Abhishek Parasher is a filmmaker based in Parramatta, NSW. He has completed his Master in Directing from the Australian Film Television and Radio School. Abhishek’s films have played in many film festivals, both national and international. His AFTRS capstone film, ‘Durga’, recently had its Australian Premiere with St Kilda Film Festival and its international premiere with Flickers’ Rhode Island Film Festival.

Arundati Thandur is an award winning writer and director, currently signed at FINCH. Born into a family of actors, singers and performers, she has always found herself drawn to storytelling. Her work is visually rich, impactful, and often tinged with humour. Thandur is the current Best New Director at Ciclope, LIA and Adfest. Her short documentary ‘PURRR’ was an official selection at Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival, and her 2023 branded TikTok series for Modibodi has picked up a slew of metal at every show this season.

Chidiebube Uba is an Igbo-Nigerian, Sydney based, artist and emerging screen producer. Having completed a Bachelor of Communication at Western Sydney University (2019), she delved into further creative practice development and study at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (2022 MAS: Producing graduate). Initially planting her roots in theatre, Chidiebube has co-devised work and performed for The Q Theatre, PYT Fairfield, Branch Nebula and Sydney Opera House.

During her time at AFTRS, Chidiebube produced the short films; Wetin Una Go Choose? (2021), Ayo (2021), and directed/produced Onyeka (ongoing). In addition to producing for screen, Chidiebube is a Program Curator at the Powerhouse, Associate Screen Trades Program Producer for Arts & Cultural Exchange, and Creative Producer for Afro Sistahs, an arts collective she cofounded in 2017.

Eliorah, Samoan, is co-Director of Pasifika Film Fest and recently completed her PhD at the Australian National University. Her research focused on the development of a sustainable screen industry in the Pacific.

Before concentrating on film, Eliorah worked extensively in arts management; working in theatre, music, dance, visual arts and most of all Indigenous art. Eliorah coordinated the Australian delegation to the 11th Festival of Pacific Arts and assisted with the film section at the 12th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture in Guam. She recently managed the Australian delegation to the 12th FESTPAC in Hawaii in 2024.

She has managed music tours to remote Australia and completed an internship with the United Nations Department of Public Information. Currently, Eliorah is also working in Screen Cultures with Information & Cultural Exchange and producing short form and documentary content with Pacific screen practitioners from Sydney and all over the Pacific.

Eliorah has been senior producer on Pelesasa Pics projects since it’s inception in 2020. ‘The Whispering Glass’ marked a switching of guard which saw Eliorah step into a junior production role.

Faraz Anarwala began her journey with a degree at the Australian Film Television Radio School, specializing in creative producing. She has 3 years of experience in the field and has worked as a production attachment for SBS Erotic Stories, Eureka Productions, Bunya, and ABC. Currently, Faraz is freelancing in the advertising industry, passionate about bridging the gap between underground talent and commercial opportunities.

Feras Shaheen is an artist curious in letting his conceptual interests lead him across a variety of mediums. Working with choreography, installation work, film, performance, design, and street dance to communicate his ideas, the core of Feras’ practice is to connect and engage audiences. He seeks to bring activism into his art practice, with outcomes that are accessible and community centred. Holding a Bachelor of Design from Western Sydney University (2014), Feras often subverts traditional relationships between mediums to challenge audiences’ perspectives, specifically to disrupt colonial discourses and reduce western reliance on neutrality and apathy.

Born in Dubai to Palestinian parents (Gaza/Al Lid), and moving to Western Sydney at age 11, Feras engages with his practice as a way to reflect and examine how he views the world, addressing local and global issues. Winner of The Australian Ballet’s Telstra Emerging Choreographer (TEC) in 2021, Feras has performed and exhibited at Carriageworks, Venice Biennale, Pari, Kampnagel, AGNSW, Campbelltown Arts Centre, and Théâtre de la Ville. Recent works include ‘Art Festival’, ‘The Bop’, ongoing collaboration ‘Klapping’, and ‘Forum Q’.

Herbert Leota is a Samoan-born director, writer and producer from Blacktown known for ‘Neverland’ (2022) and ‘Concrete Roses’ (2019) which he produced for the first Blacktown Shorts Film Festival as part of Magnify. Proud to be from Western Sydney, his work explores cultural identity within the melting pot of multiculture, hip-hop and individualism.

Joshua is a Fijian, Samoan & Chinese creative originally from Brisbane, Australia. A singer, actor & dancer, Josh played a significant role in the Australian Krump scene – running workshops for street dance both here in Australia and the US.

Josh joined the Pelesasa Pics family at its inception in 2020 as an actor and moved into production roles after the company’s flagship projects ‘Parramatta’ & ‘Deity’ – mainly as the company’s resident First Assistant Director.

‘The Whispering Glass’ is Josh’s foray into the role of producer at Pelesasa Pics. Josh currently is re-based back in Brisbane where he produces content via his own production companies SOW Visuals & Josh Wondering Films. He is also the co-founder of KSAFE – a safe driving phone app.

Maissa Alameddine grew up in Tripoli Lebanon and now lives and works on the unceded lands of the Cammeraygal and Dharug peoples. Maissa is a multidisciplinary artist, vocalist, performer, and creative producer working across a range of mediums.

Maissa’s work explores the idea of migration as a chronic injury. Maissa inherited her voice from a long line of women vocalists, she uses voice as a provocation and a response. Her work is personal, exploring inheritance and transference of heritage in the complexity of what is coined by Lebanese Australian anthropologist, Ghassan Hage as the ‘lenticular diasporic existence’. Her interpretive song and music is an attempt to honour her ancestors.

Maissa has been part of the contemporary Arab Australian arts community for over twenty years, performing with Arabic music ensembles, Western orchestras, and art organisations. She is a founding member and one of the creative producers of Western Sydney-based Arab Theatre Studio.

Marco Alexiadis is a Sydney-based Producer and a Master’s graduate of Screen in Producing at the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School (AFTRS). Before moving to Sydney, Marco’s first foray into filmmaking was working as a run-and-gun indie producer in the UK for his first feature amongst university friends, ‘Cardboard Fort’, written and directed by Sam Hartshorn, which went on to premiere at Austin Film Festival in 2021. Since his time at AFTRS and in the UK, Marco has been building on this foundation by scaling up as a creative producer for feature films or drama mini-series. In terms of Marco’s preferred style of content, the adaptation of stories based on contemporary history, which still have relevance in the modern-day to confront national trauma and identity, are the types of themes that he aims to explore and bring to the Australian market.

Miski Omar, is a Somali-Australian speech pathologist based in Western Sydney. Her work as a mobile speech pathologist offers a panoramic view of diverse stories and experiences all over Sydney. An alumni of the well-loved Bankstown Poetry Slam, Miski has performed at renowned venues, such as The Parliament House, The Art Gallery of NSW, and the Sydney Writers Festival. She even delighted audiences with a sold-out show at the Sydney Comedy Festival in 2019. In 2024, she made her directorial debut through ABC and Screen Australia’s Fresh Blood initiative, writing and directing a comedy short that premiered on ABC iView. Drawing on her daily encounters with language breakdowns, Miski’s work embraces an apophenic lens, revealing unexpected connections that may have eluded others.

Narjis Mirza is a media installation artist who orchestrates a poetic, philosophical, and spiritual exploration of light through sensory installations. Her work encompasses large-scale light and sound installations, seamlessly integrating projection, animation, video, textile, and voice. Through immersive experiences, she invites viewers to actively participate, transforming her artworks into interactive events.

Initially trained as a painter, Narjis graduated with the highest honour  from the National College of Arts in Pakistan  and went on to pursue a Master’s in Media and Design  from Bilkent University, Ankara.. In 2017, she was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s

Doctoral Scholarship, culminating in a practice-led PhD at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Her journey led her to exhibit her work in New Zealand, Turkey, and Pakistan. Narjis contributed to the development of interactive participatory media art at the Interactive Media Lab, University of New South Wales.

Her research has produced a body of work, notably the multisensory installation Hayakal al Noor, Bodies of Light, inspired by Islamic philosophy, and her latest work, Rahma: Our Creative Feminine.

Taofia Pelesasa is a Tokelauan (Nukunonu) & Samoan (Fatausi & Vailoa-Palauli) Filmmaker from Mt Druitt, Western Sydney. A graduate of the Unitec School of Performing and Screen Arts (Auckland, Aotearoa) he has worked as an actor, producer, writer and director both in screen and theatre in New Zealand, Australia, Samoa & the UK. Entering the industry as an actor Fia saw a gap in Pasifika roles of substance & moved into the writing & directing space across theatre & screen. His short films ‘The Promise of Piha’ (2016), ‘Maria’ (2018) & ‘Urchin’ (2021) travelled the international film festival circuit – premiering at ‘ImagiNATIVE’ Film festival in Toronto & Hawaii International Film Festival respectively.

Independently, Taofia founded and runs a Pasifika-centered Production company ‘Pelesasa Pics’ out of Mt Druitt, West Sydney. A company formed to provide a concentrated meeting place to build Pasifika capacity in the Australian film industry.

Vonne Patiag is an AACTA, AWGIE, Logie and SPA Award-nominated Filmmaker and Actor based in Western Sydney. His credits include Significant Others (ABC), The Unusual Suspects (SBS), Here Out West (ABC), Too Many Ethnics, Tomgirl (SBS), and Halal Gurls (ABC).

He was a participant in the prestigious TIFF Filmmaker Lab 2021 in support of the feature adaptation of Tomgirl and was part of the Talent USA Delegate 2022 sponsored by Screen Australia.

In 2020 he produced and co-wrote The Unusual Suspects with Aquarius Films, and feature film anthology Here Out West with Co-Curious and Emerald Productions. His latest short ‘Too Many Ethnics’ premiered at Flickerfest in 2023.