James Whitney (December 27, 1921 – April 8, 1982), younger brother of John, was a filmmaker regarded as one of the great masters of abstract cinema. Several of his films are classics in the genre of visual music.

James Whitney was born December 27, 1921, in Pasadena, California, and lived all his life in the Los Angeles area. He studied painting, and traveled in England before the outbreak of World War II. In 1940, he returned to Pasadena.

James completed a number of short films over four decades, two of which required at least five years of work. James collaborated with his brother John for some of his early film work.

The first of the brothers' films was Twenty-Four Variations on an Original Theme. Its structure was influenced by Schoenberg's serial principles.

James spent 3 years working on Variations on a Circle (1942), which lasts some 20 minutes, and was made with 8mm film.

James and John created their series of Five Film Exercises (John #1 and #5; James #2, #3 and #4) between 1943 and 1944, for which the brothers won a prize for best sound at the 1949 Brussels Experimental Film Competition.

In 1946, the brothers travelled to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to show their films at the first of ten annual "Art in Cinema" festivals, organized by Frank Stauffacher.

Following this period, James became more involved in spiritual interests such as Jungian psychology, alchemy, yoga, Tao, and Jiddu Krishnamurti. These interests heavily influenced his later work. James was a potter and ceramicist, interested in raku ware, and examples of his pottery still exist today.