Christian Johnston

Christian Johnston is an American writer, producer, and director known for his work in feature documentaries, documentary television, and independent film.

Early Life and Education 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.

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.

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. Chicago Tribune called it the riskiest production in the history of movies.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Philanthropy and Innovation work With a call to action from Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, and Michael Rotondi, FAIA, (co-founder Morphosis and RoTo Architects, co-founded SCI-Arc) Johnston put the camera down when he was asked to work with the City of Los Angeles and other innovators and luminaries of design and architecture to help tackle homeless housing and the affordable housing crisis. Using hyper sustainability and pre-fab innovation to help design and build the affordable communities of the future. Johnston has been honored as the finalist in Fast Company's World Changing Ideas awards.

Filmography Films

September Tapes (2004) Almaz (2008) Blackline; The Beirut Contract (2011) State of Control (2014) The Three Hikers (2015) This Cold Life (2017) Tee Tan (2027)

Television and Other Work

Rubicon; The Beginning (2016) MTV True Life: Trial By Fire AMC Winning Women