Joel Sandvos

A director, cinematographer and editor known for storytelling with a focus on social justice and human rights. The Pink Room (2011), was his directorial debut and jump-started his career and passion for creating films that matter. Joel's talent behind a camera and ability to cut a compelling story together became evident when The Pink Room garnered over a dozen film festival awards and a regional Emmy in California in 2014. Since then, Joel's film projects have spanned the globe, from documenting tribal superstitious killings in Ethiopia, to filming a television series that deals with the rehabilitation of inmates inside San Quentin State Prison. His most recent and highly anticipated film, Tending Clouds (2020), was finished in 2020. In 1982, Joel was born as the youngest of three boys in Carson City, Nevada. Soon after his birth, his family moved to Lake Tahoe, California and when he was five years old, they relocated to the Sierra Nevada foothills where he grew up. From an early age, Joel was drawn to filmmaking, creating funny commercials and short films with his friends, using his parents' video camera. After high school, he worked on various music projects instead of attending college and met his wife, Adrienne in 2004 while playing drums in a touring band. It wasn't until after they were married in 2005 that Joel decided to move into the realm of filmmaking. After years of working in various jobs, including construction and welding, Joel began learning professional editing programs by night and saved up for his own camera equipment before starting his own production company as a camera operator and editor. In 2010, he began his filmmaking career with his first solo project, The Pink Room. Even though he has been occupied with several intense projects, Joel has implied that after Tending Clouds, his next film will be a comedy. Joel and his wife Adrienne, a New York Times Bestselling novelist, have four children.