He will be doing a short video for The Dollar Store.

Spread the word!

CHICAGO
The Printers’ Ball
Friday, August 22, 5pm
Museum of Contemporary Art
220 East Chicago Avenue
FREE

WE SHOOT YOUR MUSIC
Music Videos from 1998-2008

WHAT: Music Videos by Usama and Kristie Alshaibi from 1998-2008

WHEN: Friday April 25, 2008 at 9:00 pm

WHERE: Medicine Park Gallery 2659 West Chicago Ave, Chicago 60622
(phone: 773.255.5582)

CONTACT: Amy Cargill : medparkchicago@gmail.com

IN ATTENDANCE: Kristie and Usama Alshaibi with Performance by Magic is
Küntmaster and Mykel Boyd.

http://www.medparkchicago.com
http://wwww.dancehabibi.com

“Although I have worked with many of these musicians on narrative and experimental films, these videos are made specifically for their music. All these were shot in Chicago in collaboration with the musicians and other filmmakers. You will notice some of the musicians as actors in other videos as well. Although I have directed most of these, Kristie and I work very closely together. She has worked as producer, performer and on her latest debut, as director for the new Magic is Küntmaster music video. The videos were shot on a variety of formats from analog tube cameras to HD.”
–Usama Alshaibi:
usama@artvamp.com

FORGET HER music by Magic is Küntmaster (4:45, video,directed by Kristie Alshaibi with Camilla
Ha)

TELL THE POLICE THE TRUTH music by Mahjongg (3:57, video, directed and edited by Usama
Alshaibi with Mahjongg, cinematography Amy Cargill)

WHOOP DRAFT music by Water Babies (4:27, video, by Usama Alshaibi)

VANITAS music by Bobby Conn (8:00, video, directed by Usama Alshaibi, produced by Kristie
Alshaibi, cinematography by Chris Rejano, edited by Amy Cargill)

WHEN THE MONEY’S GONE music by Bobby Conn (3:23, video, directed by Usama Alshaibi,
produced by Kristie Alshaibi, cinematography by Chris Rejano, edited by Amy Cargill)

KING FOR A DAY (CD Version) music by Bobby Conn (4:00, video, directed by Usama Alshaibi,
produced by Kristie Alshaibi, cinematography by Chris Rejano, edited by Amy Cargill)

KING FOR A DAY (Party Version) music by Bobby Conn (4:00, video, by Usama Alshaibi)

LOVELY LITTLE GIRLS LIVE music by Lovely Little Girls (4:50, video, by Usama Alshaibi)

STABBED IN THE FACE music by Panicsville (6:53, video, by Usama Alshaibi)

HOLD MY SCISSORS music by Magic is Küntmaster (4:17, video, directed and edited by Usama
Alshaibi with Camilla Ha)

ANGELS music by Bobby Conn (4:30, video, by Usama Alshaibi)

THE SPEECH music by Zeek Sheck (4:30, 16mm film, directed by Usama Alshaibi)

Can’t see the video above? Watch the Sundance Channel’s ad for the Nice Bombs Premiere by clicking here.

Don’t miss the Artvamp/Benzfilm Production NICE BOMBS premiering on the Sundance Channel this Wednesday at 6:30PM EST/PST (5:30PM CST)!

Artvamp is proud to announce the broadcast premiere of “NICE BOMBS.”

NICE BOMBS follows director Usama Alshaibi on a journey back to his home town of Baghdad, Iraq.

“thoroughly engaging . . .offers a uniquely time-layered vision of the war.“-Ronnie Scheib, Variety

“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

“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, Critics Choice, Chicago Reader.

“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.“-Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

Currently in pre-production, this Artvamp documentary directed by Kristie Alshaibi is about the relationship between molester and molested, as experienced by a sex worker and the father who sexually abused her as a girl. Through animation, interviews, educational films, and home movies the project will reach beyond mainstream sensationalism surrounding pedophilia and address the surrounding issues with frankness, and compassion.

We are currently raising funds to complete this movie. PayPal contributions are accepted via store@artvamp.com, or investors may contact us directly for a complete project plan and budget.

Also in Production:

Usama Alshaibi began shooting in September 2007 for a new docu-fiction about finding the Middle East in the heart of the Midwest. In search of a mythical city where his deceased brother wished to be buried, Usama goes on the road to find BAGHDAD, IOWA. Check out the project’s web site: www.baghdadiowa.com

Check out the new release by OTHER CINEMA- EXPERIMENTS IN TERROR - which features my video for MAGIC IS KÜNTAMSTER: HOLD MY SCISSORS– which made the DVD cover!

OTHER CINEMA DIGITAL RELEASES “EXPERIMENTS IN TERROR 2″

(San Francisco, CA) Following in the ominous footsteps of our acclaimed 2003 avant-horror extravaganza EXPERIMENTS IN TERROR, OCD proudly announces the upcoming release of EXPERIMENTS IN TERROR 2. Curated by Noel Lawrence with invaluable assistance from Craig Baldwin, this very special film collection will be available on DVD September 25, 2007.

Creeping once more into the darkest corners of the cinematic imaginary, EXPERIMENTS IN TERROR 2 disinters a body of ghoulish works to satisfy our most perverse celluloid cravings.

Body-parts of cinema past – silents, grindhouse, giallos, Hitchcock, and Karloff – are exhumed, disemboweled, then stitched back together into shockingly new creations of frightful power and monstrous beauty through fiendishly clever montage and sinister sound design.

Highlights include Bill Morrison’s “The Mesmerist”, a sublime reworking of James Young’s “The Bells” (1926); the legendary J.X. Williams’ ultra-rare short “Psych-Burn” (”…strips the form of horror to its essentials.” — Jack Sargeant); and Damon Packard’s “The Early 70s Horror Trailer”, a perfect simulacrum of the fustian trailers from the Golden Age of Grindhouse.

Using crazed camerawork, mesmerizing mise-en-scene, and the alchemy of experimental technique, a new generation of cine-spooks apply aesthetic shocks to the rotten corpse of genre convention, re-animating it into a very contemporary order of horror film – graphic, ironic, poetic…undead!

“Deliciously dead-on recreations of 60s psychedelic-nightmare cinema and 70s drive-in horror …plus animated skeletons doin’ it every which way, experimental remixes of classic genre footage, vintage trailer trash, and more….”
` – Dennis Harvey, Variety/SF Bay Guardian

EXPERIMENTS IN TERROR 2
95 minutes
Price: $24.95
Pre-Order: September 4, 2007
Street: September 25, 2007

Featuring:

Bill Morrison (with music by Bill Frisell) – “The Mesmerist”
Damon Packard – “The Early 70s Horror Trailer”
J.X. Williams – “Psych-Burn”
Wago Kreider – “Between 2 Deaths”
Michelle Silva – “Amor Peligrosa”
Usama Alshaibi – “Hold My Scissors”
Lloyd M. Williams – “Opus 5″
Angel Nieves – “The Fear”
Clifton Childree & Nikki Rollason – “She Sank on Shallow Bank”

Extras:

• The mysterious Closet of Horrors with spirits, psychos, and Bela Lugosi!

• A chilling cameo from Andy Warhol

• Essay booklet by Jack Sargeant (Author of Deathtripping and The Naked Lens)

• New Releases from Other Cinema DVD

For more information, or to set up an interview with Noel Lawrence, please call 415-290-0401 or e-mail noel@othercinemaDVD.com

Copies of the DVD can be ordered online at http://www.othercinemadvd.com/eit2.html

SPECIAL BULLETIN!!!

Other Cinema Digital will be screening EXPERIMENTS IN TERROR 2 in selected European cities this Fall, with curator Noel Lawrence in attendance. Stay tuned for more details soon.
We are currently booking shows, so if you are a museum, gallery, cinematheque, film festival, or other screening entity, get in touch with us ASAP!

EXTRA SPECIAL BULLETIN!!!

Other Cinema will screen EXPERIMENTS IN TERROR 2 at its San Francisco HQ on October 27. Arrive early for free blood-red mulled wine amidst the mournful dirges of Douglas Katelus. Best costume wins a free EIT 2 DVD! Event will be held at ATA Gallery, 992 Valencia St., SF, 8:30 pm, $6.

ABOUT OTHER CINEMA DIGITAL

The Other Cinema Digital label provides an alternative platform for the distribution of extraordinary film works. We celebrate peculiar visions and offbeat sensibilities, drawn from the contemporary underground as well as the archives. Be it auteur, exploitation, or industrial, OCD delivers a decidedly different audio-visual experience – ingenious, comic, critical…dangerous.

There’s a clean natural spring running under the property, and the farm itself is a part the CRP conservation program set up to keep ground water clean and the land viable for future farming. The land has been farmed by Kristie’s family for over 100 years. It is the place that inspired Kristie as a young girl to begin shooting photographs - dressing dolls in her great grandmother’s dresses from the 19th century and setting them against a wild, rustic, magical backgrounds. It is the perfect space to find inspiration and solitude.

The materials from the old collapsed barn will be reused to build a large studio and rehearsal space, and the house will be remodeled with energy efficiency in mind. Volunteers are already lining up to help plant a large organic garden where vegetables will be grown and served fresh to artists in residence. Cherries and mulberries are among the fruit baring tress that dot the landscape.

The hope is to continue to develop the retreat to house up to eight artists at a time (for residencies lasting from two weeks to several months), in the main house and in several small cabins. More and better facilities will gradually be added, from kilns to multimedia computer suites. The site may also become home to seasonal celebrations (think all night bar-b-ques featuring a pit for cooking Masgouf - an Iraqi specialty).

A non-profit organization will be created to oversee the management of the artist retreat. There is currently a lien on the land because of of medical bills left behind by Kristie’s grandfather upon his passing. $100,000 still needs to be raised to release the lien and secure the deed. When this first step is accomplished, there will be nothing to stop the business plan from moving forward. Several organizations have already offered their assistance and resources to help bring this project into being. It is this initial hurdle that will make or break this dream.

Investors, loans, and fundraising ideas are all welcome at this time. Become a part of a project that benefits both the environment and the arts. If you know of a way to help, please don’t hestitate to contact Kristie at kristie@artvamp.com.

NEW YORK
The Pioneer Theatre
155 East 3rd Street- NY, NY
Tel: (212) 591-0434
SHOWTIMES
Weds., July 11 @ 7pm & 9pm
Thurs., July 12 @ 9pm
Fri., July 13 @ 7pm & 9pm
Sat., July 14 @ 7pm & 9pm
Sun., July 15 @ 5pm & 9pm
Mon., July 16 @ 9pm
Tues., July 17 @ 9pm
Weds., July 18 @ 7pm
Thurs., July 19 @ 7pm
Fri., July 20 @ 7pm
Sat., July 21 @ 7pm
Sun., July 22 @ 7pm
BUY TICKETS HERE

CHICAGO
The Gene Siskel Film Center
164 North State Street Chicago, Illinois 60601
Tel: 312-846-2600
*Director Usama Alshaibi will be in attendance for Q & A
SHOWTIMES:
Wednesday, July 11 @ 8:30pm
Monday, July 16 @ 8:15pm
BUY TICKETS HERE

For more info visit nicebombs.com

NICE BOMBS
MY JOURNEY BACK TO IRAQ

Executive Producers: William Haddad, Justin Moyer, Studs Terkel
Produced by: Kristie Alshaibi, Ben Berkowitz, Ben Redgrave
Directed by: Usama Alshaibi
http://www.nicebombs.com

Playing theatrically in NYC and Chicago beginning July 11th 2007 Los Angeles and other dates
coming soon…

NEW YORK
The Pioneer Theatre
July 11, 9pm (followed by a ten day run, ending on July 21.)
155 East 3rd Street- NY, NY
Tel: (212) 591-0434

CHICAGO
The Gene Siskel Film Center
July 11, 8:30pm & July 16 8:15pm
164 North State Street Chicago, Illinois 60601
Tel: 312-846-2600

In Nice Bombs, filmmaker Usama Alshaibi returns to Baghdad to reunite with his family after nearly 24 years. Usama captures the conflicting reactions to the conditions of life in Baghdad. His cousin Tareef enters the room upon hearing an explosion. “It’s a bomb. A nice bomb,” he explains. The phrase is indicative of his family’s nonchalance about their situation. As one young boy put it, “We’re Iraqis. It’s normal.” With humor and resilience Nice Bombs explores Usama’s dual role as both Iraqi and American.

“It pulls off the rare feat of being ‘important’ without forcing a political agenda down the audience’s throat.”

-Time Out Chicago

” …a surprisingly warm first-person video diary…edited with grace and tact.”

-Michael Philips, Chicago Tribune

“Among the many Iraq docs I’ve seen over the last few years, Usama Alshaibi’s ‘Nice Bombs’ offers a refreshing new perspective… Westerners will likely sympathize with Alshaibi and his family in a much deeper way. Because, after all, he is one of us, too.”

-Anthony Kaufman, IndieWIRE

For more information, a screener of the film or to schedule an interview contact:
BENZFILM GROUP
400 S. Main St. #2B LA, CA 90013
213-613-0229 office
213-613-0269 fax
info@benzfilm.com
www.benzfilm.com

These clothes are inspired by everything from tribal bedouin women to contemporary Middle Eastern styles. Maha expresses the mystery of eyes behind a veil while unveiling the inherent sensuality of the female body.

Shoots are TFP (time for prints/CD) for beginning models and some pay for experienced fashion models.

Check out the new MAHAmoda line: Baghdad in Red and Black at MAHAmoda.com.