Filmmaker-Artist
Filmmaker Usama Alshaibi came to the United States from Iraq as a child. To him, being American means being proud of who you are and where you came from in the face of overwhelming resistance.
(Ivy Winfrey reports for Next Generation Radio with Colorado Public Radio)
Carey Burtt and I talk about film, life and death.
I edited a new trailer for my 2002 first feature film Soak. My friend Tom had never performed in a film before but he wanted to help me. I always prefer to work with non-professionals actors, or people that have never acted before. It helps that my film crew is so tiny—in this film it was mostly me and the camera and the performer— that it allows for a certain tone to blossom. No deadline, no money, no worry. We were free.
It had only one public screening as a world premiere at the 2002 Chicago Underground Film Festival.
Film critic Ray Pride wrote this about the film:
“Formally, an intriguing depiction of video as forward motion, or as technology of road movies and dreams.” (Newcity, August 22, 2002)
Check it out and watch the whole film, it’s only 60 minutes.
There is a moment on every journey when it becomes impossible to quantify how much farther we have to go. The challenge comes in recognizing the amorphousness of expectations and the malleability of experience. What was before simply is no longer. Time moves ahead, often without explanation.
Curated by Megan Young at SPACES
More info: https://www.spacescle.org/exhibitions/2021/04/16/coming-suddenly-passing-strangely
Today marks the anniversary of the United States invasion of Iraq. Watch our film for free about my return to my homeland to make my first documentary.
Our film The Desire premieres virtually in Paris at the Demetera International Film Festival. If you want to watch please go to their YouTube page where it will screen March 10 at 8pm Paris time
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9uH-q9NkxMgL91i31QteRg
Check our short film The Desire and other short films, available to purchase: https://djinnisin.gumroad.com/l/alshaibishorts
Our film The Desire will have a physical screening at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival 2020 in Australia. Click here for info:
https://www.revelationfilmfest.org/film-information-new.php?filmId=1112
Many years ago I made a short video with my daughter Muneera. I describe it this way: One take with no editing or music. A natural cinematic experience is created and seen: a moment alone with dandelions, a struggle for the camera, a shift from father to daughter in point of view and philosophy.
Curators Jamie Jenkinson and Amy Dickson are featuring Dandelion Movie with other works as part of their program present(s) on xviix.com
How can the present be valued/prioritised/lived in creative practice? present(s) is a selection of videos that appear to favour this temporality, featuring: Zara Joan Miller, Alex OB, John Seth, Jessica Karuhanga, Nicky Hamlyn, Lydia Ourahmane, Jesús Ascanio, Sarah Harbridge, Usama Alshaibi, and co-programmers Amy Dickson and Jamie Jenkinson.
