Silver & Gold combines film, live performance, and original costumes into a self-proclaimed “filmformance” that evokes the muse of legendary filmmaker Jack Smith and his tribute to 1940s Dominican movie starlet Maria Montez in a magical and joyfully twisted exploration of race, glamour, sexuality, and the silver screen.

In this performance event she alternates between action and live narration of an 8 minute film projection. Stirred by iconic underground filmmaker Jack Smith, Bustamante interprets Smith’s muse: 1940s Dominican movie starlet Maria Montez. Honing-in on Smith’s interest in Hollywood’s obsession with the reproduction of the exotic, Bustamante will embody Miss Montez. Using video and the body as a source of backdrop, narrative, and emotion, she takes the spectator on a bizarre and radical journey finding a new bejeweled body part, which is at once her curse and oracle. This new performance is the fruit of a commission by the LIVE FILM/ Jack Smith festival, co-organized by Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art and Hebbel-am-Ufer Theater (HAU) in Berlin.