J. Mitchell Johnson’s filmmaking debut was the 1977 Van Cliburn Piano Competition PBS documentary, Contest to Carnegie Hall.  This award-winning piece ushered subsequent PBS/A&E projects including a U.S. Film Festival (now Sundance) winner, Moses Pendleton Presents Moses Pendleton that he made with Bob Elfstrom. In addition to his documentary film work, Johnson produced a 22-part television series produced for Russia TV,  and wrote/directed a feature film, World Without Waves.  He also developed and produced with Bill Cran the PBS prime-time Cold War television series, Red Files that won the IDA’s best limited series award. He is currently in post-production on a feature documentary entitled Saving North which follows the surprising story of a diverse group of Russians and “foreigners” who join forces in an effort to save ancient cultural memories and wooden churches of the Russian north.