Video, 2019, 09min, USA

Bitter with a Shy Taste of Sweetness contrasts the fragmented past of the filmmaker growing up in Baghdad with his surreal California present. Through poetic writing and jarring visuals, the film creates a calm and cruel sense of memory and landscape.

Preview link available upon request

Selected Screenings:

Kassel DokFest, Kasseler, Germany
Lausanne Underground Film Festival, Lausanne, Switzerland
Experiments in Cinema, Albuquerque, NM
Wisconsin Film Festival, Madison, WI (Winner Special Mention from the Jury)
Cosmic Rays Film Festival, Chapel Hill, NC
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, France (catalog selection)
Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, Milwaukee, WI
ICDOCS Film Festival, Iowa City, IA
Pärnu Film Festival, Pärnu, Estonia
Gimli Film Festival, Manitoba, Canada
Arkipel Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, Jakarta, Indonesia
Millennium Film Workshop, Brooklyn, NY
Alternative Night of Experimental film, London, UK
Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, Manitoba, Canada
SWANA Film Festival, Regina, Canada
Short Circuit, Brighton, UK
ULTRAcinema, Tijuana, Mexico
Biennial BINACOM Encuentro (UC-San Diego), San Diego, CA
Grunt Gallery, Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen, Vancouver, Canada
Diaspora in Bloom, Take Two: Assyrian Film in Diaspora, Washington, D.C.
Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, SK, Canada
Ateliers d'Artistes de Belleville, Nuit Blanche, Paris, France
Kabayitos Microcinema at The Clemente Center, New York, NY
VIDEOAKTION at attaque(e)r le visible, Berlin, Germany
11:11 Art Collective, A Leap of Faith-Group Exhibition, Nashville, TN
Monticello Park Film Festival, New York, NY
Whatcom Museum, Acts of Healing and Repair, Bellingham National Exhibition, Bellingham, WA