Christian Johnston
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christian Johnston | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Colorado, United States |
| Occupations | writer, producer, and director |
Christian Johnston is an American writer, producer, and director known for his work in feature documentaries, documentary television, and independent film.[1][2][3]
Christian Johnston was born in Colorado, United States. He developed an early interest in film making and won his first film festival award at age 17, an achievement that helped launch his career and later influenced his decision to study film at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.[4]
Career
Television and Early Work
Johnston has worked extensively in documentary television, writing and producing content that took him around the world. During this period he worked with Academy Award–winning filmmaker Brett Morgan and Anonymous Content to create the MTV documentary series project True Life: Trial By Fire.[5]
Documentaries and Feature Films
Johnston's first hybrid scripted film, September Tapes, shot on location in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, later being distributed in more than 28 countries and screened at over 25 film festivals worldwide.[6] Chicago Tribune called it the riskiest production in the history of movies.[7]
Johnston's first hybrid scripted film “September Tapes” is a faux-documentary feature film co-written and directed by Christian Johnston in his feature debut.[8][9] This led Johnston to be a regular contributor to CNN and to write across numerous print mediums on the subject of Afghanistan and Al-Qaeda.[10][11][12]
Johnston wrote, produced and directed Blackline The Beirut Contract one of the first western movies shot in Lebanon since the 1980”s. The production was caught up in the middle of real life political violence and uncertainty as covered by the NY Times.[13]
Along with the help of three Oscar Nominated producers, Johnston's highly anticipated feature doc “State of Control”. Johnston went on to support monks, nuns as well as an elementary school for Tibetan refugees in Nepal and Dharamsala, India, in between production days on his feature documentary film. Also, at the same time in working with the State Department, Johnston and his documentary team secured political asylum for a Tibetan filmmaker and his family with one of the only successful Amnesty International campaigns that year.[14]
Johnston co-produced and co-directed and produced the feature documentary “This Cold Life" for Time Magazine that lensed in Svalbard Norway. The project was produced in part with Johnston engaging behind the scenes with key government officials to initiate some hyper sustainable strategies. [15]