Bringing Insights to Life With You

Third Kulture Media is a strategic storytelling firm.

Spinning off the concept of a third culture kid, we believe that no matter where you are from or how you identify, stories can change minds, bridge ideas and make an impact. 

At Third Kulture Media we combine social science research methods with media production services to tell stories with you. We do this by working with you on research methods so that we can collect video and audio content seamlessly, and craft it into a storytelling format that best serves your needs.

From a punchy video series to accompany presentations, to explainer videos for marketing, to a powerful short documentary revealing the nuances of a user’s journey in real life – we bring a plethora of storytelling formats to the table for you to choose from.

HOW WE USE STORYTELLING TO SOLVE FOR YOU YOUR NEEDS

  • Enrich and facilitate engaging workshops
  • Bring life and energy to basic powerpoint presentations
  • Motivate and inspire your team
  • Simply and succinctly convey a complex systemic issue
  • Immerse people in the research experience
  • Easily follow user journeys
  • Deeply understand user personas from all angles
  • And More …

METHODOLOGIES

  • Vox Pop
  • Video diaries
  • In-depth interview
  • group discussion
  • Tag Alongs
  • Fly on the wall

FORMATS

  • Personas
  • profile pieces
  • trailers/sizzle
  • excerpts
  • new/source footage
  • visual expository

CHOOSE WORK

Food For Thought

A design research and participatory media project to guide RWJBarnabas Healths’ social impact investments to better food security in Newark, NJ.

Beyond Bollywood

A feature documentary that provides an in-depth journey of four artists working behind the scenes of the world’s largest film industry, Bollywood.

Becoming Visible

For the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, design research and strategic storytelling project to address the issue of statelessness and ethnic cleansing in Haiti.

The Great Indian Marriage Bazaar

Feature documentary which follows the director in a quirky take on the crisis modern Indian women face as they navigate between tradition and issues such as femininity, identity and sexuality.

Her Earth

Feature documentary film which unfolds the parallel experiences of women and our environment during an era in which the United States strives to become energy independent.

WorkShift

A campaign kickstarted by Rockefeller Foundation to change the way Americans think and talk about good jobs today.

HistoryNow

A collection of timely and relevant individual stories that can be experienced in a first-person point of view. Featuring two series of Matthew VanDyke who is training Christian militia against ISIA and the HI-SEAS Mars mission team.

Belvedere x Vice

Belvedere Vodka and Vice Media present eclectic musicians and a look behind the scenes.

Valley of Islamic Dolls

Adnan Oktar is the most notorious cult leader in Turkey known as a Muslim creationist introduced the world to his take on Islamic religion and crediting himself to introducing his followers to feminism. Exclusively produced for Vice Media’s female-focused platform.

Ellora’s Cave

For Vice Media’s female-focused platform, Broadly, a short film about cave men strippers and a multi-million-dollar erotic e-book business owned by two sisters.

Broadly Meets

A provocative interview series that profiles world-changing women to see what inspires and motivates them to do the work they do, exclusively for Vice Media’s female-focused platform, Broadly.

Screenland

A series about personal tales, wild new developments, and unexpected genres that shed new light on what gaming means and the future of video gamees, exclusively produced for RedBull TV.

Association for Women in Development

A series of interviews with global feminists to address twenty years of change in the women’s movement for Association for Women in Development.

Rebel Music

Rebel Music is a powerful new series that explores the lives of young people who are using art and music to ignite change around the world for MTV.

MTV Desi

One-off short documentaries profiling quirky South Asian artists and comics exclusively produced for MTV’s South Asian platform called MTVDesi.

Asian Swindlers

From identity theft to hypnosis and seduction, we shine light on ruthless and highly creative swindlers and their tactics in a six-part series exclusively produced for Crime&Investigation Channel.

Global Lives Project

A video library of life experience produced by international filmmakers to create empathy, global citizenship and education supported by The National Endowment for the Arts.

Video Volunteers

An organization based all over India working to empower marginalized communities through the use of media and citizen journalism.

Regarding Humanity

A digital platform to discuss ethnical representation in visual media for journalists, researchers and professionals in the development aid sector.

Breaking Into Bollywood

A series which looks at various departments behind-the-scenes of the world’s largest film industry, Bollywood. Exclusively produced for RealNetworks.

Women Aloud Video Empowerment [WAVE]

A MacArthur Foundation initiative to empower young women all over India with video journalism skills.

Voices of People of Color

A series documenting the thoughts and experiences of people of color who attended the 2014 Climate Change March in New York City.

Common Ground Convention

A project to bring together people on both sides of the fracking debate in New York State for my MFA Thesis in Design for Social Innovation.

South Asian Voices of D.C.

A short documentary produced by WHUT-PBS that profiles South Asian artists and activists who are speaking up during the tense period post the 9/11 attack.

OUR TEAM

Ruchika Muchhala

Filmmaker + Researcher + Media Trainer

Ruchika is a filmmaker and design researcher. Born and raised in Indonesia and Singapore and of South Asian roots, Ruchika identifies as a third culture kid who is committed to bridging cultures and differences through storytelling.

Ruchika has directed and produced several feature documentaries – from “The Great Indian Marriage Bazaar” (Silver Award for Best Social Issues Documentary at the New York Television Awards 2012), “Beyond Bollywood” and most recently, “Food for Thought”, which screened at EPIC 2019. Her work has been shown at international film festivals, broadcast on television, and screened at prestigious academic institutions and two of her films are available on Netflix. With over a decade of experience in the television and film industry, Ruchika has produced television shows and documentaries for VICE Media, MTV, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Crime & Investigation Channel, and RedBull TV. She has also produced numerous independent films, campaign videos and facilitated media trainings for nonprofit clients and youth media organizations. She holds an MFA in Design for Social Innovation from The School of Visual Arts and a BA in Film Studies and Sociology from The University of Michigan.

Siobhan Landry

Media Trainer + Filmmaker

Siobhan has nearly a decade of experience working in media education, within undergraduate and adult education programs. Born and raised in Boston, she is a video-artist and photographer whose work often navigates the shifting terrain between the uncanny and the commonplace, the humorous and the harrowing, and is based on personal experiences, documentary interviews, and local history.

She has produced educational media for HarvardX, an online education platform, and is currently, directing a feature-length documentary film which has received support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She has exhibited her work both internationally and nationally as a fine artist, most recently at the New Bedford Art Museum, Boston University 808 Gallery, and the Visual Centre for Contemporary Art in Carlow, Ireland, and has been a recipient of residencies at Skohegan, VSC, and Lighthouse Works. She holds an MFA in Photography & Video Arts from The University of Connecticut and a BA in Art History from The University of Michigan. 

Hai-Li Kong

Researcher + Filmmaker

Hai-Li combines a diverse background in marketing, social theory,   ethnography and independent filmmaking. Currently, she conducts and analyzes deep dive market research at a corporate anthropology consulting firm, where she turns everyday observations into business insights using film and storytelling. When not at work, she stays busy producing independent documentaries and is working on her own short film about her family’s immigrant story. She holds a BA in Social Studies with a focus in Urban Studies from Harvard University.

Karen Proctor

Advisor

Karen is founder and principal of Harbour Workshop LLC, a social innovation firm. Proctor established the firm with one desire in mind—to help senior leaders and organizations design creative solutions for lasting social change. Karen’s accomplished career has been devoted to working across the public and private sectors to address issues ranging from hunger to school reform. A nationally recognized leader in the social impact space, Karen has advised corporate CEOs, non-profit, and philanthropic chief executives at media, publishing and sports organizations, as well as federal and state senior level officials. Prior to launching Harbour Workshop, Karen was Scholastic’s Vice President of Community Affairs and Government Relations and the Director of Community Relations for the National Basketball Association.

Her work in service of more than 200 organizations has honed her expertise in strategic thinking and planning, program design, implementation, evaluation, and cross-sector collaboration. Karen is known for her thought-leadership and passion for producing transformational outcomes, and teaches at the Business School at The University of the South in Tennessee and The School of Visual Arts Master’s in Design for Social Innovation program.

Third Kulture Media

Address: 30 John St, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Contact: 917-515-5997

ruchika@thirdkulture.com