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The Desire premieres at the 27th Chicago Underground Film Festival

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We are proud to announce that our film The Desire is an official selection at the 27th Chicago Underground Film Festival. Single tickets start at $10 and the full program can be found here: https://watch.eventive.org/cuff. Ticket prices go up after Halloween so snag one sooner rather than later.

Watch here: The Desire (by Talia Watrous and Usama Alshaibi) plays November 22nd for Shorts Program 14

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American Arab playing October 5th

This film program is part of the annual Arab Festival in Washington, supported and led by the Rachel Corrie Foundation

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News Reviews

Cinema-19 in Filmmaker Magazine

In the brisk, 43-minute anthology film, Cinema-19, a group of experimental filmmakers respond to the coronavirus pandemic with diverse and imaginative results. The films are all 190 seconds long and, say the curator/organizers, filmmakers Usama Alshaibi and Adam Sekuler, “do not attempt to summarize the pandemic, but instead focus on the personal, the political, the sensual, the distant, the abstract, and the absurd.” 
Read more

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Interviews News

Westword Magazine on CINEMA-19

“At some point in the middle of summer, with protests against police brutality and the conflicts on the streets in the United States, we questioned if we even needed a film program like this,” admits Alshaibi. “But I believe we do need artistic expressions and documentation during a historical time like ours. There is no singular narrative of what we are going through, but we are definitely going through a transformation collectively — and all these films are trying to make sense of our strange and dark days. In the end, I think there is hope…there has to be.”

Read more: https://www.westword.com/arts/experimental-filmmakers-covid-pandemic-short-cinema-19-11776369

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Cinema-19 Streaming

Filmmakers Respond to COVID-19

Presented in Association with
Anthology Film Archives
Northwest Film Forum
Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge

Filmmakers In Order of Appearance:
Courtney Stephens
Kalpana Subramanian
Usama Alshaibi
Scott Cummings
Lori Felker
Matt McCormick
Eman Akram Nader & Alex Megaro
Christin Turner
Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa
Kelly Gallagher
Sarah Ema Friedland
William Brown & Mila Zuo
Amir George
Adam Sekuler

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The Pandemic and Cinema-19

Filmmakers Usama Alshaibi and Adam Sekuler announce CINEMA-19, a collection of 190 second short films commissioned in response to COVID-19.

The films in CINEMA-19 do not attempt to summarize the pandemic, but instead focus on the personal, the political, the sensual, the distant, the abstract, and the absurd.

With new works by Sarah Ema Friedland, Matt McCormick, Kalpana Subramanian, Christin Turner, Mila Zuo, William Brown, Kelly Gallagher, Lori Felker, Courtney Stephens, Scott Cummings, Amir George, Eman Akram Nader, Alex Megaro, Mehrnaz Saeedvafa, as well as the two commissioning artists; Usama Alshaibi and Adam Sekuler.

The films are presented in association with Anthology Film Archives (New York), Zeitgeist Theatre and Lounge (New Orleans) and Northwest Film Forum (Seattle), who will serve as promotional and presentational partners.

The films will be available for a free public viewing on Vimeo beginning on August 19th.

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Independent Iraqi Film Festival plays my Baba Boom Boom


تتبع العراق: سينما الموجة الجديدة

٢٢ أغسطس| ٨:٣٠ م بغداد| ٦:٣٠ م المملكة المتحدة.
العرض على موقعنا الرسمي www.iiffestival.com

يستعرض برنامج الأفلام القصيرة الأول في المهرجان بعنوان “تتبع العراق: سينما الموجة الجديدة” الحياة داخل العراق من وجهة نظر مجتمعاته المتنوعة والأساليب الإبداعية لصناعة السينما في البلاد. وفي هذا الإطار، يصور فيلم “سبيّة” (٢٠١٩) للمخرج العراقي ضياء جودة امرأة يزيدية في وادي أحد الجبال شمالي العراق. أما فيلم “لم تكن وحيدة” (٢٠١٩) للمخرج العراقي حسين الأسدي فيسلط الضوء على صلابة وقوة تحمل النساء العراقيات الريفيات؛ حيث يصور امرأة تعيش مستقلة في أهوار العراق ولها طريقة عيش مميزة مع بيئتها. وعلى العكس من ذلك، يأخذنا المخرج العراقي أسامة الشيبي في فيلمه القصير “بابا بوم بوم” (٢٠١٦) إلى قلب المدينة حيث نستمع إلى موسيقى أغانٍ شعبيةٍ من العراق يؤديها والده ذو الشخصية المميزة، كما نتأمل في التقاليد الشفوية الثرية للثقافة العراقية. ويأخذنا فيلم “رؤوس ناطقة” (٢٠١٩) للمخرج العراقي حيدر جهاد إلى البصرة حيث يسلط الضوء على طموحات ورغبات الشباب الحالم بحياةٍ أفضل

Tracking Iraq : New Wave Cinema
22 AUGUST 8:30pm IRAQ 6:30pm UK
Watch on: www.iiffestival.com

The first shorts programme in the festival, Tracking Iraq: New Wave Cinema, explores life within Iraq from the vantage points of its diverse communities, as well as the innovative techniques of filmmaking throughout the country. Dhyaa Joda’s Sabeya (2019) portrays a Yazidi woman in the valley of a mountain in northern Iraq. Hussein Al-Assadi’s She Was Not Alone (2019) also sheds light on the resilience of rural Iraqi women, documenting an amusing woman living alone in the marshes of southern Iraq, who has an interesting way of living with her animals. Conversely, Usama Alshaibi’s experimental short film Baba Boom Boom (2016) takes us to the heart of the city, where we listen to folkloric music from Iraq performed by Alshaibi’s characterful father and meditate on the rich oral traditions within Iraqi culture. Haidar Jehad’s Talking Heads (2019) takes us to Basra, where it sheds light on the ambitions and desires of young men as they dream of a better life.

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Independent Iraqi Film Festival plays Baba Boom Boom

‘Usama’s Alshaibi’s experimental short film Baba Boom Boom (2016) takes us to the heart of the city, where we listen to folkloric music from Iraq performed by Alshaibi’s characterful father and meditate on the rich oral traditions within Iraqi culture’

Coming soon! Go to https://iiffestival.com/

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News Reviews

CINE-FILE review of American Arab for BEST OF CUFF

Usama Alshaibi’s AMERICAN ARAB (US/Documentary)

About halfway through AMERICAN ARAB, Marwan Kamel, a local Chicago musician of Syrian and Polish descent, sums up the knotty problem of carving out an identity in a country not fond of ambiguity, and offers this solution: “Give people the space to be complicated.” It’s something of a thesis for director Usama Alshaibi’s complex and extremely personal documentary. The core of the movie traces Alshaibi’s life through family photos and home movies as he bounces from Iraq to Iowa to Chicago, occasionally doubling back. In AMERICAN ARAB he examines how this sense of impermanence, coupled with ongoing issues of Islamophobia in pre- and post-9/11 America, can wreak havoc on one’s sense of self. Alshaibi wonders, “Why are Americans so clueless about Arabs?” before unleashing a cavalcade of archival idiocies from the campaign trail, cable news, and mindless Hollywood fare—thanks to Robert Zemeckis you can’t yell “Libyans!” in a crowded room without a bunch of thirty-somethings hitting the deck. Later, he (or some other brave soul) tests the water at a 2002 “flag rally” to predictable results, although one rarely gets measured commentary from someone literally waving a flag. All this amounts to a nasty reminder that Islamophobia is an especially insidious strain of bigotry; it often masquerades as patriotism or harmless yucks, but takes a toll on those attempting to straddle a precarious national divide. The latter part of AMERICAN ARAB delves into more personal territory: Alshaibi experiences firsthand matters only previously discussed, and we meet his wife Kristie as they start a family—the couple bonded over a love of experimental film, WINDOW WATER BABY MOVING enthusiasts take heart. With Alshaibi at its center, AMERICAN ARAB never becomes overly didactic and ultimately succeeds because the filmmaker himself is eminently likable and self-aware. While struggling to find a place where he belongs he openly acknowledges, “We tend to romanticize the places we aren’t at.” By allowing himself and his subjects space to be complicated, Alshaibi manages to thoughtfully examine this hard to define American identity. (2013, 60 min) JS
(source: https://www.cinefile.info/)

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Q&A with Usama for Best of Chicago Underground Film Festival

Today is my Q and A for the Best of Chicago Underground Film Festival for my documentary American Arab. Join me at 7pm Chicago time. Click here.