Edward Joshua Welsh-President of Film Independent-11/19/62-12/31/24
Edward Joshua Welsh- or “Josh” Welsh as he was known to his family and friends- is in many ways impossible to describe, but if one were to attempt the impossible, they might say he was “the most enthusiastic connoisseur of existential doom” they have ever met. They might say he was a passionate champion of independent films, accomplished alt-country musician, self-taught kitchen magician, exuberant ham, doting dog walker, not to mention loving husband, father, brother, uncle, and friend. They would likely say he was an incredibly bright, funny, warm, thoughtful, charismatic, incredibly humble man who devoted the entirety of his immense heart and spirit to his love of pondering, people, and the arts.
Josh Welsh passed away peacefully in his Glendale home on New Years Eve, 2024, in the company of his wife, Bonnie Gavel, and daughter, Isla Welsh. He was 62. Over the past five years, Josh battled cancer with the grace and discipline of a dancer. In the face of frightening uncertainty, he remained calm and optimistic. There were always new treatments, one after the next. Some were rougher than others. Welsh refused to be slowed down. His eyes always shone. He baffled his medical staff by the manner in which every finish line they drew was more in sand than concrete- he kept beating the odds, kept reaching the next landmark. Cancer fought Josh, not the other way around. He continued his work as President of Film Independent up until the day he died, never allowing his passion to falter. His humor—playfully bleak long before the cancer—was always present. Even at the end, Josh approached the uncertainty with an almost studious curiosity to the utmost form of personal devastation. He looked ahead towards the terrifying unknown with eyes wide open- adopting a stance of bewilderingly brave vulnerability and authenticity. His primary concern about the afterlife, second only to whether or not it exists, was “will there be music?”
If Josh was at ease in the rambunctious noise of the creative process, it might be because he grew up in a loud Irish Catholic family in the suburbs of Washington D.C. He was welcomed to the world on 11/19/1962 at Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington D.C., the last of 9 highly creative children (of varying temperaments and dispositions towards making trouble) born to Philip and Marylin Welsh. Welsh’s mother, Marilyn Kirby Welsh, was fierce and formidable, a combination of joy and rage. His father, Philip Flahavin Welsh—reserved and distant, but quietly just as definite—worked as an attorney for the Association of American Railroads. Among the brothers and sisters there was much mayhem, fighting and love. As the baby, Josh was offered a less complicated form of love from the family- a rare warmth he was able to stoke by being naturally hilarious, with an insatiable appetite for the limelight. He and his sister Liz staged what was known as “The Eddy and Betty Show.” He was known to delay his older brothers and their friends from their weekend plans with solo improvisational performances- not that they minded the front row seats. When Steve Martin released his “Wild and Crazy Guy” comedy album, Josh had it memorized in no time flat. His performance, objectively speaking, was much funnier than Martin’s. “Josh had me in stitches; I could not stand,” recalled one family friend. “The loss of anyone so insanely creative is a loss to the entire world in such dire need of even a drop of more pure humor.”
Josh took up the guitar when he was a teenager and began an ongoing back and forth with his oldest brother and gifted poet, Philip, Jr., who would send Josh poems with the attached brotherly challenge of “I bet you can’t turn THIS one into a song.” Josh always did, and this ongoing battle of pen and guitar would later evolve into Meatyard, an alt-country musical powerhouse. Meatyard featured a wide variety of band members over the years, but at its core was Josh, Philip (even posthumously), and his nephew Rupert Sandes. Meatyard specialized in meandering melancholic meditations on death, longing, and itches that couldn’t be scratched. Josh could make you cry, but he could also growl, howl, and slash with genuine punk and rockabilly abandon, laughing all the while at the wonderful, ridiculous audacity of it.
Josh was spared the straitjacket of a Catholic School education of his siblings. In adult life, he would ultimately veer away from his Catholic upbringing—much to his father’s dismay–but would retain a quasi-eucharistic enthusiasm for donuts, which the Welsh family feasted upon—en masse after Sunday mass. Despite his misgivings about Catholicism, Josh was inherently if skeptically spiritual.
In 1980, Josh enrolled at Kenyon College in Ohio, where he met his first wife, Jenny Siegenthaler. He played gigs at a place called Pirate’s Cove. It was, according to one lifelong friend, “musical mayhem” – rough around the edges and full of drive. Despite his punkish inclinations, Josh was much moved by the slithery velvet of Al Green’s voice and the syncopated minimalism of his arrangements. For two years, Josh worked as the record buyer for the Kenyon Bookstore. During his regime, Rolling Stone Magazine named the bookstore the best college bookstore in the country, an honor largely credited to their record collection.
Josh’s defining characteristic of being an “avid ponderer” carried him through completing his PhD in philosophy from Johns Hopkins in 1994. Despite his love of pondering, Josh had second thoughts about the academic life almost immediately. Once he got his PhD, he liked to joke, he’d become a truck driver. Misgivings aside, Josh completed his education with a PhD and received special recognition for the defense of his dissertation. Josh accepted a temporary teaching position at Swarthmore and started taking acting classes after finishing his degree. After a year of teaching, Josh moved to Los Angeles, CA, to pursue a career in film. While driving from the East Coast to Los Angeles, he recounted, he never once thought about philosophy.
Upon moving to Los Angeles, Josh signed up for more acting classes. He hit the audition circuit, and landed a few roles in films that, for better or for worse, did not make their mark on the silver screen. In 1996, Josh signed up as a volunteer for IFC West, one of the precursors to what later became Film Independent- a non-profit that aims to make film making accessible to those with passion and talent, regardless of social barriers or nepotistic disadvantage. Josh found a very natural place within the organization- he resonated with their cause and his natural abilities served as a highly effective catalyst for their mission. He would serve as President of film independent for 12 years after 18 years in various leadership positions. As president of Film Independent, Josh functioned as incubator-in-chief for successive waves of eager new storytellers, helping to forge a path forward for so many aspiring filmmakers who might otherwise have been left at a dead end. For Josh the story was second only to the storyteller, to the extent they were differentiable at all. It was his mission to provide emerging artists with the skills needed—in screenwriting, directing, acting, and producing–to get their stories out there.
Josh’s singular genius, however, was getting people to believe they had stories to tell, and that they were the ones to tell them. He didn’t give rah-rah speeches; he didn’t bang tables. Instead, he brought to bear a measured critical intelligence. But he also radiated an irrepressible excitement, his improbably bright blue eyes perpetually on the verge of astonishment. Artists and co-workers who worked with him over the years didn’t just feel seen; they were seen. He greeted Film Independent co-workers by first and last name, punctuated always with a hearty exclamation mark. He was hands on with every person at every level of the organization. Even when returning from cancer treatment, Josh would stop to talk to people on his way back to his office, offering an eager line of inquiry regarding their work and most recent projects. He was genuinely curious. Film Independent wasn’t “work” for Josh, although it was objectively hard work- it was his passion.
Just after the mass computer reset of Y2K, he would meet Bonnie Gavel, with whom he made a connection, extended an invitation to a Halloween party where he confessed to a crush on her, eventually exchanged wedding vows on Halloween 2004 in New Orleans, and welcomed a daughter, Isla June Welsh, into the world on July 4th 2006. They purchased their home in Glendale, CA, together where Josh would spend the rest of his life. Josh had always been a wonderful brother, son, and Uncle- with his wife and daughter that dedication was extended and multiplied. Josh was absolutely over the Moon with his daughter, Isla, and over the years photographed many Saturday adventures together. Another valuable quality that he brought to his family life was his rare ability to laugh at himself, as Bonnie Gavel recalls. She fondly remembers her husband as a warm, loving man who didn’t judge people on trivial matters and saw no one as less than himself despite his success. He was far more focused on drawing connections than splitting hairs, Bonnie remembers, citing a quote from Josh, sleep talking at the time: “I don’t care about differences between people.” He truly didn’t. Through good times and bad, with Josh there was always love and humor- these were nonnegotiables.
His efforts to make a career in film a reality for people who might not have an avenue towards that independently followed the pattern of his general radiance during his long career at Film Independent. As Bonnie put it, “he loved people, and he loved creativity.” In life he immersed himself in both of the above. He was loved by the people who shared his love of creativity and worked alongside him to broaden accessibility to the same. In the aftermath of his passing, he has been honored publicly and privately with those he worked with day to day because he was truly seen for who he was, what he was, and what both of those factors had to offer to aspiring filmmakers, and people, and creativity at large. Brenda Robinson, Film Independent’s acting president who has long worked and walked alongside Josh, summed it up: “Josh is a visionary of the type that comes along once in a lifetime. We want his work and impact to continue on because he is a great leader. He is a person of exceptional character. I speak about him very deliberately in the present tense, because he’s still here. He’s here. We will feel his spirit in the programs he created and the lives of filmmakers he impacted, always and in all ways. Josh is only absent in the body, but the spirit of who Josh is and what he means to this community—that is forever.” Within his professional role of occupying the spotlight well enough to offer it to others, and behind each door he helped to open for someone without a key of their own, he is indeed very much “still here.”
Josh Welsh is survived by his wife, Bonnie Gavel, his daughter, Isla June Welsh, brothers Nick and Joseph Welsh, his sisters Liz and Monica Welsh, his nieces and nephews including Rupert Sandes of Meatyard, Anna Rose, Isaac, Rachael, Bridgette, Thomas, Liam, Caela, Samuel, Lulu, and Jacob, and in-laws Amy Brodigan, Roger Sandes, Marie Smeriglio, Cindy Welsh and Scott Gavel, and Robert Heckman. He will be honored in a private ceremony on Saturday, March 22nd, 2025, followed by a reception on Sunday, March 23rd at Descanso Gardens, in Flintridge CA. He will be forever loved, forever “here” in the lives he changed and stories that accredit their utterance to him- and if whatever halls he has found access to did not have music before, we can be certain they do now.
