Carman Spoto

Carman will write and direct a feature-length film, What Color is Blue, about the internal impotence that queer and trans youth feel while facing the people, politicians, and organizations that do not want them to exist. The film will follow Alexandra, a young black trans woman, and her partner Lulu, a non-binary femme. As they go to political organizing meetings, visit prisons, perform at DIY art spaces, and eat pizza by the river, they wonder about the meaning of life and what they should be doing to protect their lives and those of their friends. Carman aims to hire queer and trans people and people of color for the cast and production crew. 

Carman Spoto (ACG ’17, ’15) has the opportunity to utilize camera and lighting equipment donated by a vendor to shoot her feature film What Color Is Blue this August, which centers on the life of a black transgender woman in West Philly. These funds will allow Carman to purchase the required production insurance in order to use the equipment, which will increase the production value of the film as well as its chances of being shown in festivals, picked up by a distribution company, and seen worldwide.

Carman will create The Philadelphia Radical Film Collective (PRFC), an organization that seeks to use filmmaking as praxis to fight oppression and mainstream media narratives. Striving to create film that is by and for women, people of color, and queer communities, PRFC will offer free screenings and filmmaking workshops. In addition, PRFC plans to create a Cop Watch program in Philadelphia to help fight back against police brutality and misconduct by filming police to capture evidence and as an act of de-escalation. Racial justice is of utmost importance to Carman’s project and her goal is to use film both artistically and politically to socially disempower the current criminal justice system and educate people of the injustice committed against communities of color.