Be JEWELED: A glimpse into DRAG ACTIVISM with artist Jethro Patalinghug

We welcome you into Be Jeweled an immersive art experience, film screening + community conversation by artist Jethro Patalinghug. What does nonbinary look like? These headpieces represent queer sub-cultures that subvert the binary ideology.

Material: broken/used drag jewelry, pins, styrofoam heads + video mapping

ABOUT THE ART:

Jethro’s body of work centers around their personal experience as a nonbinary Filipino immigrant and the larger narratives of the LGBTQIA+ community. Their first film, My Revolutionary Mother, follows their personal migration story and their conflicted relationship with their political activist mother. Their first feature documentary film, 50 Years of Fabulous, chronicles the 50-year LGBTQ civil rights movement through the organization - The Imperial Council of San Francisco. His unreleased film, #mynameis, follows the protest movement against Facebook’s “real” name policy in 2015 which disproportionately affected the LGBTQIA+ community, domestic abuse survivors, Native Indians, and various ethnic identities. Jethro exhibited their work “Disco Balling Heads'' at the Maryland Institute College of Art in the summer of 2022. The exhibit was an immersive experience that featured sculptural heads made of repurposed materials from his drag performances. A video projection provided a textural background that gives the viewer a glimpse into how it feels to be a drag performer. Part of the exhibit was a screening of their film #mynameis which provided context and conversation surrounding the exhibit. With an approach that pushes the boundaries between art and education, Jethro creates space to examine the inequities that BIPOC queer and trans communities experience from past to present. They highlight the subjective experience of gender through their use of materials. Their personal experiences and their proximity to their subjects, informs their exploration into interdisciplinary art-making and social justice work.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Jethro Patalinghug (they, them) is a documentary filmmaker based in San Francisco, California. Their first feature documentary film 50 Years of Fabulous which chronicles the 50-year history of the oldest LGBTQ charity organization in the world, The Imperial Council of San Francisco, was the opening film at QDocs Film Festival in Portland, Oregon in 2018. It was an official selection of Frameline42. The film is now being distributed by Frameline under the Youth in Motion Program. Jethro is one of the fellows for the National Media Maker 2016 Program at BAVC (Bay Area Video Coalition) for his work-in-progress film #MyNameIs, a documentary feature following a protest movement against Facebook's "real" name policy. 

In 2015, they were the featured filmmaker for Kearney Street Workshop’s APAture, the oldest Asian American Arts Collective Festival in the US. Their documentary film entitled My Revolutionary Mother was cited as the best documentary film in the Philippines for 2015 by the film critics collective of pinoyrebyu.com and won Best Short Documentary awards at several film festivals. 

Jethro co-produced a short film entitled Miss Finknagle Succumbs to Chaos, an audience choice winner at Playground Film Festival and an official selection to the Frameline38 Film Festival. They are also the production manager of Cheryl Dunye’s Black is Blue, the Best Short Audience Award winner at Frameline38. Jethro produced and directed a short docu-series for the San Francisco Pride organization featuring some of the Grand Marshals of 2016 through 2019. 

Jethro was also the Senior Producer and Lead editor for the very first Global Pride of 2020, a 28-hour Livestream of pre-recorded performances, celebrations, and speeches from international LGBTQIA+ organizations, activists, celebrities, and performers. Jethro is an experienced video producer and editor and has produced content for CSAA Insurance Group, Bluewolf, an IBM company, NextGen Climate, Google Street View, MTV Philippines, QTV 11, GMA 7, ABC 5, and MYX 23 among others. They completed a Bachelor of Science in Film and Video Production at the Art Institute of California – San Francisco. They are now pursuing an MFA Studio Art Program at Maryland Institute College of Art.

Jethro is Mr. Gay San Francisco 2016-17 and Mr. Gay Asian Pacific Alliance 2012. They founded Take the Test, a campaign that promotes HIV testing and counseling in the Philippines. They are also a musician and part of the immigrant duo called Jethro and Flash.