James Whitaker is the Chairman of Whitaker Entertainment, which is based at Walt Disney Pictures. Whitaker began his career with Imagine Entertainment as an intern while attending the USC Peter Stark Producing Program. Upon graduation, he was brought on as a Creative Associate, and rose through the ranks to become President of Production, supervising development and production. He executive produced such films as FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, 8 MILE, CHANGELING, AMERICAN GANGSTER, CINDERELLA MAN, and CURIOUS GEORGE. In 2001, after the World Trade Center tragedy, Jim conceived a film project centered on the country's recovery from 9/11. The documentary, REBIRTH, combined time-lapse photography of the World Trade Center Site with the intimate stories of five people coping with grief, which Whitaker followed for the nine years. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was released theatrically by Oscilloscope Laboratories and then ran on Showtime. It will have a permanent home as part of an exhibit at the 9/11 Memorial &Museum. Project Rebirth, which Whitaker founded, is also an established non-profit that will give all funds from the commercial release of the film to the Project Rebirth Center for victims of and first responders to events of traumatic loss.