Jamie Johnson (Director)

James Wittenborn "Jamie" Johnson (* 1979 ) is an American film director and a great-grandson of Robert Wood Johnson , the co-founder of Johnson & Johnson .

Live and act

Johnson is the son of James Loring Johnson and Gretchen Wittenborn Johnson. He is a graduate of Pingry School , a private school in Martinsville , New Jersey, and New York University , where he studied American history.

Born Rich

In 2003, Johnson made the documentary Born Rich , which HBO bought. The film has been described as a "documentary about children of the enormously rich, captured by one of theirs". The documentary consists mainly of interviews with Johnson, who freely interviews his friends about their experience of what it is like to be born extremely wealthy and lead a life without financial constraints. The film was produced by Johnson's uncle, screenwriter and novelist Dirk Wittenborn , who encouraged Johnson to make the documentary. Born Rich was nominated for two Emmy Awards ("Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming" and "Outstanding Nonfiction Special"). Johnson conducted interviews with:

Georgina Bloomberg , show jumper, daughter of New York City Mayor and media mogul Michael Bloomberg
Ivanka Trump , daughter of real estate tycoon Donald Trump
Cody Franchetti , heir to Milliken & Company
Luke Weil , heir to the Autotote Spiele empire (now: Cientific Games)
Samuel Irving "SI" Newhouse IV , heir to Condé Nast and grandson of Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr.
Josiah Hornblower , of the Vanderbilt and Whitney family
Christina Floyd , daughter of golfer Raymond Floyd
Juliet Hartford , The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company heiress,

The One Percent

Johnson's next project, The One Percent , premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival on April 29, 2006. The 80-minute feature discusses the challenges facing American faces in a society where one percent of people control almost half of all wealth. The film features Robert Reich , Bill Gates , Milton Friedman, and many others from different socio-economic backgrounds, including residents of Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project and victims of Hurricane Katrina . When Johnson interviewed Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, Friedman accused Johnson of advocating socialism and ended the conversation abruptly.

Both Born Rich and The One Percent were promoted on Oprah Winfrey's TV show. Johnson wrote a weekly column for Vanity Fair Online called The One Percent about various perspectives, methods and problems of the rich. The films Born Rich and The One Percent strained relations with some members of the New York elite, which he used to get interviews. Born Rich sparked a lawsuit and he had to put up with allegations from some of the subjects who claimed that Johnson had unfairly portrayed them. The films also cooled off relationships with his family, especially his father. Later, during the development of The One Percent , Johnson discovered that his father had made a documentary about apartheid and economic injustice in South Africa. Although his father refused to speak about it, Johnson learned from his mother that his father had been reprimanded by Johnson & Johnson and other family members for the film and never made another film.

Individual evidence

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Johnson, Jamie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Johnson, James Wittenborn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American director
DATE OF BIRTH	1979

[1] Too Young, Too Rich? The problem of inherited wealth, seen through the camera of an heir. (2003)

[2] Biting the Silver Spoon That Feeds Him, on Film (2003)

[3] Born Rich: Documentation on rich heirs

[4] Interview with Jamie Johnson (2008)

[5] The Rich Man's Michael Moore (2008)

[6] The Rich Man's Michael Moore (2008)