Madeline Johnson is an award winning writer, director, and producer with over nine years of experience crafting visual stories, managing projects, and leading teams.
As the director for Devolving a feature film in development, Madeline has been selected to participate in the Constellation Incubator.
She is currently writing SETI, a sci-fi feature centered around afro-futurism and the Black diaspora within the multiverse, which advanced to the second round for Sundance Institute’s Development Track.
She is also developing an interactive narrative series that questions: "What could racial reconciliation look like in the United States?” It was a finalist for Sundance Institute’s New Voices’ Lab and advanced to the second round for Macro’s Episodic Lab powered by the Black List.
Sherman – the most recent short film Madeline wrote – was an official selection of the Pan African Film Festival.
Her second short film Beyond Our Mountains won the Grand Jury Award at the Nevada Film Festival, Best Foreign Short at the Twister Alley Film Festival and Best World Director at the Austin Revolution! Film Festival, where it was also nominated for the Lukas Hassel Writer/Director of the Year Award, Best Cinematography Short, World Short, World Actress, and World Actor. It also won Honorable Mention for the NYWIFT Online Shorts Film Festival and was an official selection of the Edmonton International Film Festival, Portland Film Festival, Gig Harbor Film Festival, Crown Heights Film Festival, among several others.
Her debut short film Juneteenth won the Platinum Reel Award at the Nevada International Film Festival in the student competition and was an official selection of the Prague Independent Film Festival, the Budapest Short Film Festival, and the Crown Heights Film Festival. “Juneteenth” is also featured on Vimeo’s #BlackLivesMatter playlist.
At Yale University, she earned B.A.s in Religious Studies and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration. In the Czech Republic, she graduated in 2016 from FAMU International’s Academic Preparation Program in Directing.
Drawing upon her experience in the criminal justice and religious fields, Madeline's work ventures deep into a spiritual realm. She makes art to honor and empower us to live our most authentic selves, to make the world more livable for all of us, and to move the needle so we can understand, dream, and live in a new way.