artist. Conti entered Hollywood in 1987 as a production assistant working at Roger Corman's Studio in Venice for the production of Time Trackers (1989). Several production jobs later, including a stint to a talent agent, as well as an assistant producer for George Merkert at MetroLight Studios, and then onto Paramount Picture's thriller Jennifer 8 (1992) as an director's assistant to Bruce Robinson, Conti was ready to tackle bigger projects. In 1992, Conti was tapped to a part in developing award-winning video and story-based content for the emerging interactive entertainment industry while at Brian Fargo's Interplay Productions. Conti was responsible for producing and directing live-action sequences for various games like Sim City Enhanced CD-ROM (1993) and Waterworld (1997), which he produced and directed. Another interactive video game which never made market was entitled Cyberhood starring Brian Gaskill and was written by Martin Olson with storyboards by Janet Kusnick. In 1999, Conti joined the Smart Toy Lab in Portland Oregon with Intel in the development of computer-connected toys for children. The end result was the launch of the Digital Movie Creator into the market for Christmas 2001. Conti received a US Patent for one aspect of this unique toy. In 2002, Conti directed one short film a month for over a year. His work is known internationally and has been screened at 8th International Hildegard Congress 2014, The Emerging Filmmakers Project, Moondance International Film Festival, Trigger Street, ManiaTV!, Amazon/Tribeca Online Film Festival, The Red Reel, Loveland's Independent Filmmakers Showcase, Colorado Chautauqua Association Forum Series, and at Denver's Starz FilmCenter through Group101 Films Colorado. Conti founded the Colorado Chapter of Group101 Films in April 2003. Conti also brought the first 24 hour filmmaking festival to Colorado called The Shoot Out Boulder in October 2004. Seventy-four teams participated in the filmmaking event which was a huge success and was retired in 2011 and was launched into Cheyenne Wyoming in 2009. His two documentary films under The Unruly Mystic series, The Unruly Mystic: John Muir (2018), The Unruly Mystic: Saint Hildegard (2014) have been theatrically screened, both domestically and internationally. He is working on the third film in that series. He resides in Boulder, Colorado USA.