Balut Artists’ Salon

Join us for the November Balut session, where we will hear from artists Ernest Whiteman III and Gustavo Jardim

Ernest M Whiteman III will present research and work behind his recent film project, a reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Ernest’s contemporary spin on the play is a full-text adaptation that features a cast of Native American Actors.

Gustavo Jardim will show two works created with youth in Brazil. “Ghost”, from 2016, was created with youth from juvenile homes and “Speak To Me” presents a work made with youth in the land occupations movement in Brazil. The films were made through workshops emphasizing the use of cinema in practices of freedom in an educative field.

About the Artists
Ernest M Whiteman III is a Northern Arapaho filmmaker, artist, and writer. Since taking over the directorship of First Nations Film and Video Festival in 2005, he has been doing free presentations on Native American Cinema in classrooms and at FNFVF events since. Ernest has worked as a Media Mentor in Chicago Public Schools since the fall of 2012 as a part of Adobe Youth Voices, where he helps CPS teachers instruct their students in creating media that speaks with their voice. Ernest was also an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin Parkside, where he taught the upper-level course entitled “No One Ever Sees Indians: Native Americans in Film”.

Gustavo Jardim is a filmmaker and educator based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He works mostly with cinema and literature and develops artistic, cultural and social projects with diferent approaches through these media. He has received awards for his process of research, experimentation and artistic achievement from the Tiradentes Film Festival, Contemporary Art Festival VideoBrasil and Instant Video Marseille, among other festivals. He has been the curator of the International Short Film Festival of Belo Horizonte for three years. He holds a Masters in Education (UFMG) and a Phd in Cinema and Media Studies (UFMG and University of Chicago). Artistic residencies include Kooshk (Iran, 2016) and Guajajaras indigenous tribe (Brazil, 2017). He coordinates cinema and education programs and develops methodologies for the use of cinema in inclusive pedagogies with communities with high rates of social risk.

About Balut
The Balut Artist Salon brings together two artists to present and dialogue with an audience about an artwork they are currently working on. Art making, to some extent, is a solitary activity yet the artwork itself is enfolded within a social and historical sphere. This salon is an attempt to open up the art making process.

Named after the famed delicacy of the Philippines, balut conjures up exoticism, otherness, tradition, social gatherings, adventure, risk taking, and poverty. Curious thrill seekers chalk up the challenge to taste the partially developed duck fetus in hopes to simultaneously induce and subdue gag reflexes or find an authentic foreign experience. In reality, balut is quite pedestrian. It is a cheap street food for the poor and a quick snack for laborers before a long commute home. And it goes well with knocking back some beers with mga kaibigan. Balut, also spelled balot, is “wrapped” in the Tagalog language and when shelled each distinct section of the egg can be seen folded into the other, forming an interconnected mass.

This artist salon is a wrapping of sorts. Artists are invited to share partially formed projects or inklings and dialogue with an audience to co-mingle diverse perspectives and co-constitute material and ideas.