Biography

Kristie Alshaibi changed her name to Viola Voltairine in 2021. Viola has participated in many illicit occupations to support her artistic habits, from being the program director of the Z Film Festival and festival director of the 72 Hour Feature Project in Chicago to running a commercial BDSM studio/art space and later becoming a kink educator for in-person and on-line workshops.

Voltairine founded the production company Artvamp in 2000, and has since produced a number of award-winning feature films. These include the experimental narrative film Profane, which won Best Feature at the Boston Underground Film Festival and Best Film of the Year in the Underground Film Journal, as well as the Creative Capital award-winning documentary Nice Bombs, shot in Baghdad a few months after the beginning of U.S. occupation. Her work has appeared on the Sundance Channel, and many of the films she has worked on have gotten international distribution and been shown in festivals and on television around the world. For her short films, she has received grants from the Princess Grace Foundation and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. She was given a full merit scholarship to the School of the Art Institute Chicago where she received her Master's degree in Film and Video.