American Arab
A Coming of Arab story. Iraqi-American filmmaker Usama Alshaibi (Nice Bombs) shares his own story of experiencing racism in post-9/11 America. Showcasing the diversity of Arabs living in the United States, American Arab sparks a frank conversation about identity and perception, and argues for giving people "the space to be complicated."
Usama Alshaibi
Director
Also Directed by Usama Alshaibi
An eerily stylized deconstruction of exploitation and violence in life and cinema.
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.
Baghdad, Iowa is the mask, the shadow and the night stars that sing the sorrow song of death. You might be dreaming, so don't wake up until you arrive.
Chicago, 2008.
Experimental short made from a family recording.
Extreme experimental exploration of Muslim Fem Dom dominatrix trying to come to terms with her beliefs
An adventure in pornographic surrealism.
Directed by Usama Alshaibi.
Boy from War is an animated coming-of- age story of a young Arab American punk ricocheting between a war-torn Middle East and 1980s American Midwest. From LSD fueled encounters with Darth Vader and Saddam Hussein, to military pilots shot down into Iowa classrooms, Usama Alshaibi blends images and memories to give the audience a taste of what it was like living between two starkly different worlds, while never really fitting into either.
