Joe Forte is a multi-disciplinary artist whose primary focus is visual storytelling across the media of filmmaking and painting. A major theme of his work is male powerlessness and identity. As a filmmaker, Forte is best known as the creator and writer of Firewall, the 2006 thriller starring Harrison Ford. As a painter, he is known for his solo shows Wonder (2008) at Bergamot Station’s James Grey Gallery and Opening Day (2007) at the Regent Gallery in LA’s downtown Art District. Based on baseball cards from childhood, Wonder and Opening Day explore iconic male archetypes through pop art imagery.

A graduate of Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, Forte began his career at Scali, McCabe, Sloves in New York. While a copywriter at Scali he created advertising for Nikon and Volvo, was nominated for a Cleo and began to explore concepts of storytelling and culture. After a three-year stint, Forte left advertising and moved to Los Angeles where he began his career as a writer with the sale of Soviet Cowboy to Jodie Foster and her nascent film company Egg Pictures. He went on to sell specs or write scripts in both film and TV for Paramount, Warner Brothers, Fox, New Line and others. A father, husband and mentor, he is also an avid photographer and baseball coach. Storyteller, The Wonderful, Magical Life of the Man Who Saved Ben Hur is Forte’s first documentary, first film as a director and comprises all the themes that he loves.