James Longley was born in Oregon in 1972. He studied film at the University of Rochester and Wesleyan University in the United States, and the All-Russian Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. His student documentary, Portrait of Boy with Dog, about a boy in a Moscow orphanage, was awarded the Student Academy Award in 1994 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

After working as a film projectionist in Washington State, an English language teacher in Siberia, a newspaper copy editor in Moscow, and a web designer in New York City, James traveled to Palestine in 2001 to make his first feature documentary, Gaza Strip.  The film, which takes an intimate look at the lives and views of ordinary Palestinians in Israeli-occupied Gaza, screened to critical acclaim at a number of international film festivals and in several U.S. theaters.

In 2002, James traveled to Iraq to begin pre-production work on his second documentary feature, Iraq in Fragments. The film was released in 2006 to critical acclaim and received many awards including an Academy Award® nomination for 2007 Best documentary feature. He is currently working on his next undisclosed project.