Biographie
Monica Hampton has worked in the entertainment business since 1994. She has produced fiction and non-fiction feature films with Michael Moore, Davis Guggenheim, and Kevin Smith and she was a key architect of VICE's online broadcast network.
Her career began in New York City in 1994, when she worked on her first feature film as second assistant director on the low-budget indie Under the Bridge (1996) starring Melissa Leo and Zach Grenier. In 1996, she produced her first short film entitled "The Package", starring Frank Vincent.
In 1996, she also joined Kevin Smith's View Askew Productions to production manage and post supervise the award-winning classic, Chasing Amy (1997). She continued working with View Askew Productions for the next six years working on Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), and Jersey Girl (2004). Under the View Askew banner, Monica solo-produced Vulgar (2000), a feature-length narrative film distributed in 2002 by Lionsgate Films and executive produced by Smith and partner Scott Mosier.
In 2003, she teamed up with Michael Moore to produce and post supervise Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), the highest-grossing documentary feature of all time. After the DVD release, she stayed on with Michael to solo-produce Slacker Uprising (2007), a film about his 2004 pre-election tour across America featuring Michael, Roseanne Barr, Eddie Vedder, Joan Baez, Michael Stipe, Tom Morello, and many others. In 2005, Michael sent Monica down to New Orleans to serve as a Disaster Relief Organizer in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Also in 2005, Monica joined VICE Media, to become their first Head of Production, Post Production, and Programming. Alongside creative director Spike Jonze and owners, Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi, and Eddy Moretti, she developed and created the groundbreaking network from its inception and led its release a year later. She was charged with hiring and managing the entire in-house staff of Producers, Associate Producers, Editors, Post Associates and freelancers. She programmed and guided the creation of over 200 hours of original content while overseeing the day-to-day operation of the production department during her five years spearheading the network. While at VICE, she collaborated with Virtue, VICE's in-house ad agency, on interactive marketing and brand integration for Red Bull, Harley Davidson, HP, and others.
During her tenure at VICE, she also became the first Head of VICE FILMS. She produced the highly praised Heavy Metal in Baghdad (2007), a documentary about Iraq's most famous heavy metal band, Acrassicauda. The film world-premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, had its European premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival and was distributed theatrically worldwide in 2008. At VICE she also produced "The VBS Show", VICE's first television network series, a half-hour magazine-style TV show broadcast on MTV Networks in 2009.
After departing VICE in 2010, she produced national commercial spots and a web series for Microsoft and a documentary on print deprivation for Hewlett Packard in association with VICE. She also began producing Aïda Ruilova's art films and working with Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim on various documentaries including working alongside Nobel Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai on He Named Me Malala (2015).
In 2016, she made her directorial debut directing Dean Ween's "Exercise Man" music video and in 2017, she produced the debut music video for the supergroup Prophets of Rage (featuring members of Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, and Cypress Hill) entitled "Unfuck the World" directed by Michael Moore.
In 2017, her films, SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock (2016) (directed by Barnaby Clay) and Tickling Giants (2016) (directed by Sara Taksler) opened theatrically.
Monica is currently working with Marissa Kaiser and Rachel Esterline on their first feature-length documentary film and with A Band Called Death (2012)'s Mark Christopher Covino on his next feature film. Both films deal with social justice rights seen through the eyes of trendsetting badasses.
