Usama Alshaibi

A devotion to beauty, aching and isolation.

A collection of 190-second short films created in response to COVID-19, commissioned by filmmakers Usama Alshaibi and Adam Sekuler.

"This was made with my daughter Muneera. She wrote it and stars in it. Using black and white reversal super-8mm film."

"This was made with my daughter Muneera. She wrote it and stars in it. Using black and white reversal super-8mm film."

"This was made with my daughter Muneera. She wrote it and stars in it. Using black and white reversal super-8mm film."

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.

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.

Iraqi-American filmmaker Usama Alshaibi 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."

Extreme experimental exploration of Muslim Fem Dom dominatrix trying to come to terms with her beliefs

Chicago 2010

Here’s the literal definition of “art cinema”: Usama Alshaibi’s short piece ‘My Third Painting,’ which plays like a cross between Jackson Pollock, traditional glass plane animation, and a phone call from your drug dealer. You know, part horror movie, part abstract expressionism

Experimental short made from a family recording.

Chicago, May 2008

Usama Alshaibi-directed short film.

Usama Alshaibi-directed short film.

Usama Alshaibi-directed short film.

Usama Alshaibi-directed short film.

Usama Alshaibi short film.

Chicago, 2008.

Super 8 video shot by Alshaibi's brother in Samarra.

Alshaibi's father playing Iraqi folk music.

"Signal Cross Over is about assisted love suicide and the noisy transition into the afterlife. He is dead and, with his guidance, she will join him via a ritualized live cremation process. Shot on an old studio tube camera from 1983, all effects were done live with alcohol, glass, fire, and lights. The sounds were also created using old technology: a burning ear cone/candle, a police scanner, and a Theremin. The music of the afterlife consists of old-time Gospel, Hindu devotionals, an Islamic call to prayer, and pre-Christian Celtic folk singing. The songs were shredded, performed, and then remixed to signify all of the souls passing on." - Kristie Alshaibi

Traditional slaughter of an animal for Islamic holiday Eid.

Experimental short about the Qawliya gypsies in Iraq.

Usama Alshaibi-directed short film.

An adventure in pornographic surrealism.

An adventure in pornographic surrealism.

Rhythm and repetition plays an important role in the animated film Allahu Akbar by Usama Alshaibi. With this film, Alshaibi questions the confrontation between tradition and modernity by drawing inspiration from geometric motives of Islamic art. The artist offers a re-interpretation of these motifs through computer animation. By turning the shapes in different direction, new images are generated, freeing them from their fixed state. Traditional spiritual values feed the present and open up to a modern perspective.

Muhammad Zeromski, raised in Iraq and Poland, returns to the U.S. after being away for almost a year. The climate he enters is ominous and confused. He meets a woman who calls herself Jane Doe. They share a common fear and are drawn to one another through their paranoia.

Muhammad Zeromski, raised in Iraq and Poland, returns to the U.S. after being away for almost a year. The climate he enters is ominous and confused. He meets a woman who calls herself Jane Doe. They share a common fear and are drawn to one another through their paranoia.

Muhammad Zeromski, raised in Iraq and Poland, returns to the U.S. after being away for almost a year. The climate he enters is ominous and confused. He meets a woman who calls herself Jane Doe. They share a common fear and are drawn to one another through their paranoia.

Muhammad Zeromski, raised in Iraq and Poland, returns to the U.S. after being away for almost a year. The climate he enters is ominous and confused. He meets a woman who calls herself Jane Doe. They share a common fear and are drawn to one another through their paranoia.

Muhammad Zeromski, raised in Iraq and Poland, returns to the U.S. after being away for almost a year. The climate he enters is ominous and confused. He meets a woman who calls herself Jane Doe. They share a common fear and are drawn to one another through their paranoia.

Muhammad Zeromski, raised in Iraq and Poland, returns to the U.S. after being away for almost a year. The climate he enters is ominous and confused. He meets a woman who calls herself Jane Doe. They share a common fear and are drawn to one another through their paranoia.

What is preventing these people from completing video penetration?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ass is a vivisection that attacks the optic nerves and creates a conflict within the body.

Kristie and Usama Alshaibi-directed short film.

A cut up exploration in film-kink and video-noise fetish for the children of the millennium.

An eerily stylized deconstruction of exploitation and violence in life and cinema.

Close-up of a woman crying.

Mythological creatures parade and swim in an acid Greek mythos. A broadcast from beyond, with lurid flesh and Arabesque disco.

Mythological creatures parade and swim in an acid Greek mythos. A broadcast from beyond, with lurid flesh and Arabesque disco.

A short film by Usama Alshaibi

Nine short experimental films of transgressive cinema.

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.