After graduating with a film degree, Magna Cum Laude, from the prestigious New York University, Kristen “Ten” Monteverde is ready to join the family business but wants to make a name for herself as a director.
It’s a bit different route from the producer’s path of her grandmother, Regal Entertainment matriarch Mother Lily Monteverde, and her father, Reality MM Studios producer Dondon Monteverde.
Ten is currently in the US and “navigating post-college life,” but she’s looking forward to coming home soon to dive into the industry.
“I know that there’s a lot that I want to do at home. There’s still so many stories that I want to write and put on the big screen one day that take place in the Philippines, and there’s a lot of people that I want to work with there,” she recently said during a Zoom interview.
“Back home is where I want to develop my voice the most. That’s very important to me. So, I will be living in the Philippines for now. That’s what I have planned.
“Of course, if an opportunity presents itself, I don’t want it to just be like one or the other. I also want to be working in the US simultaneously. Hopefully, that’s the dream where I can work in both places and afford to do that.”
It was probably expected and logical of Ten to go into filmmaking given how she grew up exposed to the entertainment industry. However, she did try other fields of creative expression. In fact, she wanted to become a painter at first.
When she decided to study abroad, she first enrolled at the Parsons School of Design before eventually transferring to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
“I think naturally for me, it was a matter of finding who I was outside of my family. In that case, I was drawn towards other media at first,” she explained.
“But, I think, I was always a creative person and from the very beginning, growing up, it was solidified for me that I would eventually end up as a creative and doing something in the arts.”
Admittedly, it wasn’t until after freshman year of college that it was clear to her that filmmaking was the career she wished to pursue. It was because in New York, she got to see more movies and “totally fell in love with the film language.”
She would find inspiration in the works of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, French director Agnes Varda, writer-director Celine Sciamma, English filmmaker Edgar Wright and even the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan).
“I realize it’s unlike any other medium I’ve actually explored and it just made the most sense to me,” she said.
“I wanted more out of trying to help tell stories and I could do that best with a moving camera. That was what I attracted to the most. It’s definitely a plus that my family has already exposed me to that world from a very young age. It was definitely like an advantage being able to be on set and witness all professionals doing what they do best… and I feel like that really equipped me for when I decided I was going to go to film school,” further shared Ten, who was also heavily influenced by the work of her father’s bestfriend and business partner, direk Erik Matti.
“The longer I thought about all the stories I wanted to tell and how I wanted to tell it, and so I, you know, jumped in, I decided not to like run away from that.”
Her family naturally welcomed her decision. The first person she mentioned it to was her dad.
“Even before I left the Philippines and moved to New York, he was the first one who found out I got into Parsons. He was very happy. There wasn’t any like pressure whatsoever about carrying on, like, our family business necessarily.
“But, of course, there was joy in the fact that I found the thing that I love and there’s someone to uphold the family name and carry on that legacy. Not necessarily meaning that I would take over one day, but more in the fact that there’s a director in the family.”
Her father’s reaction led her to also tell her lola, Mother Lily, about it.
“And she was very, very happy,” she recalled. “She wants me to be making films in the Philippines of course. But she was very, very supportive also of me exploring what’s outside of it, and not being limited to just that because I was in New York and she also did a lot of travelling when she was younger and explored the world. So she’s very happy.”
When asked about her dad’s advice to her, she said he has always been pragmatic, offering both the upsides and downsides of joining the industry. “He’s always been realistic about what it’s like now, and trying to navigate and adapt to all the changes with streaming especially. And how we can move forward with that and just yeah, the reality of the whole industry now as a whole.”
“It’s never necessarily been like negative. I think it’s a matter of really like proving myself and working hard and making sure that I established myself as my own person outside of their achievements because I will always be in proximity with their achievements and their work that they’ve done as producers.
“For me, it’s really important to develop my own voice and make sure that I study hard and I make sure that I’m creative enough and work hard enough to place myself and root myself into this industry by myself, too.”
Now that she’s returning home, The STAR asked which film production company is she joining — her grandmother or father’s? She said she’s keeping her options open.
“You know what? We’ve definitely been in talks about a collaboration between the two, which is so exciting,” she said. “I feel like it doesn’t have to be so cut and dry where it’s one or the other. But yeah, I think I’m going to collaborate with both.”
But first, Ten has to earn their approval. There’s no skipping the pitching process just because she’s a Monteverde. “If it comes to it, if I were to create a film and they wanted to produce it, who knows? I would still have to pitch it to them and see if they like it.”
Meantime, Ten had just gotten her feet wet by directing singer-actor JK Labajo’s music video for his latest song release, Gabi.