Born in Canada in 1956. He graduated in economics at the Winnipeg University and started his career in film in the 1980s. Maddin had a retrospective of his work presented at the 28th Mostra, with films such as Archangel (1990), Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997), Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002) and Cowards Bend the Knee or The Blue Hands (2003). He has also directed the short film My Dad Is 100 Years Old (2005), the segment Colorful Cat of the movie Invisible World (2011) and the features Brand upon the Brain (2006), My Winnipeg (2007), Keyhole (2011) and The Green Fog (2017), all presented at Mostra.

A one-time student of Guy Maddin, he first worked with the director as additional camera operator in My Winnipeg (2007, 32nd Mostra). In The Forbidden Room (2015, 39th Mostra), his feature film directing debut, he also served as screenwriter, visual effects supervisor and assistant editor. Johnson also directed The Green Fog (2017, 42nd Mostra).

Born in Canada, Johnson worked with his brother, Evan, and filmmaker Guy Maddin in The Forbidden Room (2015, 39th Mostra), in departments like production design, animation and editing. With his partners, he also directed the short documentary Bring Me the Head of Tim Morton (2015) and The Green Fog (2017, 42nd Mostra).