We had the good fortune of connecting with Joseph Bartone and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joseph, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I met my first best friend, Todd Benson, in kindergarten. I was struggling with drawing a window. He showed me to first make a box, then add a cross in the center and that makes all four panes at once. I was stupefied. He went on to be a celebrated painter. But as fate would have it, he fell from his 6th floor warehouse studio in a tragic accident and perished at 28. I was an electronic guitarist at that time, very much interested in sonics. His death taught me that life is unbearably short, and I should spend it making art. Not waiting till I can afford to live the life I always wanted.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I was a composer for many years. I wrote and performed music for Brown University Ashamu Dance Theater, Smith College, UMass Amherst, and Hampshire College. I was also involved in the Dada revival in Providence, RI, and often played in reggae bands. But I was most known as the leader of the indie pop group Fat Buddha and later on for the jazz quartet Thelonious Dub, which released two records for an imprint of SubPop. In my 40s I felt music no longer contained all I was as an artist, and I left music to work on film sets and study how that was done. Eight years into production sound and post audio for film, I decided to direct my first short.

I didn’t know how to write a script, but I knew how to be truthful. So I wrote a short and it went on to win a couple dozen awards. Turns out all those years of writing lyrics, I learned how to write dialog. All those years of writing music – that is the camera.

By the time I finished my third short, I was ready, and at 55 I made my first feature film that took 16 top honors at small festivals around the US and Europe, including the Paris Independent Film Festival. So if you are older, do not believe you are fading away. That is just some crap your friends say because they are scared of growing older. Lean into your age. Use it to your advantage. Make people listen to you.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
El Matador is an essential energy in SoCal. It’s in Malibu and it’s still cheap to park there. In Burbank, Stough Canyon. Some of those trails go 30 miles and it’s the Verdugo Mountains. Absolutely lovely. The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino have some of the rarest plants in the world and a delightful Asian tea room. And Dim-Sum in Chinatown on a Sunday morning is well worth it. But of all the places, I would say Disneyland and not for the reasons you think. Disneyland first opened in 1955. It was hand fashioned by some of the greatest craftsmen that lived in that time. The care and design. The wood shaping. It’s breathtaking. The park is nearly 70 years old and is itself a museum of how parks were made by hand a long time ago. So when you get bored waiting in line, look at the wooden banister you have your hand on and think about how much care went into shaping that by hand in 1955.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Heidi Behrendt. Former Director of Licensing for Warner Bros. video game division, who is also my wife. I have always been an artist on my own. She is convinced what I have to offer the world is important enough for her to sacrifice her comforts to afford my pursuits. It’s a gift I can never repay. Even my parents were never as generous.

Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2416624/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/small_factory_films/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-bartone-2b40ba4/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joebartone

Other: https://smallfactoryfilms.com/

Image Credits
Pic of Joe Bartone by Josef Rubinstein. Stills from feature film Everything Will Be Fine In The End by Jose Zambrano Cassella

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.