Rebecca Carpenter’s work life spans the visual arts, strategic communications, and social justice advocacy. A latecomer to directing and visual arts, her work primarily focuses on narratives that explore the intersection of personal experience and larger social issues. With an intense fascination with identity and belonging, she has earned a reputation for empathy, authenticity, and intellectual rigor. Her long-form directorial debut, Requiem for a Running Back, garnered critical acclaim and established her as a distinctive and powerful voice in the industry. She has been recognized in prestigious film festivals worldwide for her nuanced narratives and highly visual storytelling style.
In addition to her work as a director, Rebecca has had a notable career in communications, collaborating with creative teams for a wide range of Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits. While working with the Fingerpaint Group, Rebecca’s team earned three Clios for the highly successful “Where There’s Smoke” Public Awareness Campaign which became a media sensation, earning over a billion media imprints.
Alongside her film and communications work, Rebecca has cultivated a parallel career in the visual arts, where she explores themes of identity, culture, and human connection through wax painting, sculpture, installations, and collaborative art projects. Her passion for storytelling—whether through visual media or film—naturally extends into education, where she has dedicated herself to inspiring and empowering young learners. At Walgrove Avenue Elementary School, she was instrumental in the creation of their STEAM Studio, a unique and ever-evolving program designed to equip students with critical thinking and collaboration skills essential for today’s world. Building the hands-on learning lab from the ground up, she integrated STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) principles directly into the state-mandated curriculum on a wide variety of group projects. In collaboration with a strong parent-teacher community, her cross-disciplinary approach prioritized equitable access to the arts and left a lasting mark on the school community. She later brought this same commitment to Para Los Niños, a bilingual Title I charter school in Los Angeles, creating opportunities for self-expression and confidence- building in a resource-limited setting.
Whether through the visual abstraction of a single moment or the documentary-driven exploration of a broader cultural issue, Rebecca’s artistic work offers a multifaceted lens through which to view the world. Her own journey reflects this commitment: earning her degree at USC while raising her daughter as a single mother, pursuing a Fine Arts Certification at Otis College of Art & Design, and early in her career, coaching a women’s rowing team while completing her MFA at the University of Texas, Austin.