J. Mitchell Johnson

Pictured: J. Mitchell Johnson, undated

J. Mitchell Johnson is a local filmmaker and documentarian who has worked on several productions related to Fort Worth culture and history. He was born in Dallas on May 12, 1951 and graduated from the University of Texas in 1973 with a B.A. in Radio, TV, and Film. He continued his education at the University of Southern California's Cinema School where he obtained an M.S. in 1975. After graduating, Johnson began working for Academy Award winning filmmaker, Charles Guggenheim.

Johnson returned to Texas in 1977 and established Fort Worth Productions, Inc. He became the first Texas independent filmmaker to produce a film for national public television when he produced and directed the first national broadcast of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1977. Johnson continued on this path and produced a number of independent television programs for national public television broadcast. He also produced programs for cable television for ABC Video Enterprises, Inc., and the History Channel. Many of these productions are represented in his papers collection and media collection housed at the Archives.

Johnson currently resides in Russia where he continues to work in film through his production company Abamedia. In the mid-1990s he formed the Archive Media Project, L.P. and Russian Archives which provides access to formerly closed images of the Russian Republic. The Archive Media Project, L.P. has also been responsible for the creation of a digital catalog of 45,000 Soviet era films and an international image licensing system that allows researchers to access rare audiovisual materials.