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Filmmaker Usama Alshaibi returns to Baghdad to reunite with his family after nearly 24 years, documenting his unique relationship to an Iraq that is much different from the country of his childhood. Usama captures the conflicting reactions to the conditions of life in Baghdad. Through a wide range of opinions and experiences he provides a broad panorama of voices long neglected under Saddam’s regime. 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.
Usama Alshaibi was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1969 and spent his formative years living between the United States and the Middle East. His work in film and video has been screened at numerous film festivals and venues across the globe. He is the recipient of a generous 2005 grant from the Creative Capital Foundation for the Arts and a Playboy Foundation Award, as well as the winner of the Creative Promise Award at Tribeca All Access in New York City. In early 2004 Usama and his wife returned to his birthplace in Iraq to shoot his first feature documentary titled Nice Bombs, it was produced by Benzfilm Group and Kristie Alshaibi.
Several of Alshaibi's short films are included on International DVD compilations. He has completed one narrative feature titled Muhammad and Jane, and more than thirty short films and videos. He has also produced and directed music videos for a variety of recording artists, including Bobby Conn, Magic is Küntmaster and Panicsville. Usama was the founder and Director of the notorious Z Film Festival from 2000-2005. Alshaibi taught documentary film classes at Columbia College, and he has lectured as an artist in residence at schools and universities throughout the U.S. He was an on-air host and producer for Chicago Public Radio's Vocalo.org and is co-owner of Artvamp, a multi-media production company founded by his wife Kristie Alshaibi.
“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
" ...a surprisingly warm first-person video diary...edited with grace and tact.” -Michael Philips, Chicago Tribune
"It pulls off the rare feat of being 'important' without forcing a political agenda down the audience’s throat.” -Time Out Chicago
