VIDEO BABYLON AT THE GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER
52 minutes
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.-Video Babylon
Capsule by Andrea Gronvall
From the Chicago Reader
VIDEO BABYLON
1.YA KHALA (from VCD; color; 6:15 min): By Fa'iz Agob, Music by Basim Al-Ali
2. BA'ATHI MUSIC VIDEO (from VCD; color; 5:00 min): By Unknown
3. THE SADDAM RAP (from VCD; color; 4:00 min): By 'Joe Guitar'
4.BOMBSHELL: IRAQI SECRET VIDEOS AND ARTIFACTS FROM A FALLEN REGIME; (video; black & white; color; 15:35) By U.Alshaibi
5.THE MESSAGE By U.Alshaibi (DV; color; 5:45)
6.EXCERPT FROM "NICE BOMBS" By U.Alshaibi (DV; color; 12:00 min)
FROM THE GENE SISKEL PROGRAM
2002-04, Usama Alshaibi and various directors, USA/Iraq, 52 min.
Chicago filmmaker Usama Alshaibi presents a provocative inside look at street-level media in Iraq, including calculatingly entertaining Ba'athist propaganda pieces, and music videos with titles like THE SADDAM RAP, which often take the form of cheap, widely-disseminated and unregulated VCDs (video compact disks). Alshaibi screens and discusses BOMBSHELL: IRAQI SECRET VIDEOS AND ARTIFACTS FROM A FALLEN REGIME, his edited compilation of VCD clips, and his own new films shot in Iraq earlier this year. Films by Alshaibi include: THE MESSAGE , and an excerpt from NICE BOMBS. The program also includes: YA KHALA by Fa'iz Agob; THE SADDAM RAP by Joe Guitar; and BA'ATH MUSIC VIDEO. In various video formats. (Written by Barbara Scharres, Director of Programming)