James Crump made his directorial debut at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival with Black White + Gray, featuring the influential and legendary curator and art collector Sam Wagstaff and artist Robert Mapplethorpe. The film began airing on the Sundance Channel in March 2008. In 2013 , Black White + Gray was named among Blouin ArtInfo's 20 Must-Watch Artist Documentaries. In 2015, Crump's Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art premiered at the 53rd New York Film Festival. The Wall Street Journal declared that Troublemakers "takes its place among the great art documentaries of the past half century." His third feature, Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco will release in 2017. A curator and art historian, Crump is also the author or co-author of numerous books and has published widely in the fields of modern and contemporary art.
