My name is Joe Bowden, I am an mixed race Japanese, Korean, and white filmmaker based in Portland Oregon. I work as a writer/director, gaffer, director of Photography, and art director (production designer). Most of what I write and direct is comedy, but I have a passion for drama and my on-set work not as a director are often dramatic projects with dark societal themes. In February of 2020 I was the production designer for a surreal short film about domestic violence directed by John Bergstom who is an Asian American filmmaker and producer. In the summer of 2019 I was the gaffer on a short film set in the 1990’s that explores radicalization toward far right and white supremacy among rural whites, Directed by Mila Zuo who is an Asian American professor of film formerly at Oregon State university, before moving to teach in Vancouver BC. Prior to that, I was the gaffer for a film that premiered at the Portland International Film Festival called Borrufa, which is a hispanic immigrant story told in Spanish and Directed by Roland Dawhen Wu, a mixed race Chinese American filmmaker. In December of 2019 we filmed a comedy that I wrote and Directed called Two Detectives, which has yet to be released. I also own an film studio called Desert Island Studios which is founded by my self and by my partner Ashley Mellinger an actor and producer who is a mixed race Korean and sits on the Oregon Media Production Association diversity council. Ashley produces most of my directorial work and we have a fierce commitment to diversity and inclusion on our sets and in our casts.
I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska making films on a Sony Handicam in the 1990's.