The Filmmaker's Journey
John Carstarphen's journey as a filmmaker began when he made Super 8 movies as a kid growing up in Philadelphia. With the help of mentors in local television, he soon moved into learning cinematography and editing on a professional level for the ABC television affiliate WPVI, while studying filmmaking at Temple University. At 20, he became one of the youngest black card-carrying union cinematographers in the nation, working his way through various television stations as a news and documentary photographer/editor. After moving to Texas, though he continued moving up through the ranks to become a television Producer-Director, he yearned to make his own productions. His first scripted drama, a pilot for PBS called Prairie Child, was produced at Texas A&M University and won him a place as a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute in Hollywood. After moving back to Texas, he began writing and directing his scripts in earnest, winning a Paul Robeson Award for his first feature, The Weekend of Our Discontent starring Summer Selby. One of his early features, FLMKR, a film industry satire, was an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival. As he wrote and produced a number of original works in Dallas, he taught Cinema and Screenwriting at SMU, became the Filmmaker-of-Record for Sam's Club and directed dozens of Fortune 1000 commercials and business videos. Along the way, he also met his wife Susan, a Korean-American artist who shares his love of cinema and art.
