Biography

Joe Bowden is a mixed-race Japanese and Korean writer, director, and cinematographer. Born in Denver, Colorado and raised in Anchorage, Alaska he started making films as a teenager in the late 1990's on a Sony Handicam he'd used to make skateboarding videos. After dropping out of high school and losing his father in 1999 he moved to Portland, Oregon to pursue film and music co-founding record label Bladen County Records in 2007 and playing in various bands. In 2016 he founded Desert Island Studios a production company dedicated to creating entertaining and challenging films with equity and inclusion at the heart of the process. In 2020 he directed and was the cinematographer of the award winning short film Private Chat starring Ashley Song. In 2021 he wrote and directed Two Detectives, a short film starring frequent collaborator and avant-garde filmmaker Noel David Taylor that premiered at the Austin Comedy Film Festival and was a Finalist for Best Director at the Portland Comedy Film Festival. In 2021 he was the cinematographer of the feature film Song of Summer directed by Kelly Godell. In 2022 he wrote, directed, and was the Director of Photography for Planet #5, a sci-fi short/music video that won the award for best music video at Oregon Short Film Festival. Later that year he was the cinematographer for Color Theories Directed by Devin Febbroriello, which has screened at BUFF Malmo, FilmFort, Local Sightings Film Festival in Seattle, and Portland Film Festival. In 2023 he was the cinematographer for At Skyview Enterprises a short Sci-fi thriller produced by Portland's Catalyst Film Collective, which premiered at Screamfest LA. In the summer of 2024 he was shooting and directing a romantic comedy sci-fi short called Empano Gleasium, which stars Ashley Song, Noel Taylor, and Treasure Lunan.
- IMDb mini biography by: Joe Bowden