Born Rich (film)
| Born Rich | |
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DVD cover
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| Directed by | Jamie Johnson |
| Produced by | |
| Starring |
Georgina Bloomberg
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| Music by | Joel Goodman |
| Cinematography | Nick Kurzon |
| Edited by |
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Production
company |
Wise and Good Film, LLC
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Release date
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $150,000 |
Born Rich is a 2003 documentary film (filmed primarily between 1999-2001) about the experience of growing up in wealthy families. It was created by Jamie Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune. The film consists primarily of Johnson interviewing 10 other young heirs. These interviews are offset by Johnson's exploration of his own experience and family as he comes into a large inheritance on his 21st birthday. He seeks out how to be a productive person, avoiding the dysfunction that he sees affecting many of the very rich. The film explores the taboo the ultra rich have against about talking about their wealth, which Johnson believes causes the wealthy to be dysfunctional; and that the discussion of wealth calls into question their right to have their wealth.
At the age of 20, Johnson came up with the idea for the film through conversations with his uncle, Dirk Wittenborn, a novelist and screenwriter, who is also a producer of the film. Having been brought up reading Scott Fitzgerald, Johnson noted that no one of his class or background had attempted to examine issues of social class in America today. Made over a three-year period while he was a history student at NYU, the documentary started out as his graduation thesis.
It took three years to make as most of the young heirs contacted to participate in the film turned him down, sometimes harshly, due to parental objection, fear of losing their inheritance, or fear of violating social taboo. A Campbell's soup heir and a Rockefeller initially agreed to participate but both of them backed out due to a parent's objections. The pre-production took two years and involved hundreds of phone calls to line up the "young inheritors". Johnson enlisted Bingo Gubelmann, a childhood friend who is a cousin of socialite Marjorie Gubelmann, to be a co-producer and to help recruit "inheritors" in their late teens to mid-20s who could live lavishly without ever having to work. 11 heirs ended up being interviewed.
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