Kirsten Johnson

[1] Movies that Johnson has either filmed or directed have received numerous nominations and awards over the years, and she is now a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

[2] Johnson was raised in Seattle[3] and Wyoming[4] in a Seventh-day Adventist family who placed restrictions on her access to film and television.

[3] After graduating from Brown University in 1987 with a BA in Fine Arts and Literature, Johnson entered the filmmaking world in West Africa, where she got her start in both fiction and nonfiction genres.

Johnson has shot films about everything from the Evangelical Christian chastity movement (Virgin Tales, 2012), to terrorism in the Middle East (The Oath).

Her cinematography is also featured in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, the Academy Award-nominated short Asylum, the Emmy-winning Ladies First, and the Sundance premiere documentaries Finding North, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, and American Standoff.

Additionally, her 1999 film Innocent Until Proven Guilty examines the number of African American men in the U.S. criminal justice system.

Her second documentary, Dick Johnson Is Dead, premiered in 2020 at Sundance Film Festival, where it received a special award for innovation in nonfiction storytelling.