Nice Bombs

Usama Alshaibi

Director

Usama Alshaibi is the founder/ director of the Z Film Festival. His films have been shown at numerous film festivals across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. His work also toured with Jack Sargeant's traveling showcase in the U.K. and he was a featured director at Light Plays Tricks Film Festival in Canada. Most of Alshaibi's films have premiered at the Chicago Underground Film Festival and his latest feature Muhammand and Jane received a grant from the festival. His new Islamic animation movie Allahu Akbar premiered in Chicago. 

Kristie Alshaibi

Producer

Kristie Alshaibi is program director of the Z Film Festival and managing partner of Artvamp, LLC, a multimedia design/ video production company. She has produced a number of pieces using video, film, and the web and received grants from the Princess Grace Foundation and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. She received a full scholarship to the School of the Art Institute Chicago where she received her Master's degree in Film and Video. Her work has been shown at dozens of festivals across the United States and internationally. 

Ben Berkowitz

Producer

Ben Redgrave

Producer

Studs Terkel

Executive Producer

Studs Terkel is a prize-winning author and radio broadcast personality was born Louis Terkel in New York on May 16, 1912.  Terkel attended University of Chicago and received a law degree in 1934. He chose not to pursue a career in law. After a brief stint with the civil service in Washington D.C., he returned to Chicago and worked with the WPA Writers Project in the radio division. In 1952 Terkel began working for WFMT, first with the "Studs Terkel Almanac" and the "Studs Terkel Show," primarily to play music. The interviewing came along by accident. This later became the award-winning "The Studs Terkel Program." His first book, Giants of Jazz, was published in 1956. Ten years later his first book of oral history interviews, Division Street: America, came out. It was followed by a succession of oral history books on the 1930s Depression, World War Two, race relations, working, the American dream, and aging. His latest book, Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith, was published in 2001. Terkel continues to interview people, work on his books, and make public appearances. He is Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Chicago Historical Society.