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."
AmericanArabMovie.com
The film world premiered at IDFA 2013, the world's largest documentary festival, and had its US premiere at the 2014 Big Sky Documentary Festival before gaining an honorable mention as the closing night film of the Chicago Underground Film Festival.
The American Library Association praised it as a "a potent discussion starter," and Documentary magazine wrote that "in the great tradition of American personal documentary film, Alshabi also struggles with what it means to be a filmmaker who happens to be Arab-American. Less concerned with aesthetics than ideas, he uses the camera as a tool to dig for answers about identity, art and filmmaking that are often overlooked." The Underground Film Journal wrote that Usama Alshaibi "is one of our most important filmmakers, a fact further defined by this engaging and enlightening documentary."
Explore Usama's unique perspective today on iTunes, DVD and Cable VOD! Our thanks to Passion River for getting the film on these outlets. The film is also available to screen for institutions through Cinema Guild.
"Probes what you might call the Arab-American dilemma... smart and complicated... you immediately have a connection to these people." - The Chicago Tribune.
