Carrie Stett has joined Raucous Content’s directorial roster for commercials and branded content worldwide.
The director-writer has helmed projects for Disney/ABC, Nickelodeon, Univision, Tennis Channel, Facebook, and YouTube, and her work spans such brands as Toyota, Maybelline, Burger King, Walmart, Michaels and Walgreens. She recently wrapped the Maxwell House reveal film “Invisible Labor,” featuring real people, paying tribute to the unseen work that all mothers do.
Prior to landing at Raucous, Stett had been handled by Washington Square Films. Among her initial career accomplishments was earning inclusion into SHOOT’s 2017 New Directors Showcase on the strength of the heartwarming “A Caring Chorus,” a piece of branded content for Kleenex. Her brand films such as “Unlikely Best Friends” are part of the larger Kleenex Cares/kindness is contagious campaign, helping to deliver more than 500 million organic views, garnering an ANA Multicultural Award, a Silver Effie and a place on the Cannes Lions shortlist. The “Unlikely Best Friends” viral video proved inspirational to Stett who appreciated the interactive aspects and saw it as a template for collaboration, connection and the power of story. Though her visual style evolves to meet the demands of any given project, Stett holds a few tenets fundamental: listening to others, crafting with empathy in mind, and honing the narrative, whether cinematic documentary or scripted, with conviction and honesty.
Stett said she was drawn to Raucous by its reputation and her affinity for company partner/EP Phyllis Koenig.
In turn, Koenig commented, “My partner Steve (EP/partner Wi) and I feel we can greatly enhance Carrie’s opportunities with the client relationships we share and invite the world to see through her unique and empathetic vision.”
Stett is a two-time Austin Film Festival screenplay semifinalist and she’s currently developing several feature-length projects while also shooting a timely film on equality in women’s athletics, drawing from her own sports background.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this โ and those many "Babadook" memes โ unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables โ "Bah-Bah-Doooook" โ an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More