Underground Film Journal

Usama Alshaibi

Usama Alshaibi is an Iraqi-born, American experimental and documentary filmmaker currently based in Colorado. He has made dozens of short films and several feature-length films. Two feature films, Muhammad and Jane and Profane, are fictional narratives. Nice Bombs is a documentary about Alshaibi's return to Baghdad in 2003, two decades after he left it as a child.

Alshaibi's short films are in the style of the Cinema of Transgression movement of the '80s and typically feature scantily-clad women put in erotic situation. A selection of these films are compiled on the DVD Solar Anus Cinema. (Also streaming on Vimeo.) Alshaibi also collaborates frequently with his wife Kristie, a performance artist. In addition to making films, from 2000 to 2005, they ran the Z Film Festival in Chicago.

Learn more about this filmmaker at his official website.

Watch Streaming Films By Usama Alshaibi:

Filmography

Baghdad, Iowa (2016)
American Arab (2014)
Profane (2011)
Djinn is in (2010)
My 5th Painting (2010)
My Fourth Painting (2010)
My Third Painting (2009)
My Mother Paused By My Father (2009)
Spoiled (2008)
Organ Molly (2008)
Runaway (2008)
Gash (2008)
Patient (2008)
My Second Painting (2008)
My Painting (2008)
Gotta Get Outta Here (2008)
Looking at Clouds (2008)
My Song (2008)
My Demands (2008)
Flesh Tone Genesis (2007)
Baba Boom Boom (2007)
Dream Of Samarra (2007)
Signal Cross Over (2007)
Eid Sacrifice (2006)
Nice Bombs (2006)
Qawliya Dance (2006)
The Pill (2005)
Traumata (2005)
Hold My Scissors (2004)
Video Babylon (2004)
The Message (2004)
Self-Contained (2004)
Bombshell (2004)
Convulsion Expulsion (2004)
Allahu Akbar (2003)
The Amateurs (2003)
Muhammad and Jane (2003)
Portrait 01.10.03 (2003)
Interview with Studs Terkel (2002)
Public Din (2002)
Soak (2002)
Slaughtered Pigtails (2001)
The Green Room (2001)
Ass (2001)
Blood (2001)
The Foreigner (2001)
Congratulations (2001)
Dogirl (2000)
Death Jerk-Off 2000 Variation 1 (2000)
Death Jerk-Off 2000 (2000)
Muffin (2000)
Serenade (2000)
Fairyland (2000)
The Swimmer (2000)
Lullaby (1999)
Death Jerk-Off (1999)
Dance Habibi Dance (1999)

Articles:

Streaming: American Arab
March 4, 2015

Iraqi-American filmmaker Usama Alshaibi explores the nature of his own family’s dual sense of identity, the experiences of other Arab Americans and the depictions of Arabs in mainstream media.

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2015 Brisbane Underground Film Festival: Official Lineup
January 8, 2015

The fifth annual Brisbane Underground Film Festival continues the scrappy little fest’s continuing mission to bring a little bit of cinematic oddballness to an underserved spot on the globe. The fest takes place on Jan. 8-10 at the Brisbane Powerhouse. The fest kicks off on Jan. 8 with some local flavor, the documentary Gone Lesbo […]

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American Arab
July 16, 2014

American Arab, the latest provocative documentary by Usama Alshaibi, is both profoundly personal and culturally inquisitive. The film tells his own unique story as well as the stories of other Arabs.

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American Arab: Official Trailer And Poster
November 20, 2013

Kartemquin Films has released the official poster and trailer for the highly anticipated documentary American Arab, directed by Usama Alshaibi. The film will be making it’s debut at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

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