In Conversation + Film Pasa Faho 2025 M

Production still from Pasa Faho 2025 / Director: Kalu Oji / Image courtesy: Arenamedia

Production still from Pasa Faho 2025 / Director: Kalu Oji / Image courtesy: Arenamedia / View full image

When

2.30 pm, Sun 15 Feb 2026 (120 mins)
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Where

Gallery of Modern Art, Cinema A

Accessibility

  • Wheelchair Accessible

Admission

Free

About

Join us for the Queensland premiere screening of Pasa Faho, the debut feature of Igbo-Australian writer-director Kalu Oji. The screening will be preceded by Oji's award-winning short film What's in a Name? 2022 and followed by an in-person In Conversation with Oji about the film and his creative practice. The conversation will be moderated by Dr Ruari Elkington, Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries, QUT.

Pasa Faho 2025

The debut feature of Igbo-Australian filmmaker Kalu Oji, Pasa Faho reflects on universal themes of belonging and respect, told through the microcosm of Melbourne’s Igbo Nigerian community.

This endearing and visually rich film follows Azubuike (Nigerian stand-up comedian Okey Bakassi), a struggling shoe shop owner, as he is reunited with his son Obinna (Tyson Palmer) who has been living interstate with his mother. While Azubuike yearns to instill his son with his values of honour, duty, and pride in his Igbo heritage, an eviction notice for his beloved shop throws Azubuike's life into disarray. With a title playing on the phrase “parts of a whole,” Pasa Faho is a moving exploration of how we contribute to ideas and worlds bigger than ourselves.

86 minutes | M | Coarse language

What's in a Name? 2025

Jamila (Faro Musodza) and Igor (Makwaya Masudi) are deeply, cosmically in love. While they are being interviewed for a documentary, a slip of the tongue on camera reveals a fault line that lies buried deep in their past. This 16mm-shot, ambiguous short film by Kalu Oji raises questions about trust, control and vulnerability in a relationship.

9 minutes | Ages 12+

Kalu Oji

Kalu Oji is a filmmaker and writer whose practice is rooted in process-driven collaboration and the exploration of memory, place, and identity. His short films have screened at festivals including the BFI London Film Festival and Palm Springs ShortFest, and have received awards from Flickerfest, Sydney Film Festival, and the Atlanta Film Festival, where he was named the ‘Filmmaker to Watch’ in 2019. In 2025, Kalu’s debut feature, Pasa Faho, premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival to three sold out screenings. Pasa Faho had its international premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival and its African premiere at the Africa International Film Festival, where the film was awarded ‘Best International Feature Film’. Alongside his artistic practice, Kalu also works in the education space, teaching filmmaking at both grassroots and institutional levels.

Ruari Elkington

Dr Ruari Elkington’s academic work is driven by questions about how screen content connects with audiences in markets increasingly under pressure through creative and commercial tensions. In 2018, Dr Elkington was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to investigate new initiatives connecting Creative Industries students and online video creators in collaborative work. In 2023 he was awarded a Queensland Smithsonian Fellowship to work with social video creators to communicate cultural heritage collections to new audiences. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries at the Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice Faculty and a Chief Investigator within QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC).

Production Credits

Pasa Faho

  • Director: Kalu Oji
  • Script: Kalu Oji
  • Cinematographer: Gabriel Francis
  • Editor: Mark Atkin
  • Producers: Mimo Mukii, Ivy Mutuku
  • Cast: Tyson Palmer, Okey Bakassi, Laureta Idika Uduma
  • Print Source: Arenamedia
  • Rights: Arenamedia
  • Year: 2025
  • Runtime: 86 minutes
  • Country: Australia
  • Languages: English, Igbo
  • Colour: Colour
  • Shooting Format: Digital
  • Screening Format: DCP

What's in a Name?

  • Director: Kalu Oji
  • Script: Kalu Oji, Faro Musodza, Makwaya Masudi
  • Cinematographer: Gabriel Francis
  • Producers: Mimo Mukii, Ivy Mutuku
  • Cast: Faro Musodza, Makwaya Masudi
  • Print Source: Arenamedia
  • Rights: Kalu Oji
  • Year: 2025
  • Runtime: 9 minutes
  • Country: Australia
  • Language: English
  • Colour: Colour
  • Shooting Format: 16mm
  • Screening Format: DCP