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NICE BOMBS (2006-2007)

Usama Alshaibi’s smart first feature, Nice Bombs, charts his 2004 return to Baghdad with wife Kristie. Endeavoring to make sense of the devastation he finds, Alshaibi manages a consistently acute observation of tensions between troops and citizens, expectations and realities.

Best Film For 2007, Cynthia Fuchs, Popmatters.com

Variety
Disarmingly casual, seemingly artless "personal diary" docu "Nice Bombs" makes decidedly sophisticated use of home-movie aesthetics in its exploration of Iraq at the onset of the American Occupation as Baghdad-born, experimental filmmaker Usama Alshaibi, accompanied by his Kansas-bred blond wife and his estranged father, returns to the country and the extended family he hasn't seen for 24 years. Opening July 11 at Gotham's Pioneer Two-Boots, thoroughly engaging docu, exec produced by Studs Terkel, inserts snapshots of an unfamiliar country in violent transition within the entirely recognizable context of a normal, if long-delayed visit home.(click to read more) by Ronnie Scheib, Variety, July 10, 2007

New York Sun
“Loaded with candid conversations and opinions about the hot-button issues of war, terrorism, and Islamic extremism,‘Nice Bombs’ offers many different Iraqi and American points of view and portrays a time and place of nightmarish complexity."- Bruce Bennett, NEW YORK SUN (read more)

Time Out Chicago
When Studs Terkel urges you to do something, you do it. “He sort of put me on the spot,” recalls Usama Alshaibi, who was working at the Chicago History Museum as a sound engineer when his project sparked Terkel’s interest. It was January 2004 when the legendary author and historian came into Alshaibi’s office and asked about his family in Baghdad. Alshaibi replied, “Well, I have this idea about going to Iraq and interviewing my family….” And that’s what set Terkel off. “He said, ‘You have to go!’ ” Alshaibi says. “He pulled out his checkbook and gave me my first donation. -Jason Mojica, Time Out Chicago August 10, 2006 (read more)

Alshaibi does something so simple yet, sadly, so neglected: He lets a Western audience see Iraqis not as crazed Middle Easterners shouting and shooting (and dying) en masse, but as individuals going about their daily lives—shopping, listening to the radio, hanging out. Those shared-humanity moments make all the more compelling the postscript phone call, in which Tareef tells Alshaibi that, since his visit, Iraq has gone from tolerably bad to almost irredeemably worse.—Time Out Chicago, Novid Parsi August 2006

Critics Choice, Chicago Reader
"Chicago filmmaker Usama Alshaibi grew up in Iraq and the U.S., and although he recently became an American citizen, his personal video documentary has plenty to say about the day-to-day existence of his Baghdad relatives, whom he visited in 2004. Distance tends to simplify our view of anything, and this video humanizes the situation on the ground mostly by complicating it: in a voice-over Alshaibi says he's often asked what “"the Iraqis" think, but by the end this question has become as meaningless as asking what "the Americans" think. Much of his previous work has been experimental, but this becomes formally adventurous only near the end, as he converses by phone with a cousin who tells him how much worse the situation has grown this year." 92 min.-Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader.

PopMatters
“I was born in Iraq,” says Usama Alshaibi, “and was recently sworn in as a citizen of the nation that was now attacking it.” At the start of his documentary, Nice Bombs, it's March 2003, and Alshaibi is safe in Amsterdam, honeymooning with his new wife Kristie. On TV, protests against the war are loud and numerous, followed by the seemingly unavoidable invasion. Within weeks, when Usama and Kristie are back home in Chicago, the Saddam Hussein statue falls and looting commences. Alshaibi observes, “I had a feeling that the news I read and saw was not telling me the full story.”-by Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters, July 18 2007 (read more)

Movie review by Michael Phillips
"In early 2004 Chicago filmmaker Usama Alshaibi returned to his native Iraq with his wife, producer Kristie Alshaibi, and his camera. He had been away for nearly a quarter-century. The result is a surprisingly warm first-person video diary, blending a series of reunions with Alshaibi's vast array of relatives and footage of the bazaars, streets, homes and everyday perils of life in post-Saddam, mid-occupation and mid-chaos Iraq."-(read more)-Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

 

THE DEATH OF Z FILM FESTIVAL (October 15 2005)

Chicago Tribune
As the 41st Chicago International Film Festival continues to roll out the stars and high-profile screenings, adventurous cinemagoers with a taste for the artistic extreme will get just that this weekend with the fifth annual Z Film Festival. The one-night-only event, dedicated to the outer fringes of avant garde short cinema, takes places Saturday at the appropriately named Nihilist Records (2255 S. Michigan Ave., 4E) beginning at 9 p.m.
Like previous incarnations of this homage to beyond-borders cinema, fest directors Usama and Kristie Alshaibi have lined up a program that's sure to be an equal-opportunity offender.
"We try to select things that show a filmmaker's unique gifts," Usama said. "And we don't shy away from violence, sexuality or perversity of any kind. We don't make a distinction between porn and high art or underground or experimental film."-(read more) "5th Z film fest is last in line of outsider events" By Richard Knight Jr, Special to the Tribune, Published October 14, 2005

 

VIDEO BABYLON (Iraqi Video Showcase 2004)

Chicago Tribune
On one side of a split screen, Saddam Hussein smiles.
He's celebrating the birthday of his youngest daughter in a lavish palace party. The revelers even sing "Happy Birthday" -- in English -- to the beaming child.
On the opposite side of the screen, in a harrowing juxtaposition, Iraqis are beaten and tortured. One sequence shows blindfolded prisoners of Saddam's regime, strapped with explosives, led into the country and blown apart by remote control.
Chicago's Usama Alshaibi, an Iraqi-American filmmaker, pieced together the short film, "Bombshell: Iraqi Secret Videos and Artifacts From a Fallen Regime" from video compact discs bought from Baghdad street vendors for as little as 50 cents.
"It's a type of evidence," says Alshaibi, 34, best known for Chicago's erotic-themed Z Film Festival, which he co-curates with his wife, Kristie.
"All the drama of the occupation, the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein -- all of these things were not witnessed by Iraqis in the streets. They were witnessed through TV or on these videos," he says. -"Back to Baghdad," By Rob K. Elder, Chicago Tribune (November 18, 2004)

Chicago Reader
"Usama Alshaibi, a Chicago video maker who was born in Baghdad, assembled this program of video clips that offer an alternate perspective on the Iraqi experience. Most are in Arabic without subtitles, and some are music videos: one, shot at sea, shows boatmen backing up a pop singer; another is a Ba'athist ditty extolling the virtues of Saddam Hussein; a third, The Saddam Rap, lampoons the fallen dictator. Most unsettling is a short whose split screen contrasts innocuous home movies of Saddam with footage of his torture victims. Alshaibi will also present a 12-minute excerpt from his work in progress Nice Bombs, a DV documentary about his family's return to Iraq after nearly 24 years abroad. Interviews with stoic residents and bewildered American soldiers are shot in a distinctively raw style that suits the edginess of the times, leaving one curious for more firsthand testimony from those weathering the occupation. 52 min. Alshaibi will take part in a discussion after the screening." -Capsule by Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader (November 20, 2004)

Indiewire
...Iraqi-American filmmaker Usama Alshaibi also makes some striking juxtapositions with his work "Bombshell: Iraqi Secret Videos and Artifacts from a Fallen Regime," which split-screens a smiling Saddam Hussein birthday party and underground torture videos as well as images of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Hussein in 1983. "'Bombshell' is saying many things at once," explains Alshaibi, who lived in Iraq as a child and just recently visited his homeland. "I'm just showing the history of Iraq: the U.S. intervention, but also keep in mind that Saddam was the United States' main guy, we helped him produce chemical weapons, so it's the schizophrenia of war and Iraq as a symbol of many things."
Alshaibi, who just received his U.S. citizenship in May 2003 and lives in Chicago, now feels more confident about using his art to engage with current politics. Before he became an American, he says, "I thought if I said the wrong thing, they were going to put me in an orange suit and ship me away."
He is currently working on "Nice Bombs," a feature documentary about his return to Iraq as an adult, which screens as a 12-minute work-in-progress in Chicago. "I have to admit that when the U.S. was about to overthrow Sadaam, I was ecstatic," he says. "But that honeymoon is quickly fading. As Iraqis will say, 'The only good thing that the United States has done was getting rid of Saddam. Everything else they've completely messed up.- 'American Prejudice: Arab Films Try to Breakthrough Bias' by Anthony Kaufman, Indiewire (November 2004)

CONVULSION EXPULSION (2004)

"An adventure in pornographic surrealism, CONVULSION EXPULSION redefines the term "Money Shot". Blinding footage and a sea of of synthetic noise compliment this short's volcanic conclusion. Starring Kristie Alshaibi as Echoplasm, who poses the question: "How long can a phantom made of pure sound be trapped as solid and visible matter?" CONVULSION EXPULSION will leave a stain on your brain and quite possibly your shoes."-Cucalorus Annual Festival of Independent Film

"The film has visuals as shocking to the eye as this music may be to some ears. A women painted like a china doll, and wrapped in gauze, twitches and gyrates in various states of nudity. She lurches like a robot as she projects what we hope is fake blood out of her anus, which she proceeds to rub over her legs, vagina and nude body. The film brings to mind the work of the Vienna Actionists, or perhaps more appropriately the work of Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley whose works drew strongly from the model set forth by them."-Indieworkshop.com

MUHAMMAD AND JANE (2003)

MICRO-FILM
"There's nothing like a good dose of paranoia to feed the senses, according to Chicago filmmaker Usama Alshaibi. His film MUHAMMED AND JANE is a black-and-white tale about an Iraqi-Polish man, Muhammed (Piotr Tokarski), attempting to return to the United States with a few illegal passports under his belt. Once he gets past airport security, albeit in a sweat-induced state, he is increasingly dogged by claustrophobic fear in his quest for a place to stay. He finds it and subsequently meets Jane Doe (Melina Paez), a girl running through the alley and mutually haunted by some unimaginable force. She and Muhammed instantly click; the only catch to their bliss is that which Jane is running from, dealing with dead bodies and a good deal of suspicion.

Because this film is set just prior to the time when the United States invaded Iraq in early 2003, one could surmise that Jane represents the U.S. as she is hunted by her own intentions, with Muhammed becoming her unknowing counterpart. Their relationship foreshadows a different match destined to be made in real life, although not one nearly as happy as theirs, and raises an interesting point as far as speculating how the relationship between the U.S and Iraq will develop over the coming years.

An American born of Iraqi descent, Alshaibi has the unique ability to creatively tap into current events with a fresh and involved eye. MUHAMMED AND JANE takes an experimental form, informed with a narrative storyline and envisioned with the hand-held and unforgiving, observational quality of a documentary. Its scenes consistently demand interplay between these elements and Muhammed's state of mind, which implores for him to always look over his shoulder, and benefits from fantastic performances by Tokarski and Paez. " - Erin Anadkat, MICRO-FILM #7 (Spring 2005)

Daily Southtown
"An intriguing and artful hot button drama filmed in Chicago, "Muhammad and Jane" examines the budding romance between a shady Muslim immigrant with roots in Poland and Iraq and a mystery woman, who each have their own reasons to avoid the authorities."
-Dan Pearson Daily Southtown film critic (Sunday,August 24, 2003)

Chicago Reader
"A laconic drifter (Piotr Tokarski) born in Iraq returns to Chicago to straighten out his U.S. immigration status, and though a friend warns him of the prevailing anti-Muslim sentiment, he unwisely hooks up with a desultory woman (Melina Paez), accompanies her to a hedonistic party, and attracts the attention of the FBI. Local video maker Usama Alshaibi is the sort of canny visual stylist who can sustain a mood even when the storytelling falters, which is certainly the case here: the characters' motives are vague, the plotting episodic, but the handheld videocam, tight close-ups, and disorienting angles create a potent sense of paranoia. The haunting score is by Andy Ortmann and Camilla Ha."
-Ted Shen, Chicago Reader (August 28, 2003)

Centerstage,Chicago
On the Chicago Underground Film Festival (2003):
"...Some of the films featured were critical of our government and society in general. That shouldn’t be surprising though given the state of our world. One of these films is Muhammad and Jane. The story is a basic narrative film about love and paranoia. The film takes place one year after the 9/11 attacks and exhibits the fears of the muslim culture in our society. Paranoia strikes a young Iraqi man as he returns home to the United States. Once again a glimpse of our society is shown in striking detail. This country itself isn’t known for being incredibly tolerant of others. The terrorist actions of a few have labeled many in the minds of our citizens. Nevertheless, Usama Alshaibi’s film shows real promise. His personal style is unlike any other ever seen. During several conversations random images begin overlapping the scene. It’s distracting at first but it forces you to listen to the conversation. If given the chance to develop this craft it could be a very effective tool on a grander scale."
-By Peter Mazza (August, 2003) Centerstage,Chicago; centerstage.net

ALLAHU AKBAR (2003)

"In Allahu Akbar, the US based filmmaker Usama Alshaibi has created joyful and playful animations out of the traditional geometric themes of Islamic art. These complex geometries are rendered in simple black and white, and then superimposed and spun around their central axis, in a close rhythmic relationship with the lively soundtrack of traditional and popular Iraqi music. The result is a giddy playfulness, reminiscent of psychedelic Pop Art, and far removed from the contemplative quiet I normally associate with Mosques and the inner courtyards of traditional Arab architecture. The video also recalls the films of Harry Smith. My only complaint is that, for a person like me who really loves this music, I could have watched a much longer film which used at least one complete musical selection!"-RESISTANCE(S) DVD Review by David Finkelstein (Film Threat 2006)

"Usama Alshaibi's Allahu Akbar, whose hypnotic geometrical patterns seem inspired by Islamic art but whose bouncy sound track rebukes ultraorthodox Islam's prohibition of sensual pleasures, including music." (Fred Camper) recommended program-Chicago Reader (Nov.21, 2003)

"Alshaibi's five-minute video animation Allahu Akbar, a mesmeric montage of morphing geometrical patterns from Islamic art, flashed to the beat of Middle Eastern music."
-Ted Shen, Chicago Reader (August 28, 2003)

SOAK (2002)

"Formally, an intriguing depiction of video as forward motion, or as technology of road movies and dreams. Alshaibi intercuts footage of a Southeastern Asian trip with a young man's venereal disease-influenced fantasies of a strange young woman."
-Ray Pride (Newcity. Aug.22, 2002)

SLAUGHTERED PIGTAILS (2001)

"Usama Alshaibi and Kristie Drew(Alshaibi) continue in the slasher vein with their own Slaughtered Pigtails, a hack 'n' slash Friday the 13th style chase scene fragmented down to its sound-bite essentials (Run-Fall-Run-Fall-Turn-Scream-Die-The End). Tactile and frenetic, it achieves startling poetic lyricism when the hyperspeed action is slowed down once the victim is pinned to the ground. It creates a self-conscious empathy for the victim, sadly absent from most splatter films (admittedly enjoyable on their own level)."
-Jeremiah Kipp, filmcritic.com

"Slaughtered Pigtails, besides being the perfect name for some future hard-rock band, is an extremely visceral two-and-a-half minutes of slasher-movie extract."
-Steve Palopoli, metroactive.com

"Slaughtered Pigtails is a cinematically beautiful film with lush lighting. I think the title speaks for itself. It explores violence towards women in a literal way. The acting is great (wow- that girl can really scream!) which makes it all the more uncomfortable."
-Anhoni Patel, sfstation.com

"This flick is very little more than jerk-off material for those guys out there who get their jollies by watching fake snuff vids on the internet."
-Eric Campos, Film Threat

ASS (2001)