Christopher Monger

Christopher Monger has won awards for directing theatre, feature films, and screenwriting. He has directed eight feature films and written over thirty screenplays. He was born in Ffynnon Taf, Wales and started making films while studying painting at the Chelsea School of Art, London. His graduation short, a comic rendering of 8th C Chinese poet Han Shan, "Cold Mountain", was the opening film of the first ever British Festival of Independent Film in 1974. After graduating he returned to Wales and was a founding member of the Chapter Film Workshop - a full production facility that allowed local talent to make films. In its first five years the workshop produced eight feature films and over fifty shorts. Monger made his first no-budget features there including the controversial "Voice Over" (1981) which played festivals and was sold throughout the world. At the same time he was film and video-maker for the avant-garde theatre company Moving Being, regularly touring throughout Western Europe. After the success of "Voice Over" he moved to Los Angeles to work with producer Ed Pressman of 'Badlands' fame. His produced credits include: "The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain", for Miramax Films, starring Hugh Grant, Colm Meaney & Tara Fitzgerald; "Waiting For The Light" starring Shirley McLaine & Teri Garr; "Crime Pays" for Film Four International, starring Ronnie Williams & Veronica Quilligan; and "Voice Over" starring Ian McNeice. He also wrote the extraordinarily popular and record-breaking television film "Seeing Red" for Granada and WGBH, for which he received a Christopher Award; and wrote and directed "Girl From Rio" which won the Hollywood Film Festival. He is currently adapting Jonathan's Harr's 'The Lost Painting' for Miramax Films. Apart from his film work he still paints and is a member of the PHARMAKA group of painters in Los Angeles.. Most recently he directed and edited Special Thanks to Roy London (2005), a documentary produced by his partner Karen Montgomery. He is still a painter and as active member of the Los Angeles group PHARMAKA who run a gallery in Downtown L.A.