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J. Mitchell Johnson company histories

Company founder J. Mitchell Johnson has been responsible for creating more than 100 hours of documentary programming that has been broadcast and sold worldwide. As a producer and director, he has won numerous top awards at film festivals across the United States, and has created ground-breaking projects for digital media access.

Johnson received a Masters degree in Cinema from the University of Southern California (USC), where he developed an interest in education and documentaries working at USC’s Annenberg School of Communications. After several years working with the legendary documentary filmmaker Charles Guggenheim in Washington, D.C., Johnson returned to Texas to found Fort Worth Productions, which became well-known in the field of fine arts documentaries for A&E and PBS prime-time presentations such as Artist and Athlete and Contest to Carnegie Hall.

Through contacts made in these award-winning arts productions, Johnson acquired the moving image license to the premier name in travel, Fodor’s, and founded TravelWorld Video, LP to finance, produce, and market Fodor’s cultural documentaries for travelers. After producing fourteen Fodor’s films which were distributed for TV and home video sales throughout the world, the Fodor’s image license was sold to Random House and Johnson turned his attentions to new horizons.

Johnson began traveling to Russia in 1994 in a media co-venture with ABC News in New York.
He was the architect and executive producer of a groundbreaking news magazine series
based on “20-20” that aired all over the former Soviet Union. In 1996 he founded Abamedia, L.P. to develop new media opportunities, with special emphasis on providing international access to the emerging digital media markets.

Through a USAID Internews grant, Johnson formed the Archive Media Project, L.P. with leaders in the Russian film and scientific community to provide international access to the formerly closed image archives of the Russian Republic. This resulted in the public-private initiative, Russian Archives Online, which highlights images from the Russian State Film and Photo Archives at Krasnogorsk, as well as other image archives. Archive projects have included development of the RAO website, digital catalogue, digitization of images and international image licensing systems which allow expedited access to rarely seen dynamic historical images.

These archival gems have been key elements for enlightening Abamedia productions using historical footage: “Yanks for Stalin” for The History Channel, and the critically acclaimed four-part series“Red Files,” produced for prime-time PBS and distributed worldwide by Buena Vista Television and Home Video. “Red Files” won the Best Limited Series award from the Los Angeles-based International Documentary Association (IDA). The Red Files PBS website created by Abamedia remains an accessible resource with extensive images, interview transcripts and educational concepts.

Abamedia’s venture in the feature film market, World Without Waves, provides a provocative look at love, lust, self-deception and redemption. Originally titled “Artist Against Electricity”, the film weaves stunning original art and music into this story of a New York TV executive fleeing to a solitary haven in the wilderness, only to find himself enveloped in a different, dangerous energy. Winner of Best Southwest Film at the Santa Fe Film Festival, “World Without Waves“ debuted as an Official Selection at the Moscow International Festival.

Always interested in new frontiers, in 2004 Johnson created a working group to develop the emerging “cloud computing” market for video editing which resulted in Snapsē: a collaborative, streaming media editing and exchange system that allows video creation, mash-ups, and other multi-media use online. Snapsē provides digital rights management to global content owners by linking rather than copying digital media content, and has specialized systems for use of images by educational consortiums.

Current projects include completion and launch of SnapsēTM , additional image archive consortiums, and several documentary and book projects in the development phase.

Along with the dynamic and ground-breaking business pursuits of Johnson’s companies, he has been a community leader in a wide variety of positions, such as:

Chairman of the Media Panel for the Texas Committee for the Arts
President, Texas Independent Producers Association
Board and City Committee Chairman, Fort Worth Sister Cities International
Board President, Lone Star Film Society
Chairman, Education and Technology Panel, US-Russia Exchange Symposium of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia

Management Team

Steven Leibman, Advisor & Consultant, Creative Affairs

Mr. Leibman provides ongoing story development assistance and activates distribution/funding strategies for program development projects. Mr. Leibman, based in Los Angeles, was previously Vice President of a production company at Touchstone Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures. Mr. Leibman has also served as Director of Marketing and Communications for The Los Angeles Theatre Center and Connecticut's Hartford Ballet, as well as President of The Thinking Cap Company, the licensed movie merchandise firm that first tapped into the niche genre marketplace with properties including The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Star Trek.

Gábor Beszterczey, Ph.D., Consultant, Russian Archives Online

Dr. Beszterczey is an international journalist and producer of over 200 documentaries and series programs for Hungarian and international television, most recently as the western correspondent for Hungarian TV Channel 1. Dr. Beszterczey was the producer/director for over half of the Fodor's films for JMJ, and served as international producer for Made in Russia and Yanks for Stalin. He has produced programs internationally for over 15 years, and is a valuable asset for contacts in the world TV market.

Johnathan Sanders, Ph.D., Senior Editor, Russian Archives Online

Dr. Sanders is one of the West's leading experts on Russian film-based visual culture. Both still photogrpahy about which he has written two books, (Russia 1917: The Unpublished Revolution NY:Abbeville Press, 1989; and with Hedi Hollinger, The Russians Emerge NY:Abbeville Press, April 2002) and motion pictures and video materials. Sanders has worked extensively on documentary films, television news programs, and television specials. He spent a decade as a Moscow based CBS news correspondent. He is also a working still photographer, his pictures recently illustrated Richard Threlkeld's book Dispatches From the Former Evil Empire. Sanders served as Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He is currently director of the project On the Russian Future as well as a consultant on international broadcasting and media matters. He is also currently working on a book with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

Foster Nelson, Acting Chief Financial Officer

Foster Nelson, a graduate of Texas A&M University and a Certified Public Accountant, spent the first five years of his career in public accounting with Arthur Young & Company. From 1970 until 1995 he held various financial and executive positions with various insurance subsidiaries of what is now Citigroup. From 1995 to December 1996, Mr. Nelson was EVP and CFO of Transport Holdings, Inc., a life and health insurance holding company that spun off from Travelers Group (now Citigroup) in 1995. Mr. Nelson has been an investor in and consultant to Abamedia since 1996.

Bruce Maggin, Advisor, New Media

Bruce Maggin has been in the forefront of creating a succession of new businesses that have increased consumer entertainment and information alternatives. During his career, he has held senior management positions in virtually every segment of the media and communications industries.

Prior to forming The H.A.M. Media Group, Mr. Maggin headed the ABC Multimedia Group, one of the five divisions of ABC, Inc. In that role he was responsible for centralizing and expanding ABC's activities to address the impact of the digital world. Among the businesses created by the Multimedia Group were ventures that develop and produce content for interactive software, on-line and internet services, location based entertainment, and video-on-demand. Mr. Maggin was also responsible for the company's home video business as well as new media sales. He also spearheaded ABC's technology investments.

He had previously been head of the Development/Operations unit of Capital Cities/ABC Video Enterprises where he oversaw all of the company's start-up and venture business activities. These included electronic data delivery technologies, interactive broadcast services, pay-per-view, and place based media. Mr. Maggin was also responsible for several international consultancies.

Mr. Maggin joined ABC originally in 1970 as part of the company's corporate planning department. He left ABC to work as a merger and acquisition consultant for a major Wall Street bank and subsequently became Vice President of Ziff Corporation, the parent company of Ziff-Davis Publishing and Broadcasting. He returned to ABC in 1982.

Mr. Maggin has been a member of the Board of Directors of several companies including cable networks, Lifetime and ESPN, and the software companies Creative Wonders and O.T. Sports. He is currently a Director of Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (NYSE: PVH) and Control Commerce, as well as Chief Executive of atTV Media. A member of the New York State Bar, he received a BA degree from Lafayette College and JD and MBA degrees from Cornell University.

John T. Healy, Advisory Partner, Program Development

John T. Healy has established a reputation as one of the broadcasting industry's leading international executives. Under Mr. Healy's guidance, Capital Cities/ABC created a series of important and lucrative relationships around the globe that positioned the company as the premiere television distribution organization in the world. The success of Mr. Healy's international activities is the culmination of a long and meaningful career with ABC.

During his tenure as President, ABC International Operations and Executive Vice President, ABC Cable & International, Mr. Healy was responsible for ABC's investment activities in programming, production, distribution, and broadcasting around the world. Among the investments for which Mr. Healy was responsible were Tele-Munchen and RTL2 in Germany, Tesauro in Spain, Hamster Productions in France, TVA in Brazil, as well as SBS in Scandinavia. Mr. Healy was also responsible for ABC's interests in Asia including the creation of children's programming services in both China and India.

Mr. Healy joined ABC in 1970 after assignments with both General Foods and Lehigh Valley Industries. Initially a member of ABC's corporate planning department, Mr. Healy became Vice President of ABC's Leisure Group which oversaw most of the company's non-broadcasting activities. In 1979, Mr. Healy facilitated the creation of ABC Video Enterprises, the unit that became the company's vehicle for new media investments.

As Executive Vice President of Video Enterprises, Mr. Healy was also instrumental in the creation and success of ABC's cable ventures. He was a member of the Boards of Directors of cable networks, Arts & Entertainment, Lifetime, and ESPN from their inception. He is currently on the Advisory Board of e-nvest, a Latin American fund, a Director of Microcast, as well as Chairman of the Management Committee and a Director of StoryFirst Communications. Mr. Healy is also a Director of the International Council, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Archive Media Project Partners:

Igor Grigoriev, AMP Russian partner, Russian Film and Video Studio (RISK) Executive

Mr. Grigoriev is a well-respected Russian filmmaker with over 30 years' experience in documentary projects using archival materials. A former officer of the Russian Documentary Filmmakers Union, Mr. Grigoriev received the highest USSR national award in 1980 for his participation in the Soviet-American 20-hour film series The Unknown War. He directed two of the films in the 1997 primetime PBS Russian Series, Russia's War: Blood Upon the Snow, and in 1996 was recognized as an Honored Art Worker of Russia. Mr. Grigoriev is the leading force behind the Archive Media Project's alliance with the Krasnogorsk archive, and recently served as Russian producer for the Made in Russia and Yanks for Stalin projects.