About Michael
Michael Conti is the festival’s Executive Director, and has an interest in The Shoot Out which goes back to 2002 when Michael Conti first contacted Kristi Street, one of the founders of the event in Australia to explore their interest in bringing over a similar event to the US. He eventually was invited to visit the Newcastle Australia event in July 2003. The rest they say is history when the first event launched in America in October 2004.
He made his first 16mm film as a student at Colorado College. Michael’s love of producing community events goes back to 1985 with the First Avant Garde Arts Festival at CC. That two day festival of arts and film brought Stan Brakhage to the school.
Michael has embraced the digital video and computer-based non-linear editing software since the early 1990s and currently provides those services to a variety of clients through his company, A Michael Conti Video Production. Michael also co-founded a monthly filmmaking group in Denver called Group101 Films Colorado which became the largest content provider of short films in Colorado.
In the span of three years, Conti directed over eighteen short films. His work is known internationally and has been screened at Colorado Filmmakers Showcase at The Starz FilmCenter, Moondance International Film Festival, Trigger Street, ManiaTV!, The Emerging Filmmakers Project at The Bug, The Red Reel at Rock Island, Loveland’s Independent Filmmakers Showcase, Peaks Peak Community College, The Colorado College, Westcliffe Digital Film Festival and monthly at Denver’s Group101 Films Colorado screenings. He also teaches videography at Westminister Front Range Community College and Colorado Free University in Denver.