Meet Josey Cuthrell-Tuttleman | Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Josey Cuthrell-Tuttleman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Josey, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
Empathy, “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another,” is one of the driving forces in both my work and approach to working with others. As an aspiring filmmaker and choreographer, my interest is to use film and television to explore the nuances of identity and cultivate connections between my characters and the audience. I want to bring stories into the mainstream narrative that center on the joys and struggles of diverse characters. As a New Yorker adopted from China, my multifaceted and multiracial home life sensitized me to the lives and rights of people whose complexities are often overlooked. I have seldom, if ever, seen characters like myself portrayed on screen––and I am going to change that.

I am most drawn to stories with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion. As a Chinese-American woman, I am well aware of the racism and sexism prevalent in the entertainment industry and the world at large. During the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, my sister and I were at an airport when a woman abruptly moved away from us and told us to get away. My parents were afraid for my sister and me to ride the subway or be in non-Asian-dominated areas. But, we shook off these experiences by understanding that when people are afraid, they often look for someone to target and blame, and unfortunately, being a person of color can make you an easy scapegoat. When I was growing up, kids called me nicknames, twisted my name around, and pulled on their eyes to slant them. These kids also didn’t understand my adoption and would question me whenever the topic of family history came up. While these experiences were confusing and sometimes hurtful, they also deepened and strengthened me. I developed an early sense of who I am and learned how other people’s projections were their own and had nothing to do with me. These experiences taught me to navigate tricky situations with humor and confidence, to keep my focus, and just keep going.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Through the Movement in Motion (MNM) Collective, we have helped produce or promote 8 projects after only a year of its inception. Though we work with little to no budget, it has been an absolute joy working with other creatives to help mold their visions into reality.

Just this past summer, I was the producer of a Black Western dance video titled “Wine West,” which centers on three Black heroines and a Taiwanese cowboy in the Old West as told through Black dance and movement. The film is an exploration of POC inclusion in Westerns, the centering of Black women as heroines, the lifting up of Black dance practices, and the inclusion of diversity in a historically whitewashed genre. More recently, I wrote and directed a short narrative film that told the story of a Vietnamese deaf dancer and sought to highlight the darker undertones of the dance world and themes of belonging, identity, and self-acceptance. I am currently producing a three-part music video series titled “Is It Mine?” for a Thornton Music Composition major at USC, which implements the utilization of dance movement and projection mapping.

I am most proud of the community that I’ve fostered through co-creating MNM. I feel it is a testament to everything I stand for and hope to continue to build. We are independent thinkers, free movers, and want to explore the liberation of creativity through unconventional means. With an emphasis on diversity and inclusion, it’s been a pleasure to witness the growth of our community. I’ve learned that what matters is not how you identify, nor what your background is, but your passion, drive, and willingness to support one another. I enjoy nothing more than bringing film and dance together to tell stories in unsuspecting, and hopefully, moving ways.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Favorite spots in Los Angeles would have to be Viet Noodle Bar in Atwater and then Proof Bakery which is just across the street. A great place to grab lunch and then a pick me up coffee and pastry for your way home.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would love to shout out my co-director, Arjun Kochhar, of the organization we founded, the Movement in Motion (MNM) Collective. MNM is a space for interdisciplinary collaboration between dancers, filmmakers, musicians, and other creatives whose mission is to foster a community of artists passionate about making nuanced and innovative work that sets people’s brains and bodies in motion.

Website: https://www.joseycuthrell-tuttleman.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joseytiger/

Other: https://www.instagram.com/mnm_collective/

Image Credits
Summer Vu, Arjun Kochhar, Sam Amey, Alana Bright, Ariel Davis, Jori Williams