News
Watch my documentary Nice Bombs streaming for free
In Nice Bombs filmmaker Usama Alshaibi returns to Baghdad to reunite with his family after nearly 24 years.
“…a surprisingly warm first-person video diary… edited with grace and tact.” –Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips
“thoroughly engaging . . .offers a uniquely time-layered vision of the war.” –Variety
Nice Bombs screening at the Arab American National Museum
I’ll be giving an artist talk at the University of Michigan in Dearborn, and then will screen my documentary Nice Bombs at the Arab American National Museum on Tuesday, October 10, 2023 at 7pm.
Special thanks to my good friend Adam Sekuler for setting this up. I’ve never been to Dearborn and excited to connect with the students and the Arab community over there.
More information here: https://umdearborn.edu/events/arab-american-perspectives-filmic-visions-dearborn-usama-alshaibi
Director’s Statement for 2023 film Testimony
As artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to evolve, I am interested in the possibility of some sort of electronic program recognizing its essence. I imagined that this presence not only begins to believe it is having feelings, but actually achieves a semblance of consciousness; it feels within its own realm.
I imagined what that machine might visually and sonically produce as it tries to understand its existence and faces the tension of recognizing that it is without a physical body. Conversely, I wanted to explore how this machine intelligence could give the impression that it is sentient and that … Read the rest
First feature film out on DVD
My first feature film, Soak, that premiered at the Chicago Underground Film Festival is available on DVD; Tetro Video from Italy has been re-releasing my films with new features and these beautiful art-books. Nice to see physical distribution is alive and thriving.
Screening ‘Soon’
Great turnout and Q&A at the Dragon Boat Film Festival in Denver, screening our film ‘Soon.’
‘Soon’ playing at the Dragon Boat Film Festival
We play again in Denver, come check out the Colorado Dragon Boat Film Festival, and watch our film Soon at Sie FilmCenter – H2 – Maglione Theater, March 11, 2023, at 11:00 AM
http://www.cdfilm.org
Allahu Akbar showing in France at the Centre d’art Madeleine-Lambert
A hypnotic video by Usama Alshaibi, reproduces geometric Islamic drawings, taken from a book offered by his father, which he scanned. “They are charged with a transcendental value and show that divine perfection passes through geometry.”
https://www.expressions-venissieux.fr/2022-12-22-centre-dart-madeleine-lambert-avec-motifs-apparents/
DVD releases
TetroVideo, a distributor in Italy has been re-releasing my older films in these limited redesigned DVD’s. Check it out: https://tetrovideo.com/shop/profane-dvd-ultralimited-mediabook-edition/
Group show in France
My film Allahu Akbar will be screening as part of a group exhibition titled:”Sur le motif” (“On the Pattern”) at the Center d’art Madeleine-Lambert in Vénissieux, France, from December 17, 2022 to February 25, 2023.
