Anike Tourse is an actress, filmmaker and social artist creating live performance and film to advocate for social justice. She collaborates with historically marginalized communities and activists, creating emotionally resonant, character-driven stories that are inspired by real world histories and personal testimonies.
Anike says; “I went looking for a company that was pairing high artistic integrity and high production value with a mission of raising social awareness for their audiences. I also wanted to find opportunities for mixed, international and BIPOC artists, community members and activists to collaborate and work. I never found a collective quite like this so in the spirit of writer Toni Morrison’s words; ‘if you find a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it;’ Mixed Operations, the company, was born.”
Our docudrama films “America’s Family” and “America; I Too” are amalgamations of real stories as shared with us by immigrants, first generation Americans and deportees. They are acts of Resistance performed by undocumented and documented artists in the gritty migrant city Tijuana, the stunning coastal municipality Cacalote in Oaxaca and the culturally diverse Los Angeles. Our film in development “Skwemeku and the Salmon Shoal” features another migrating character and relative of the Penobscot people; an Atlantic salmon in Maine. This animated film displays Wabanaki Artwork and classic watercolor 2D animation, exploring notions of endurance, grief and cultural and ecological resilience. The scenes of community marching in the former films are similar in spirit to those of the salmon swimming upstream on an odyssey to the ocean.
Our creative process is based on ethnographic research; including one on one interviews, and we often live in the communities we portray while making the films. In production community members bring an earnestness to the expression of their lived experience. The professionals learn that the art only works if it reflects the specificity and vulnerability of their community counterparts. Activists come to understand that advocacy does not exist without emotional connection. Our collaborations create and perform work that not only spotlights often overlooked realities, but that, also, invites audiences into meaningful engagement—sparking conversation, deepening empathy, and opening pathways toward social awareness and making authentic change.
mixedoperations.com 