Director's Biography
Grant Johnson is an award winning short film director. His most recent film “Collide” has just started its film festival route. His previous short film “The Tutor” was in the Cannes Short Film Corner, Orlando Film Festival and many others. Grant was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and has lived all over the country including Minnesota, North Carolina, Arizona, California, and New York. Grant graduated from the New York Film Academy at the Universal Studios campus in California in 2012. He has also trained with Judith Westin’s class “Acting for Directors”. Grant has always loved telling stories, but when he was a little boy he struggled with dyslexia and was not able to tell the stories he dreamed of. It was not till he got to use the family camera that the window of story telling was opened to him. Through film making and storytelling the world of the written word has also been opened to him. Grant is a scuba diver and travels all over the world. He also volunteered at the Madras Crocodile Bank in Chennai, India. He wishes to use his unique experiences in life to tell unique and fascinating stories in his films.
Director's Statement
When I was young, my parents instilled in me the importance of travel. Because of this, I had some unique experiences. On one of my trips, I went to the Madras Crocodile Bank in India to help with research on crocodiles. I went there for the crocodiles, but was inspired by the people I found in India. The volunteers, the workers, and the people walking in the streets all had such amazing stories to tell. Coming back to the States, I found myself wanting to engage in conversation with people I had never met. As I did this, I began to see life from other people’s point of view. I have come to the conclusion that every person you meet is fascinating, is incredible, and has more potential than we will ever know. I also realized that to lose anyone who had such potential would be tragic.
That’s why I wanted to make this film--to show a potential life lived, and and how incredible that could be. But I also wanted to show the connection between lives, for the positive and the negative. Our lives are our own, but the truth is that our day-to-day lives are connected on some level. We find ourselves in a world where many people don't take responsibility for their bad decisions and mistakes. Those lapses in judgment ripple out and have a profound impact on others. I hope when you watch this film, I have conveyed to you that each life is precious, and the decisions we make may have a lasting effect on all of us.
