Biography

Josef Bates is a young passionate cinephile and filmmaker with a love for an ''out-of-the-box' style of filmmaking. His cinema-obsessed father was the driving force behind Joe's 80's classic obsession, much to his mother's dismay Joe was that eight-year-old child always in trouble for quoting 'Top Gun', 'Aliens' and 'Terminator' at school.

Josef spent a year out of school after being diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome in his teens, in a way it was a godsend as he could watch films all day and he started to make his own stop-motion animation films with his action figure collection.

Josef went on to study Directing Screen Fiction at Royal Holloway University of London where he made several films which he believes should 'never-see-the-light-of-day', however, he learned how to enthuse and motivate his crew and actors to create their best work on a fun-loving set.

Upon leaving university Josef landed his first job on a Marvel Studios feature where he found himself most comfortable chatting about comics and film with the writer and director, it was the perfect environment to bounce his own film ideas off established filmmakers.

Josef progressed into advertising film production and learned to write treatments and pitches with many talented directors. He worked on campaigns for clients such as 'Lidl', 'Philadelphia', 'FA' and 'BT' - Josef's key skill when writing these treatments is being able to pull film images and references from his extensive internal film library. If you need an image of a man in his twenties walking down the street in a raincoat smoking a cigarette, Josef would instantly have five options to hand.

Working for other directors encouraged Josef to pursue his own directing career by writing and directing a short film titled 'Meat', a story that will excite, repulse and leave you hungry for more. 'Meat' visits a young man unable to connect with his vegan parents who is forced to hide his carnivorous nature. He decides to succumb to his desires, yet without any meat to hand he resorts to eating his own arm to the beat of his favourite track. Think 'Baby Driver' meets 'Raw' and you've got 'Meat'. 'Meat' will premiere at Molins Horror Film Festival in Barcelona November 2018.

Over the years, Josef's had the desire to make a film that demonstrated his experience with Tourette's. Since his diagnosis, Josef learned that the best way to cope with the condition was with humour and creativity. After some time of assessing how to use his filmmaking style to demonstrate his experience with the disorder, he eventually wrote the film 'Tic', a black comedy that depicts the absurdity and awkwardness of living with Tourette's with an ending that will leave you speechless. Josef hopes to combat the stigma of Tourette's and alter the perception of one of the world's most commonly misunderstood disorders."
- IMDb mini biography by: Josef Bates