Director's Bio

Charmain Johnson- Producer, Director, and Writer

Charmain Johnson was born in Miami but grew up in San Benadino California and Long Island New York, spending about five years in each location. When she was fifteen she moved back to Florida and currently resides West Palm Beach Florida and received. She received her high school diploma for Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of The Arts, where she studied film and video. In 2004 she

completed her first feature length film entitled Seeking Sam, a student film about a young woman, who runs away from home after her secret affair with her brother’s fiancée is revealed. During her college years she also worked as a production coordinator for the school’s television station and a camera operator for WXEL and received her bachelor’s degree in Communications specializing in film and video from Florida Atlantic University in 2005.

In 2005 she ALSO completed a short screenplay and was a finalist in BET’s RAP It Up Screenplay competition for her screenplay Victims, later re-titled Secrets, which tells the story of a couple dealing with HIV. Johnson went on to make the short film in the summer of 2005. In 2006 Johnson completed the project Beyond Black and White: Perspectives on Skin Shades in the African Diaspora which explores the issue of different shades of skin tones in the Black community. The film has been screened four times at local venues and continues to be in high demand locally. She also worked as a freelances camera operator forthe local Caribbean television show Vibeztv. In 2007 Johnson completed the film Pieces of A love Affair, a short film about a woman who has to choose between her confused lover and her own standards and beliefs. In 2007 Johnson also worked on the film 954, a coming of age story about the friendship of three teenage boys growing up in the crime ridden areas of Ft Lauderdale, Florida.

In August of 2008 Charmain and her business partner Kay Greene began conceptualizing the web based lesbian series The Lovers and Friends Show that launched January 1st 2008. Since then the show has become widely popular, screening the show at different Black Pride events. In addition to The Lovers and Friends Show, Johnson is also working on a documentary sponsored by the Palm Beach County Health Department entitled Silence is Death: Unheard voices, which explores the relationship between HIV, homosexuality, and the relationship and the church in the African American community. In between 2005 and 2007 Johnson worked as a freelance videographer and when she’s not working on the set of Lovers and Friends she is teaching radio and video to teen mothers at a non-profit organization