Convulsion Expulsion

Warning this film has graphic content.
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/solaranuscinema

I had the idea of this film when I was in Amsterdam on my honeymoon with my wife (March 2003) and we visited the sex museum. It was the photography section that really inspired me. All the porn from about the late 1800's to early 1920's was the most fascinating stuff. The awkward naked performance felt so rich and distant. I knew they also had to keep those poses for an extended period because of the ancient technology of film and exposure. And for some reason an idea, the image of the red from the anus, lips with teeth, head in white and bandage, sparked in my head.

The way 'Convulsion Expulsion' happened was sort of accidental. An instructor at an art college here in Chicago had a very old 35mm DeVry film camera and wanted me to shoot something with it. He gave me 400 feet of 35mm film and said do whatever you want. He only asked to be given a fake name as producer since he did not want his real name on the credits. This weird, ancient and amazing DeVry camera only took 100 feet spools of film so I had to go sit in the dark and separate the film into 4 rolls. My buddy Andrew Dryer shot it in this huge white loft near Chinatown. My wife Kristie, practiced getting her ass ready (several enemas...)
Many things were done in secret and under the table from people who helped on this film that I can't name but I do thank you.

The make-up was incredible by Camilla Ha and the musical was from noise maker Andy Ortmann. It is my only 35mm film so far.

Cinema Abattoir

"Première option: acheter le DVD L’Erotisme, qui rassemble les perles du cinéma Abattoir. Je donne un exemple: le court-métrage Ass (2001) montre une jeune femme qui se fait jouir en se mettant deux doigts –ou trois ?- dans l’anus. A quatre pattes, elle se masturbe, prise en sandwich entre deux caméras (une de face, une de derrière, littéralement) dont les images se succèdent à une vitesse telle qu’au bout de deux minutes l’image de son visage en train de jouir se superpose à l’image de sa main en train de masturber.

L’effet stroboscopique est tel que l’on croit voir les deux doigts pénétrer le visage, qui se transforme alors en organe de plaisir mutant. Ses doigts pénètrent son visage par saccades voluptueuses, ses traits se tordent, elle gémit (son distordu). Elle finit par avoir un orgasme. Les images reviennent lentement à la normale… jusqu'à ce que l'on découvre le pot aux roses.

Séquence hypnotique, signée par un réalisateur né à Bagdad, vivant à Chicago – Usama Alshaibi. La jeune femme est son épouse. Connue sous son nom d’artiste comme “Echo transgression”, elle affirme qu’elle est “une porn-star extra-terrestre qui entend des voix transmises directement dans sa tête par le biais d’une antenne implantée dans sa colonne vertébrale”. Je ne sais pas à quel degré il faut prendre ces propos, mais ils témoignent bien de l’esprit Abattoir. "
-(from http://sexes.blogs.liberation.fr/agnes_giard/)

I am on two compilations DVD's from Montreal’s avant-garde screening series Cinema Abattoir, run by Pierre-Luc Vaillancourt.

Nice Bombs repeats on the Sundance Channel July 14

NICE BOMBS repeats on the Sundance Channel: Monday July 14 at 1:45 CT / 2:45pm ET

from Sundance Channel:
Chicago-based filmmaker Usama Alshaibi returns to Iraq, the country of his birth, after an absence of nearly 24 years. Accompanied by his American wife, Alshaibi reunites with his cousin and childhood friend Tareef, who acts as tour guide and driver, as well as many members of his extended family in Baghdad. What he discovers is a city permeated with the smell of gasoline, and everyday Iraqis who offer reflections ranging from exultation at Saddam's downfall to despair for the future of their country. "Surprisingly warm" — Chicago Tribune.