the backbone of our stories
At Tusko we love telling stories about underrepresented communities. We want our films to have impact, to resonate and have creative flare. Our core values are the backbone of every project we take on, whether its a stylish music video, a hard-hitting documentary or a celebration of a community’s journey.
We celebrate vision, curiosity, style, kindness and open-mindedness. These inform not only the tone and content of our films, but who we choose to work with, and the projects, ideas and values that we reflect.
These values can all be traced through our back catalogue of work - take a look through some of our favourite projects.
Our vision allows us to tell real stores in different or unexpected ways. Our documentary ‘While They Watched’ is made up of interviews, archive and observational footage and paints a frightening picture of the brutal North Korean dictatorship. Testimonies are given from the context of an imaginary future, after the collapse of the regime.
This allowed us to question the the rest of the world’s morality in not intervening. The film shows who did try to do something - and features professors of Korean history, activists, NGO leaders and defectors.
Defectors such as Yeonmi Park, now an author and activist living in the USA, who, when she was nine years old, saw her friend's mother publicly executed for watching a Hollywood film. The intensity of her and others’ stories inspired our vision to remind the world of the power of hindsight - in real time.
As film-makers, working with technology is part and parcel of our day job. We’re always curious about the latest advancements, and were pleased to have the opportunity to play with some of the latest virtual reality technology on the market, including Ultrahaptics innovative software. By using ultrasound waves, they create 3D mid-air sensations that can be felt, but not seen. And it feels like the future.
By applying this technology to the structure of dials, screens and interfaces, Ultrahaptics’ work could provide a revolutionary benefit to a variety of industries. As we have plenty of curiosity about the world around us, we were excited to try these groundbreaking technological developments, and will be paying close attention to what Ultrahaptics do next.
As our projects are predominantly visual, developing an awareness of style is important.
We really like the aesthetic qualities of magazines on the cutting edge of street and music culture, such as Little White Lies, Huck, and Bristol’s own Crack Magazine. With a similar approach to us, they tap into edgy communities yet in a way that is artistically appealing. We wanted to capture those experimental and innovative visual styles in our own way.
We made this music video for Russian artist GG, who makes catchy electronica with a trippy twist. In the video for ‘4 Days’ we wanted to enhance her quirky star quality, and we had so much fun filming her being compelling and creative in a paint-dabbed shaggy fur coat and bold, colourful makeup.
Kindness informs everything we do at Tusko. It’s the substance behind our style - we want to share people’s stories, so we need to be able to empathise with them. We filmed the inspirational young people at the Bristol Young Heroes Awards, and chatted to many of them, along with Bristol mayor Marvin Rees, at the Gala dinner award ceremony. The Awards, run by Community of Purpose, celebrate the achievements of people who have faced major life challenges at a young age.
We also invited Aaron from Impact Mentoring to spend a day with us in our office. Impact Mentoring offer tailored development programmes for young people, helping them to build long-term skills and confidence. Aaron joined us to talk about interview tips and we really enjoyed spending time him.
Telling people’s stories with sensitivity and compassion means we approach our projects with an open mind.
Seeing our documentary, ‘Talking LGBT+’ screened on the large, outdoor screen of Bristol’s Millenium Square at the city’s Pride celebration was a great moment for us. We worked hard to approach the subject and community with an open, and inclusive, mind. Being based in such an accepting city was an enormous benefit when it came to sharing these unique stories.
Our CEO Jake even appeared on local news with Pride organisers Daryn Carter and Cheryl Morgan to discuss the impact the film had, which we made in conjunction with Bristol media and community organisation Bristol24/7.
To us, giving back to the community around us by giving their voices a platform is important. We’re passionate about what we do and proud of the films we make.
HOW TUSKO FEELS THIS WEEK…
