When you see puppets on screen, you'd normally expect them to be teaching children about letters and numbers on a street with giant birds and grouches who live in garbage cans.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
For Canberran Caroline Simone O'Brien, her films involving puppets have them taking on more adult situations and problems from everyday life.
"It takes something from being a kid, and it also takes into that child-like wonder and also being a bit naughty at the same time, and that makes it more joyful," she said.
"I just wanted to bring joy to people and puppets bring out the kid in all of us."
Her latest short film Felt Help, is set to be screened at the Hollywood International Moving Picture Film Festival later this month in Los Angeles.
The 11-minute film focuses on two puppets looking for inspiration and love, who meet in the "felt-help" section of a spiritual book store.
The film is the first one where the actress has been behind the camera, both writing and producing.
She said the idea behind the movie was stuck in her head for several months and wouldn't go away.
"I wanted to do something around kind humour, laughing but not at other people's expense. All of my humour is pun-based," she said.
"While the puppets are attached to a human, the human is just an appendage. One of the puppets in the film is attached to a good-looking actor, and people have trouble focusing on the puppet."
All of the films Ms O'Brien has produced feature her own puppet creation called Lady Puppet, which she put together after ordering it online.
"I was able to select the eyes and the colour and I tried to make it as close to looking like me as possible," she said.
Since Felt Help's release, the film has gone on to play at multiple film festivals, making the selection for the Love Film Screening in New York, and winning an award at the Los Angeles Short Film Festival.
It hasn't been the only success for the Canberran as the previous film involving puppets which she starred in, Puppet Life, also won best film at the Santa Monica International Film Festival.
"The [upcoming] film festival is the last one that Felt Help is going to be in, so it's not an Oscar qualifier, but it leads on to bigger things," Ms O'Brien said.
"Once you start collecting awards for film, they're more likely to accept films into bigger festivals like Sundance."
Post-production is under way on a sequel called Soapy Medium, which will be directed by New Zealander William Kircher, who played the dwarf Bifur in The Hobbit trilogy.
While she lives in Los Angeles, Ms O'Brien still returns to Canberra regularly, and also teaches improvisation classes to budding actors in the capital.
