Raven Johnson
Locarno Residency 2022 | USA
Locarno Residency 2022 | USA
Born in 1990 in the US, Raven Johnson is a Liberian-American filmmaker. Her work deals with the realities of Black experiences in White spaces. Originally from Minnesota, she graduated with an MFA from NYU’s Tisch Graduate Film program and was recently named filmmaker-in-residence at Augsburg University in Minneapolis. Johnson is a recipient of the Jerome Foundation’s 2021 MN Artist Development Grant, the 2021 Jerome Emerging Artist-in-Residence at the Anderson Center at Tower View, and the 2019 Cannes Film Festival’s Cinéfondation Filmmaker-in-Residence in Paris. In 2017, Johnson was also named one of AT&T’s Emerging Filmmakers. Johnson’s short films The Trucker and Tween have played in dozens of film festivals including Palm Springs Shortfest, BFI, Denver Film Festival, and Cleveland International.
2015 Amelia
2016 Tween
2018 Confidence
2021 The Trucker
A coming-of-age tale set during the height of Covid-19 and racial justice protests after the murder of George Floyd. Ruby: Portrait Of A Black Teen in An American Suburb follows the story of Ruby, a fifteen-year-old, Liberian-American teenager and wannabe TikTok star, as she deals with the sudden breakup of her closest friendship and the fallout from her immigrant parents’ very recent divorce.
My work explores Black racial anxiety and cultural identity in the ways that Black people navigate their everyday environments. My goal is to question and examine how cultural identity is showcased, challenged, and constructed specifically among members of the African diaspora living in the US.
