ARLIN GODWIN

(Paul) Arlin Godwin is a full time filmmaker, writer, graphic designer, video editor, and electronic music artist living in Washington, DC.  

If you're looking for his short films they're here—
on the FILMS page. 

Dozens of his electronic MUSIC TRACKS are also here and available on virtually every music service worldwide.  

Arlin worked as a designer in broadcast television for more than 2 decades. But he is also a writer and a photographer and in what little spare time he has left over he's also won awards as a music artist and even more as a filmmaker. 

As a teenager, fascinated by electronics, he studied for and received his FCC broadcast license at the age of 14. 

He then landed a job in his hometown of Pensacola, Florida at an FM radio station. Soon enough, he discovered how to use the radio station’s gear to record his own tracks. This was the beginning of a serious lifelong recording obsession that continues to this day. 

"There was always music in the house when I was growing up because my Mother loved the classics. And so do I.” Arlin says. "But later I discovered The Beatles, Miles Davis, Elton John, Lindsey Buckingham, Prince, and Trent Reznor. They influenced me at least as much as those earlier guys did." 

Arlin never formally studied music, but by the age of six, he could pick out much of what he heard on the radio or tv by ear and play it back on his Mother’s upright piano. 

In 1985, he got a low-level position at a large Washington, DC production house called Atlantic Video. 

“I was a grunt. A gofer. Whatever you needed me to do, I did it. And because this was not a union shop, I could stick my nose into everything. And I did. Over time, having a background in painting as a kid, I eventually worked my way up to the position of Senior Designer.”

Arlin’s clients included ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, MTV, HBO, VH1, Comedy Central, The Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Black Entertainment Television, Ted Koppel, Diane Sawyer, Parliament-Funkadelic, Sony Records, ESPN, PBS, Showtime, and dozens of other ad agencies and entertainment companies. 

He also worked on 3 U.S. Presidential campaigns as a graphic designer on various tv commercials.

Along the way, as an Art Director, Arlin led large-scale creative projects and studio crews. Wrote, budgeted, and storyboarded video projects, print, and interactive media. Directed commercials with actors, used complex green screens & effects, and did hands-on camera, audio, and lighting work.

“During my days at Atlantic, I also moonlighted from time to time, and in 1994, I worked for disco superstar Donna Summer, editing a music video for her and her label Mercury-Polygram. The following year, I did the same for George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic.”

In 2001, while working on his first album THE SECRET LIFE OF BOYS, Arlin jumped from Atlantic Video over to WJLA ABC 7 in Washington, DC.

His first-ever live music performance was in front of 225,000 people at the 2004 DC Pride Festival.

He signed a record deal in 2000 with Ingrooves and CEO Rob McDaniels. Later, a licensing deal with SONG & FILM in Nashville in 2013. He's been nominated 22 times by the Washington Area Music Association and won twice in the Electronica category.

In the Fall of 2010, Arlin wrote, directed, edited, and scored a short film called THE MAN IN 813 which was chosen from 1,200 submissions to screen at the 2011 DC Shorts International Film Festival. It won the award for Outstanding Local Film that year.

“I couldn’t get anyone to help me with the film. Everyone said I should stick to music. I made the film alone in my apartment and then sent it to the DC Shorts Intl Film Festival and forgot about it. One day in June, I got an email saying ‘congratulations’. I ended up actually winning an award. Which was unbelievable.”

In 2024, his 4th short film VIOLENT TRUE BELIEVER, about a woman recruited by a terror group to build a weapon of mass destruction, became an official selection of the Baltimore New Media Festival as well as the Maryland International Film Festival. The film won an award and received multiple nominations at different festivals.

Arlin co-wrote, co-produced and directed a new short film in 2025.  STOP TAKING PICTURES has now screened at close to 100 international film festivals and won 17 awards.

“My entire life has been about making things. That's what I do. Cecil B. DeMille once said, ‘Creativity is a drug I cannot live without. ’ The first time I read that I knew exactly what he meant.”

Today, Arlin lives in DC about 5 blocks from the big white mansion (but so far has not attempted to borrow sugar). 

He writes and records original music in his home studio almost every day of his life and somehow still finds time to make movies and television shows. Life is good.