SATURDAY DEC 3, 6:15 PM 

Minneapolis Underground Film Festival

Hosted at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design on December 2-4, the Minneapolis Underground Film Festival utilizes state of the art screening facilities and multiple auditoriums to showcase  underground cinema’s most provocative and original work.

“A deeply felt journey into psychosexual horror“-TimeOut Boston

“Profane is an extraordinary visionary work from an accomplished filmmaker who is clearly now at the top of his game.” -BadLit.com

“Torn between ecstasy and submission, Muna takes an unorthodox path to enlightenment, one that Profane dramatizes with documentary methods and psychedelic imagery. Alshaibi demonstrates that true reverence sometimes requires transgression.” – The Boston Phoenix

Allahu Akbar and Dogirl playing at Directors Lounge at the Contemporary Art Ruhr (C.A.R.), World Heritage Site Zollverein.

Directors Lounge presents a wide variety of experimental film and new media art at the Zollverein World Heritage Site – also known as “the world’s most beautiful coal mine”. This year we will have a focus on Guy Maddin, the doyen of experimental cinema.

We would be pleased to meet you, if you’re around!

Building A12 with Guy Maddin, Ina Otzko, D. Kimm & Brigitte Henry, Marie Losier, Julia Murakami, Alexei Dmitriev, Coleman Miller, Alan Smithee, Triny Prada, Fabiana Roscioli, André Werner, Clint Enns, Usama Alshaibi and others …

    contemporary art ruhr 2011, the innovative art fair

Zollverein XII World Heritage Site building A2, A6, A5, A12, A 7/ red dot design museum, outdoor area

official opening
Fri, 28 October 2011, 8 p.m. at Zollverein World Heritage Site in Essen, V.I.P.-Preview: 6 p.m.

public fair days
Sat, 29 October 2011, 12 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Sun, 30 October 2011, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

location
Zollverein XII World Heritage Site
Gelsenkirchener Straße 181
45309 Essen, Germany

day ticket
12,- € / 10,-€

Profane will be playing at the Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival (LUFF)  on October 20 & 22, 2011.

Muna is a dominatrix whose daily life comes down to sex and getting high. But as a Muslim she is going through a spiritual crisis and her reflections lead her to question the idea of submission from a religious, psychological and sexual perspective. In order to reconcile her excessive lifestyle with her Islamic origins, Muna aspires to give her soul to a jinn, the Muslim equivalent of a demon. According to the Qur’an, these demons are as good as they are bad, and it is said that each of us has one.

Shot in an almost documentary style, this purely transgressive film offers a radical immersion into its main character’s life; thus Usama Alshaibi stirs all the consequences of a cultural clash that may be quite destabilizing. Confronting a world of poisonous erotic tradition with Islamic mythology, the film reflects the torments arising from the seductive power of both sides and illustrates their consequences and impacts on one’s identity.

Usama Alshaibi was born in Baghdad in 1969. His education was split between the U.S. and the Middle East. Since the late 1990s, he has produced some forty shorts, going from trash experimentations to documentaries, a dozen music videos and the drama feature film Muhammad and Jane (2002) as well as Nice Bombs (2004), a documentary filmed in Iraq and broadcast on the Sundance Channel. He is currently working on his new documentary, American Arab.

Profane screening at Porn Film Festival Berlin. Playing October 27 & 30, 2011.

PROFANE is a moody and darkly humorous feature about the young Muslim Pro Domina Muna in the midst of a spiritual crisis. It explores the idea of submission from a religious, psychological and sexual perspective. It is also a horror film about possession by a jinn. Jinns are the Islamic equivalent of demons. Muna also struggles to understand the culture and religion from which she has been alienated. Torn between ecstasy and submission, she takes an unorthodox path to enlightenment. 

Playing Wednesday, October 12. Click here for time and ticket information.

8:40 PM First Feature Presentation

Usama Alshaibi PROFANE (2011, 78 minutes)
A young Muslim Dominatrix in the midst of a spiritual crisis.

Join me this Monday at the Milwaukee Film Festival. I will be discussing my new film American Arab on a panel with writer Dr. Louise Cainkar. I will also be speaking at Marquette University and The University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

American Arab Preview
Monday, Sept 26 | 7:00 pm | Kenilworth Square East (map) | Room 508
Speakers: Usama Alshaibi, Dr. Louise Cainkar and Affnan Mohammed

Award-winning filmmaker Usama Alshaibi (Nice Bombs) shares a sneak preview of his in-progress documentary, American Arab, and engages the audience in conversations about the contemporary relevance of the work and its changing themes. Joining Alshaibi on the panel is Arab-American studies expert Dr. Louise Cainkar (Marquette University). Alshaibi began American Arab as Kartemquin Films’ 2009 Diversity Fellow, a program supported by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

Upcoming screenings:

Sydney Underground Film Festival (Australia) September 9, 2011.

B Movie and Trash Film Festival (Netherlands) September 7, 2011.

Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival   (Switzerland) October 18 to 23, 2011.

Porn Film Festival Berlin (Germany) October 26-30, 2011.

Brisbane Underground Film Festival (Australia)  October 14 , 2011.

Fetisch Film Festival (Germany) October 29, 2011.

Jack Sargeant Presents from Eye Candy to Head Fuckage, Sydney Underground Film Festival, 2011

Curator and underground film author Jack Sargeant (Deathtripping, Cinema Contra Cinema, Suture etc) introduces a rare screening of legendary extreme underground movies culled from the glorious sewer of the nineties and noughties, plus a couple of new treats too. Expect some of the most confronting, shocking, gleefully perverse, offensive, informative and damned essential underground films you’re likely to see. Featuring contributions from Huck Botko, Carey Burtt, Shawn Durr, Usama Alshaibi, Aryan Kaganof and others. Expect: cakes, Merzbow, sex, serial killers, nudity and meat.

GASH Usama Alshaibi 2:11mins 2008

BAKED ALASKA Huck Botko, 7:42mins, 1997.

WASHING MACHINE Cacaca 5:45mins 2007.

THE PSYCHOTIC ODYSSEY OF RICHARD CHASE Carey Burtt 6mins, 1999.

CHEESECAKE Huck Botko, 7:23 1998

BEYOND ULTRA VIOLENCE Aryan Kaganof, 15mins 1998

LIKE A PIG IN SHIT Samantha Sweeting 5mins 2007

BOVINE VENDETTA Bob Judd, 3mins, 1998.

ORGAN MOLLY Usama Alshaibi, 7mins, 2008

MEAT FUCKER Shawn Durr, 32mins, 1999