James
Ronald Whitney
James Ronald Whitney
writer • director • producer • editor • composer
" Just,
Melvin"
" Telling
Nicholas"
" TheWorkingGirl.com"
" GAMES
PEOPLE PLAY: New York"
" GAMES
PEOPLE PLAY: Hollywood"
" GAMES
PEOPLE PLAY: The Bible Belt"
print
version of bio
Now living in New York City,
Emmy Award winning director, James Ronald Whitney (JamesRonaldWhitney.com)
was born in Las Vegas. In his formative years, James (also
known as Ron) was a competitive wrestler, golfer, racquetball
player and gymnast; an instructor of martial arts and dance;
and an avid skydiver who raised three monkeys as he backpacked
through more than 80 countries. During Whitney's travels,
he learned to speak Indonesian, German, Esperanto, and
bits of other languages, and he is presently creating his
own universal language, alphabet and numerical system.
At
a young age, Whitney began his first career as a professional
dancer which later included shows
such as the popular "Fame," the campy "Dance
Fever" and "Star Search," and the unforgettable "Chippendales," where
he danced for a number of years during the '80s. At 17,
Whitney was awarded an appointment to the U.S. Coast Guard
Academy, where, as a cadet, he joined both the cheerleading
squad and the gymnastics team. He left the Academy for
Arizona State University with a full scholarship in economics,
where he joined that cheerleading squad and became president
of a fraternity. He also opened a dance studio, and competed
on numerous game shows, where, as an undefeated CBS game
show contestant, he earned tens of thousands of dollars,
while writing two game show treatments—one of them
is the subject of his last film, "GAMES PEOPLE PLAY:
New York."
At
21, Whitney married the tightrope walker from "Cirque Du Soleil." They met while
she was starring in "CATS," and they eventually
became dance partners. James then opened the largest store
in Hollywood called "Oscar's Wilde," where, as
his customers shopped, he and his wife walked the tightrope
over the patrons' heads, and performed routines on a trapeze
he had mounted 20 feet in the air. Eight years later, they
divorced.
Throughout
the 90's, Whitney served as Vice President at several
Wall Street firms including John
Hancock, and The Royal Bank of Canada. As a financial expert,
he has been featured in The New York Times’ Business
Day, and has been featured and on the cover of (to name
a few) Wall Street rags including Research Magazine, Registered
Representative and On Wall Street. Additionally, he has
served on the Goldman Sachs Fund’s Blue Chip Council,
Munder Fund’s Millenium Advisory Council, and Oppenheimer
Fund’s Executive Council, where he has received countless
Awards. During this time, in that Whitney is also an accomplished
musician (saxophone, percussion, cello, piano) he wrote
and scored two musicals, "Yesterday's Tear" and "Hoods," wrote
and orchestrated dozens of songs, and scored two of his
films, "Just, Melvin" and "TheWorkingGirl.com." Additionally,
he wrote the theme song to his film, "Telling Nicholas," and
the lyrics for his last two movies, "GAMES PEOPLE
PLAY: New York" and "GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: Hollywood."
"Just, Melvin" (JustMelvin.com)
was Whitney's directorial debut, premiering at the Sundance
Film Festival 2000. His film won the "Best Documentary
Award" at numerous film festivals across the country
and was nominated for the 'Independent Spirit Award' in
2001. After playing theatrically in New York City and Los
Angeles, HBO purchased the US broadcast rights for "Just,
Melvin." April, 2001, the world broadcast premiere
of Whitney's first film aired following HBO's "The
Sopranos," and his movie was broadcast into the living
rooms of nearly 10 million homes. "Just, Melvin" continues
to air on HBO, and it continues to debut on television
and in theaters around the world from Australia, Sweden
and Israel to Canada, Holland and England, where it was
one of only ten films chosen by the British Film Institute
to tour the United Kingdom after premiering at the National
Theatre in London. Whitney qualified for Academy Award
consideration in 2001, and Emmy Award consideration in
2002.
James
now lives in Tribeca, a neighborhood in Manhattan, only
a few blocks from where the Twin Towers
once stood. When the World Trade Center was attacked, he
filmed in horror as he watched more than two dozen people
jump from the Twin Towers to their deaths, and as both
of the towers collapsed. After running from the debris
cloud that forced Whitney from his home, he filmed the
events that followed the Attack on America for the next
10 days, focusing on one story in particular--the mother
of a 7-year-old boy named Nicholas was in Tower Two when
it collapsed, and her family was certain that she was simply
lost and would eventually find her way home. It took Nicholas'
dad 10 days to tell his son that his mother is dead. In
May, 2002, only days after The Museum of Television and
Radio held a Special Screening for Whitney's film that
had already been featured on "Oprah," a film
that TIME Magazine described as "Wrenching, cathartic
and even funny...but not easy to watch!," the world
premiere of "Telling Nicholas" (TellingNicholas.com)
debuted following "Six Feet Under" on HBO. Additionally,
like "Just, Melvin," HBO continues to broadcast "Telling
Nicholas," and the movie has played theatrically in
San Francisco, New York City, and Los Angeles where it
was part of the Academy Award's Special Presentation Series.
In 2002, Whitney once again qualified for Academy Award
consideration, and in 2003, he won the Emmy Award.
James
is currently completing production on another film, "TheWorkingGirl.com," about
his friend, Sharon, who is the mother of 5-year-old Jake.
Struggling and single, in order to make ends meet, Sharon
decided to enter the cyber-sex industry. The movie and
its Web site, TheWorkingGirl.com, chronicle Whitney's journey
through this world of cyber-sex in an attempt to help his
friend make her business venture a success, while simultaneously
addressing the issue of moms doing porn. Of the film, Rex
Reed remarked "These are not your grandmother's working
girls. Sad, funny, provocative, informative, energetic,
and in your face! This remarkable film is all of this and
more. The only thing it isn't... is boring. You won't find
this stuff in the pages of Cosmo."
Whitney's
latest film (part two of a planned feature-film trilogy) "GAMES PEOPLE PLAY:
Hollywood" is currently in post-production. In 2003,
Whitney completed part one of this series called, "GAMES
PEOPLE PLAY New York," (GamesPeoplePlayNewYork.com)
which premiered in Las Vegas last June to sold out audiences
at the CineVegas International Film Festival 2003. Whitney
then had a special screening on the 20th Century FOX studio
lot in July, where it ultimately got picked up for distribution.
March ‘04 marked the theatrical premiere of "GAMES
PEOPLE PLAY: New York." That weekend, indieWIRE reported
that, "Whitney's risqué feature seduced it's
way to #1...grabbing the throne from Mel Gibson's 'PASSION
OF THE CHRIST,' which had reigned for two weekends." In
fact, during the theatrical run of "GAMES," which
played in America's top10 movie markets, the reality movie
became #1 at the box office for a second time after Ebert & Roeper
featured it on their television show giving it a THUMBS
UP! Roger Ebert called the film "Compulsively watchable!" and
Rex Reed remarked that "...GAMES PEOPLE PLAY is from
a very original director--grounded in the fast-track pulse
of now, but so fresh, moving, outrageous and smart it's
unlike anything you've seen before, with enough shocks
and constant surprises to knock you right out of your shoes!"
As
a filmmaker, Whitney has been featured on every major
network, including (to name a few) "Oprah," "The
Howard Stern Show, NBC’s "Celebrity Justice," "VH1," "Starz/Encore," "HBO," "CNN's
Anderson Cooper," "Inside Edition," "CNN's
Showbiz," "MSNBC," "NY1," "Fox & Friends," "The
Jenny Jones Show," "CNNfn," and ABC's "The
View." And on April 7, 2001, Roger Ebert featured "Just,
Melvin" on "Ebert & Roeper And The Movies," calling
the film "One of the angriest, most painful documentaries
I have ever seen--and it's one of the best... you have
never seen anything like it... THUMBS UP!" Additionally
he has been featured in (to name a few) Newsweek, Entertainment
Weekly, Premiere Magazine, New York Magazine, Variety,
Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, The Los Angeles
Times, Time Out Magazine, The Washington Post, San Francisco
Chronicle, New York Post, Details Magazine, Newsday, Village
Voice, TV Guide, Daily News, and TIME Magazine.
After
winning the Emmy, Whitney was selected by the National
Television Academy to join their Blue Ribbon
Panel of judges for the 2004 Emmy Awards. He is currently
in pre-production with the third film in his "GAMES" trilogy, "GAMES
PEOPLE PLAY: The Bible Belt.”
Six
months after the first film in the GAMES PEOPLE PLAY
trilogy hit theaters nationally, VH1
contracted Whitney to turn GAMES PEOPLE PLAY into a one-hour,
weekly, series. The first installment of that series goes
into production in March of 2005—a series many are
calling the most twisted game that will ever be broadcast
on national television
www.JamesRonaldWhitney.com
|