Director Josh Soskin grew up in a small Central California surf town. He began his career in the documentary world, producing and directing hundreds of short docs for Current TV; among them “Modern Day Pirates,” which won him national attention. Vanguard called it one of “50 documentaries to see before you die.” In 2007 he left Current TV to travel around the world and made Spain home base, where he co-founded Houseblend Media. Josh continued directing, moving into the narrative realm with commercials, films and TV, and is also an avid and published photographer. He is signed with CAA for telivision and features and joined Station Film for commercial directing in 2012.Josh is a fast ascendant talent in commercials, most recently directing a Microsoft Ofiice spot with Omelet and before that a Ford campaign for Team Detroit. One spot, “Empowered,” is a cinematic document of a family’s cathartic journey across a stretch of desert, made seamless by innovative technology such as Ford’s Sync Entertainment feature. He’s done numerous spots and mini docs for Starbucks. His web commercial “Journey,” for Starbucks, became one of the brand’s most viewed site films ever. And he most recently shot another film for Starbucks and Evolution Fresh. It follows a female surfer to a sunset surf session and is paralleled by the journey of green vegetables from farm to Evolution Fresh bottle. Josh shot on Super 16mm to convey the warm, nostalgic look of the California surf and farmland.Josh’s early spec spots caught the attention of advertising brass. “Detention” took the Grand Prize for Microsoft’s competition at Tribeca Film Festival. “Treasure” took Grand Prize for Vitamin Water’s competition at Cannes International Festival of Creativity, and his spot “Zombie Ride” won Grand Prize at a Chevy Volt content competition held in Barcelona; it was picked up by Chevy shortly thereafter for broadcast throughout Europe.Josh has directed several short films, the latest called La Carnada which premiered to rave reviews this spring at Tribeca Film Festival and was awarded “Best of Fest” at Palm Springs International. La Carnada follows a 13 year old on his first smuggle, a treacherous walk across an infamous stretch of desert in Mexico and Arizona called Devil’s Highway. Another short is Moving Takahashi (2011), selected for several festivals worldwide including the Santa Barbara Film Festival, curated by tastemaker Short of the Week, and named by Vimeo as one of the best 12 films of 2012. He currently resides in Venice, California.