Visual Artist and Filmmaker Stella Scott
She makes work that lives somewhere between reality and make-believe — and the feeling it leaves behind is undeniable.
I met Stella Scott in Cambodia — on location, in action, completely in her element. Central Saint Martins. BBC Film. The Spice World Tour. She centres emotional realism in everything she makes, drawing out performances that feel discovered rather than directed. This is her story.
There are filmmakers who make films, and then there are filmmakers who make you feel something you can't quite name. Stella Scott is the second kind.
I had the great pleasure of meeting Stella in Cambodia, where she was shooting and directing a film for Aziza's Place — and watching her work was a masterclass in quiet authority. She is as impressive as a human being as she is as a creative, and that is saying something. Central Saint Martins trained, she began her career not in a film school but as a youth worker at Kids Company, where she discovered what cinema could actually do when put in the hands of teenagers who had something to say.
Since then: a Vimeo Staff Pick for her debut, an encore film for the Spice World Tour that received one of the biggest cheers of the night, a BBC Film short, iFeatures 2019, and an ever-expanding list of collaborators — Zoë Kravitz, Naomi Campbell, Florence Pugh, Rita Ora, Bobby Gillespie, Loyle Carner, Jeremy O'Harris. The work is always atmospherically rich, emotionally specific, and felt rather than constructed.
"I love films with rhythm — the kind of tempo that pulls you in just like a song and makes you blissfully unaware of everything else."
Stella Scott
Music is at the centre of how she thinks about filmmaking. "I love listening to music more than anything," she says. "For a long time I wished I was musical but I'm hopeless. In a way it's a blessing — it means I just enjoy it without question or thought because I haven't the first clue as to how it is made." That not-knowing is generative. The same instinct applies to film: she makes work by feel, by rhythm, by the thing you can't fully explain.
It began not with ambition but with necessity. Working as a youth worker, she needed a storytelling medium that teenagers would enjoy. "I made my first documentaries with groups of young people and enjoyed the immediacy of it as much as they did. I was hooked." The films came first. The career followed. That order matters.
The encore film she directed was reported in the press to have "received one of the biggest cheers of the night." Some films do their work in silence. Others fill an arena.
I tried to explain that I only ever wanted the film to be about someone's unique way of looking at the world — that we all see things differently.
Stella Scott — on Street Angel, after the Vimeo Staff Pick
"A small charity that operates
like a family."
Aziza's Place is a learning centre in Phnom Penh that helps transform the lives of the most underprivileged children of the city. "The kids there act like brothers and sisters to one another and are especially welcoming and humbling on any occasion," Stella says. She was lucky enough to document all the good work they do in a short film — Aziza's Place: Inspiring Aspirations. It is where I had the honour of watching her work.
We have been a part of this change — using social media to expose the works of some of the most inspiring artists in the world and putting you, the reader, in touch with them directly. There is no need for only a few people in a flawed system to dictate what artists can and cannot be exposed to. Today it is more important than ever to preserve the artist's perspective. Because artists are. ✦
My career has never moved in a straight line, and that has always been the point. It began in fashion with a formative chapter at Vogue Italia, followed by an unlikely detour into finance. From there, film, PR, events and production. A role as Director at Wilhelmina Models in Dubai sharpened an eye already trained on people worth watching. Then came the years that shaped the platform: writing, editing, producing photo shoots, a short-lived photobooth business, lots of yoga and eventually Madrid, where the light is just right. Currently in the States in a new and exciting field — digital marketing for higher ed — but this remains my passion project. What started as a hobby back in 2003 evolved into Antakly Projects, leading to some exciting conversations, projects, and lots of joy. Throughout all of it, my best friend, one small white Shih-poo called Coco, has been present, unimpressed, and very fluffy.
