Tukuleur is an attempt to give form to the experience of being of mixed ethnicities in the western world and to shape this experience into image. By weaving together my personal experiences, conversations and intake of black media texts, I was able to develop ideas that were brought to life in close collaboration with dancer/performer Stanley Ollivier. The two of us explored ways of presenting, representing and interpreting oneself/ourselves to the outside world. The interaction between the societal gaze and the internal gaze became a central theme. Playing with these gazes and how they influence not only the body in space, but also the body on screen - consciously and subconsciously. The way bodies and their status are shown throughout images, both in art-history and pop-culture, became a source we could appropriate. A reservoir of poses, gestures and image traditions that we implemented and turned into a confrontational audiovisual choreography of our own. Samuel Fosso, Louis XIV, Henry the Eight, Robert Mapplethorpe and many more fused together into scenes, attempting to touch on our collective image-bank. Precise posing, combined with hairstyles, slight clothing changes and skin color shifts try to address these gazes, while keeping the character ungraspable. 

Meanwhile, through conversation with cinematographer Thomas Verijke, we were able to find a visual language that balanced between a theatrical and cinema language. Engaging with early forms of cinema, while recalling the stage through decor and static camerawork. Making the film relate to an image history that drives cinema to this day.