Purcell Carson

Purcell Carson is a documentary filmmaker and editor based in New York.  She’s served as a lead creative partner on long-form documentaries, including the Oscar-winning “Smile Pinki” and the 2011 “Semper Fi: Always Faithful,” which won best-editing from the Tribeca Film Festival. This fall, she is editing a feature-length portrait of Syrian parents who are struggling to protect families torn apart by war.  At Princeton, Carson is project director of a multi-year community-based documentary project, “The Trenton Project,” in which students explore the rich fabric — and pressing issues — of the city.  As part of that work, Purcell is finishing her own film about Harlan Bruce Joseph, who died in Trenton in 1968 at the hands of a police officer. Her film is about race, youth and civic engagement in the city.  She will spend the next three years documenting migration and some of Trenton’s newest residents, specifically those from Salcajá, Guatemala. Carson has been awarded a Fulbright to Guatemala for 2019-20 where she will be researching her own film on this topic. She is a graduate of Brown and Stanford.