Lamonia Deanne Brown
Festival Director of Essence Film Festival
Lamonia Deanne Brown is a Creative Executive, Filmmaker, and Film Festival Specialist. As founder of The Gilchrist Group LLC., she partners with entertainment companies in the areas of content development, strategy and communications, as well as live events. She specializes in film/series development, impact strategy, communications, film festival production and programming, and content innovation.
In January 2019, Lamonia/The Gilchrist Group was tapped by the owner of Essence Ventures to create and build the Essence Film Festival as its Festival Director. She produced, programmed, and launched the festival launched in 2022 as part of the Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans with great success, high engagement, and impressive numbers. She continues to serve and lead the production, programming and growth of the film festival, with the goal of building the largest Black global cultural film and arts gathering in the world.
As a Content Strategist and Creative Development Executive at WarnerMedia OneFifty (a Warner Bros. Discovery brand under the Corporate Social Responsibility department), Lamonia managed the brand’s content development and strategy, along with communications for a slate of 22 film and series projects, while also managing sponsorships and activations for over 40 identity-based film festivals that are supported by HBO and the WBD group of companies. While there, Lamonia wrote and produced two branded spots for voting season: one starring Issa Rae focused on poll workers and one focused on the disruptive impact of voting. Both aired on the WarnerMedia ad-supported networks (TBS, TNT, CNN, etc.). As part of the HBO CSR department, she was instrumental in recommending and securing corporate donations to arts & cultural organizations on behalf of Warner.
Lamonia serves as the co-chair of the Writers Guild of America East’s Women of Color Caucus, and she is on the board for the Washington D.C.-based Multicultural Media Correspondents Association.
Her television projects include the two unscripted series (THE RIGHT RECIPE and THAT WORD); and the scripted pilot BLACK ROSE, which won the NY Television Festival. She is also in pre-production on the documentary feature BLACK IVY and is finalizing the screenplay for her narrative feature WILLIE-B: WORKS IN PROGRESS, which peels back the cultural layers of a multidimensional love story set in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn where she grew up and still lives.
Previous professional positions include Head of Programming & Production for the American Black Film Festival (ABFF); Director of Programming and Events at New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT); and freelance work with various festivals including the Producer Guild’s “Produced By: NY” conference, “Women Calling the Shots” at the Hamptons Film Festival, LatinBeat, Montclair Film Festival, African American Women in Cinema, and others.
Lamonia attended Fordham University where she majored in Film, with a Creative Writing minor. She holds firm to the belief that all storytellers must be heard in order to create the paradigm shift necessary to bring about true equity.
Fun professional facts about Lamonia:
Her entertainment career began at PRINCE's Paisley Park Music publishing company and went on to work in the music industry for many years at companies such as Sony, BMG and Universal Music Group. Her love for music stems from her own days as a child musician studying tenor saxophone and the flute.
She secured an installation and exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC) for the American Black Film Festival (ABFF).
Lamonia takes great interest in shepherding the career trajectory for many women entering the film business by spearheading key pipeline opportunities including intern/mentor programs, student academies designed to provide access to corporate entertainment positions, training mid career people in transition and working on the development of indie creators’ projects.