Michael Mongillo is an American feature film

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, and

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

. He is best known for the 2007 mockumentary ''

Being Michael Madsen ''Being Michael Madsen'' is a 2007 comedy film directed by Michael Mongillo and produced by Daniel A. Sherkow. The film takes a mockumentary approach in re-imagining actor Michael Madsen as a paparazzi-hounded movie star who hatches a revenge sc ...

,'' the 2017 supernatural mystery ''Diane'', and the 2021 sci-fi thriller '' The Changed''.

Career

Mongillo founded Mean Time Productions in 1997. The production company credits include the

Shriekfest Shriekfest Horror Film Festival is a film festival specializing in the horror genre. It is the longest running horror festival in Los Angeles. In 2017, Shriekfest expanded to include an Orlando, FL festival location. History Shriekfest Horror F ...

award-winning psychological horror ''The Wind'' (2001), the sci-fi dramedy ''Welcome to Earth'' (2005), the

mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...

'' (2007), the supernatural mystery '' Diane'' (2017), and the

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

thriller '' The Changed'' (2021). His work has screened worldwide, including the

Raindance Film Festival Raindance is an independent film festival and film school that operates in major cities including London, Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Budapest, Berlin, and Brussels. The festival was established in 1992 by Elliot Grove to ...

, the

Denver Film Festival The Denver Film Festival is held in November, primarily at the Denver Film Center/Colfax, in Denver, Colorado, now the Anna and John J. Sie FilmCenter (Sie FilmCenter). Premiere events are held in the Buell Theatre and Ellie Caulkins Opera House ...

San Francisco Independent Film Festival The San Francisco Independent Film Festival, known as IndieFest, is an annual film festival, held in January or February, that recognizes contemporary independent film. It is run by SF IndieFest, a nonprofit organization, and based at the Roxie ...

Screamfest Screamfest Horror Film Festival is a horror film festival founded by film producers Rachel Belofsky and Ross Martin in August 2001. It runs over ten days during the month of October and is hosted at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Los Angeles, Ca ...

, FrightFest London, and the New Filmmakers Series, receiving positive press from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', ''BoxOffice'', ''

Fangoria ''Fangoria'' is an internationally distributed American horror film fan magazine, in publication since 1979. It is published four times a year by Fangoria Publishing, LLC and is edited by Phil Nobile Jr. The magazine was originally released i ...

'', ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

'', ''Time Out'', ''

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. It first ...

'', ''

Londonist Gothamist LLC is the operator, or in some cases franchisor, of eight city-centric websites that focused on news, events, food, culture, and other local coverage. It was founded in 2003 by Jake Dobkin and Jen Chung. In March 2017, Joe Ricketts, ...

'', and others. Mongillo has also directed several shorts, music videos, and commercials. Mongillo co-founded the annual

New Haven Underground Film Festival The New Haven Underground Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Connecticut, United States. Despite its name, the event itself has never been held in New Haven; instead, it has been held in other Connecticut cities while carrying the slog ...

, which was launched with Todd Dzicek in 2004. In 2009, Mongillo spearheaded its rebranding as the

Maverick Movie Awards The Maverick Movie Awards annually honors films and screenplays. They were founded as the New Haven Underground Film Festival in 2004, and became known as ''Maverick Movie Awards'' in 2008. The awards are given out by a panel of judges working in ...

and, with Dick Boland, engaged in forming a diverse network of entertainment industry professionals to participate in this international “filmmakers honoring filmmakers” cooperative. Its exponential growth precipitated Maverick Awards for the films ''Sound City'', ''The Imposter'', ''Downloaded'', '' The Maiden Danced to Death'', and more celebrated features and shorts. Mongillo departed the MMA in 2013 to devote more time to his pursuits as a filmmaker. In 1993, Mongillo wrote the comic book ''The Philistine'' and co-creator Michael Zittel illustrated the series. The super-spy-turned-superhero saga was originally distributed by One Shot Press, which went out of business after publishing only three of the six issues in the mini-series. ''The Philistine'' was revived a decade later by United Comics and the original mini-series plus several subsequent stories were released as a graphic novel anthology in 2003. In 2012, Mongillo created and wrote the graphic novel ''The Lost Girl'' with artwork by Rob Ten Pas. This fantasy-horror romance was originally released by

Arcana Studio Arcana Studio is a Canadian animation studio in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Founded as a comic book publisher by former Coquitlam, British Columbia school teacher Sean O'Reilly in 2004, in 2012 Arcana opened its animation division. Ov ...

and in 2015 it was republished in ''Heavy Metal'' and digital. Along with Chris Wiedemann (vocals/guitar), Bobby Judkins (drums), and John Thudium (guitar), Mongillo (bass) was a founding member of the Rock band, 50 Feet Tall (a.k.a. Fifty Feet Tall), a mainstay of NYC's original music scene in the '90s. Band highlights include a release on

Deep Elm Records Deep Elm Records is an independent record label releasing albums by bands such as Lights & Motion, The Appleseed Cast, Brandtson, The White Octave, and Planes Mistaken for Stars. It also released the compilation series ''The Emo Diaries''. Histo ...

with positive reviews from Alternative Press, CMJ, Hits, Magnet, and more.

Awards and honors

References

External links

*
Home page of Mean Time Productions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mongillo, Michael Living people 21st-century American writers Film directors from New York (state) Year of birth missing (living people)