James Higginson (filmmaker)

James Higginson (born April 21, 1957) is an American filmmaker, fine artist, and photographer based in Berlin, Germany.

His artworks and films address social issues and expose human frailty.

Born James Harold Higginson, Jr in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to James Harold and Louise Betterly Higginson.

He is the oldest of 5 children, raised in a suburb of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Higginson received his BS in Marine Biology in 1978 from Pennsylvania State University.

He attended night school at Museum of Fine Arts School, Boston, Mass.

He worked as a research assistant for Texas State University at the St. Croix Marine Facility, USVI (1979) and as research technician at Boston University Biology Department (1980-2).

and attended Art Center College of Design (1982-4).

He moved to Los Angeles to attend Art Center College of Design (1982) and was hired by a Disney subsidiary to work on a children’s TV show, “Welcome to Pooh Corner” (1984) and then Production Designed the TV show “Dumbo’s Circus”(1986).

In 1988, Higginson was awarded a Daytime Emmy with the creative team, Gary Panter, Ric Heitzman, Wayne White, Jeremy Railton, and Paul Rubens for the Production Design/Art Direction/Set Decoration of the CBS cult classic TV show, Pee-wee's Playhouse (1987-88).

As a painter, Higginson was invited to collaborate with Chinese Master Xie Tien Cheng in 1989 on a body of 30 paintings that combined techniques of Western conceptual art making with elements of traditional Eastern painting.

Over the course of the five-week collaboration, the two artists contemporized the subjects, modes, and styles of the T’ang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.).

as well, they addressed the tumultuous political climate of the current time and the events surrounding the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

He received his MFA in Studio Art from Claremont Graduate University in 1990.

Higginson was a biologist before becoming a fine artist.

Higginson’s photography took focus by the late 1990s.

In “Portraits of Violence”, he tackled the issue of domestic violence with life-size, color, staged photographs.

Using lectures, panel discussions, tours, and live performances, Higginson then expanded the dialogue between his artwork in the museum and the community.

“Portraits of Violence” has been exhibited worldwide in galleries and museums in California, New York, Berlin (C/O Berlin ), Budapest, and Cologne.

He worked as a set decorator for commercial director Joe Pytka and with set decorator Judi Giovani on the film Sandlot (1993).

These paintings were exhibited at the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California in 1993.

He worked as the prop master for MADTV (1995-2003).

Higginson’s artworks diverge from painting and sculpture in his early career through performance and photography in mid-career and then into film.

To utilize the arts as a tool to elevate public awareness of pressing social problems, Higginson established the graphic design company d3G in 1999.

A hardcover book of this photography series, POV:Portraits of Violence, was published in 2004.

Higginson grounded the production companies Avonbiehl (2011-2019) and Allaluce Films (2022-present) in support of film and photographic projects.

He has produced, directed, written, and worked as the DOP for

Higginson is a guest lecturer, having addressed audiences at the University of Southern California, Otis School of Art, Claremont Graduate University, and Laguna Art Museum in California (USA).

He has also addressed audiences at BTK (today UE Germany), FHTW, C/O Berlin, HBG (Germany), FOTO K (Vienna, Austria), University of East London (UK), Fatamorgana (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Pearl Academy, St Pauls College for Women, and Atharva College/Mumbai University (India).

Higginson is currently teaching Photography at SRH-DAB, Berlin.

Breaks the boundaries of distant memory and familiar present.

Three interwoven narrative threads are reconstituted in an unconventional, experimental, kaleidoscopic rollercoaster ride that becomes this visual experience.

Surreal and shocking, yet oddly meditative, is a stunning journey into personal choice and survival.

"Higginson takes the concept of film to its final limits---that it is not the camera that is the projector, it is us, our minds, reaching out of the depths of the repressed impulses who streams our darkest fears onto a helpless blank white screen. Powerful and moving, even frightening, Willful Blindness is an act of art."

- Jeanne Willette

Provides a glimpse into the life of a 22-year-old Georgian Orthodox monk as he contemplates his understanding of faith.

The film bears cinematic witness to his internalized struggle as it presents a visual portrait of the monks, their contemporary, ritualistic lives, and the work inside the monasteries.

A poetic blend of documentary and auteur cinema, interweaves themes of humanness, fear, love, judgement, and the never-ending cycle of water.

SHUDDHI reveals the reality of Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) and its enduring stigma, creating a meditative portrait of familial tenderness and cultural respect against the backdrop of India's rivers, landscapes, and a remaining hospital for the disease.

Higginson’s interest to serve the community has reached outside the Fine Art World.