Jamie Johnson

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This article is about the documentary director. For the article about the curler, see Jamie Johnson (curler).

Jamie Johnson

Born	1979
Education	New York University
Occupation	filmmaker

James Wittenborn Johnson (b. 1979) is one of the great-grandsons of the founder of Johnson & Johnson Inc. and an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker.

Johnson received attention when he made a documentary in 2003 called Born Rich which was purchased by HBO. The film was described as "a documentary on children of the insanely rich, directed by one of their own, Johnson & Johnson, Inc., heir Jamie Johnson." It consists primarily of Johnson interviewing his friends and peers about the experience of living life free of financial constraints. These interviews are offset by Johnson's exploration of his own experience and family. Jamie's uncle is screenwriter and novelist Dirk Wittenborn, whom Jamie credits with encouraging him to make a documentary about the experience of wealthy children.

The documentary was nominated for two Emmy Awards including 'Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming' for the director. The other nomination was in the category 'Outstanding Nonfiction Special' for the producers: Sheila Nevins (executive producer), Wittenborn (produced by) and Johnson (producer).

Johnson's newest project, The One Percent, had its world premiere at the TriBeCa Film Festival on April 29, 2006. The 80-minute feature discusses the challenges America faces as a society in which one percent of the people control nearly half the total wealth. The film features Robert Reich, Bill Gates Sr., Milton Friedman, and many others, coming from various socioeconomic strata, including residents of Chicago's infamous Cabrini Green housing project and Hurricane Katrina victims. The film was co-produced by Johnson and Nick Kurzon and will air on cable television in the first quarter of 2008.

Both Born Rich and The One Percent were promoted on Oprah Winfrey's television show. He was showcased along with Nicole Buffett, adopted granddaughter of billionaire Warren Buffett.

Johnson is a graduate of the Pingry School, a prep school located in Martinsville, New Jersey.^[1] He attended New York University, where he majored in American History.

[edit] Personal life

The films Born Rich and The One Percent strained Johnson's relationship with other members of the New York elite, who he has used his connections with to secure interviews. Born Rich sparked a lawsuit and accusations from a few of the subjects, Johnson's friends, that Johnson portrayed them unfairly. The films also cooled the relationship with his own family, including his father, James Loring Johnson. Later, while developing The One Percent, Johnson discovered his father, who otherwise led a quiet life of reading and painting landscapes, had helped fund a documentary about apartheid and economic unfairness in South Africa. Though his father refused to talk about it, Johnson learned from his mother that his father had been reprimanded for the film by Johnson & Johnson and by members of his family and never made another film.^[2]

When Johnson interviewed Milton Friedman, the Nobel Laureate conservative economist, Friedman accused Johnson of advocating socialism and abruptly ended the interview.^[2]

[edit] References

^ Johnson, Jamie. "Biting the Silver Spoon That Feeds Him, on Film", The New York Times, October 12, 2003. Accessed November 3, 2007. "I was pretty shocked by what some of the other kids had to say, said Mr. Newhouse, who met Mr. Johnson at Pingry, a private school in Martinsville, N.J."
^ ^a ^b Robert Frank, The Rich Man's Michael Moore, The Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2008.